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Heva and Matthias exchanged a look, but they both nodded, went to the door, and shut her in.

Ryn journeyed to the window. She studied the lever that had already given her two chances to escape. Two times she’d failed to leave for good. She couldn’t try again. The King might be waiting in the garden, and besides…

The threat of tears turned her eyes hot.

She was here because of her father. And…

Kai didn’t want her back.

Even the burning wound in her side didn’t hurt as much as that.

The “little while” turned into hours, which led to nightfall. Ryn didn’t eat anything in that time, and her stomach groaned. Sheignored it as she walked through the garden, the grass and path stones cooling her bare feet, the garden growing colder as the goddess Nyx licked dusk over the kingdom.

She’d found a strange comfort in scaling down the side of the palace into the garden. Just knowing that she could do it—even with an injury—was almost enough to make her forget she was a prisoner. She’d ripped off most of her tacky armour before coming to observe the orchard. She was out of fresh clothes, and so far, the Priesthood hadn’t sent any of the benefactor funds they’d hoped to get from the offering plates. She wasn’t sure she wanted it anyway—it would have been better spent on the hungry children in the cracks of the Mother City. Marcan’s event costumes were the only clothing she owned, and she couldn’t imagine waltzing through the palace gardens in her mosaic dress.

As she walked, she unfolded the letter to read it one more time:

RYN,

B’REI MIRA SPIES WILL INFILTRATE THE PALACE AT SOME POINT DURING THE THREE-MONTH TRIAL PERIOD. THEY PLAN TO KILL THE KING WHILE HE’S BLINDFOLDED.

KEEP YOURSELF AWAY FROM HIM.

KAI

What did Kai mean, blindfolded? Why would the King be blindfolded?

And what did he want from Ryn? Kai hadn’t said in the note why he wanted her to stay, if she should continue on with the original choice he’d given her in regards to the King, or if he wanted her tohelpthe B’rei Mira spies, or stop them, or avoid them…

Ryn sealed the note and slid it away, then crossed her arms as the wind tugged against the loose white tunic she was left with after the armour was gone. A simple, blood-stained garment, along with a pair of combat tights.

The cool wind slipped down the back of her shirt, and she shivered. When she glanced up, she nearly choked at the sight of something moving in the heavens alongside the great white dragon. Her eyes narrowed.

Back and forth the dragon slithered, its tail a river of white. Dozens, if nothundredsof black shadow creatures filled the sky around it, guiding it along, holding it up. It was as though the dragon couldn’t move without them, couldn’t stay up in the sky on its own.

“Divinities,” she cursed. She slid back a step and yelped as she stumbled over a jut in the path and fell on her rear. But she couldn’t tear her eyes away. Had those creatures always been there? Was this another thing she could see that others couldn’t? Were those shadows what was holding the dragon in the sky? She wanted to find Geovani and force the old woman to reverse whatever ‘gift’ she’d passed along to Ryn.

“Divinities is correct, for the dragon is theirs.”

Ryn nearly choked when the voice entered her mind. She flipped onto her knees and gazed at the path behind her. No one was there. “E… El?” she guessed. She quickly climbed to her feet, studying the shrubs and the branches overhead. She hadn’t been able to see a person in her room last time. She wondered if he was here with her now though.

“Do you see it now? The mirage?”he asked.

Ryn’s gaze lifted back to the sky. With the dark creatures involved, the dragon looked like a puppet. Something hollow and unliving.

“Most things are not what they seem.”

Ryn squeezed her arms to herself again. As soon as she did, a warm wind rippled along her skin, fluttering her hair and chasing off her shivers. “You must have something to ask me,” Ryn said, “otherwise, you wouldn’t have spoken to me at all.”

“I ask one question of all people, Adassah,”the voice said.“My question is this: Will you follow me?”

Ryn tapped a finger against her forearm. She wanted to ask what exactly ‘following a god’ would entail. She was in enough trouble as it was. “Follow you where?” she tried.

“Wherever I lead.”

“That seems like a dangerous commitment,” Ryn reasoned. She chewed on her bottom lip as she strolled down the path. The warm wind trailed beside her. He said nothing else as they moved along, but the silence was comfortable. Ryn’s shoulders relaxed, and she stole a sidelong glance at the air around her where she imagined El hovered.

Ryn didn’t really have close friends. It wasn’t that she didn’t want any, but her neighbours were all Weylins. She wondered if this was what it felt like to walk beside a friend—not that El was afriend. Whether he was one of the gods or not, she didn’t know him, and she couldn’t imagine trusting a god either after the legends she’d read about gods tricking mortals and leading them into traps.