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“No,” he says, and there’s something quieter under it now. “I broughtsomething real.In a realm made of rot and memory and facsimiles of people we once thought we loved… I neededsomethingrealin my pocket. Something that won’t disappear when this place decides we’ve had enough.”

Luna’s watching now. She hasn’t moved, but I feel the change in the air when her attention sharpens. The bond tugs, hot and immediate, and I grit my teeth against it because gods, even when she’s quiet, shepulls.

“She’s not going to vanish,” Silas says, and his eyes flick toward her for the briefest second. “But if she does—I want to hold on tosomething.Even if it kills me.”

He flips the coin again. I catch his wrist mid-arc. The gold spins in the air and drops. Doesn’t bounce. Doesn’t ring. It lands like itbelongshere. And that’s what makes my stomach twist.

It shouldn’t.

I release his arm and step back, letting the moment bleed out between us. Silas watches me like he’s daring me to tell him it wasn’t worth it.

“I hope your little treasure doesn’t bite,” I murmur.

“Oh, she already has,” he says, grinning. “But I like it rough.”

Elias groans somewhere to the left. “And now I have that mental image. Fantastic.”

Luna turns back to the pillar she was studying, but I see the corner of her mouth twitch. Just a flicker. Barely there. The kind of almost-smile that only comes when she’s too tired to be angry and too in love to pretend she isn’t used to us by now.

I don’t look away from the pillar I’m studying—carved from a dull, rust-veined basalt, its glow weak, like it’s trying too hard to be forgotten. My crest’s etched into the base, or something trying tobeit. But the angles are off, the wrath sigil thinned out like someone didn’t dare engrave it fully. Cowards. This one isn’t mine.

I hear it then. Not a voice. Not magic. Ajingle.

Soft.

Faint.

Sharp as a blade to the gut.

I turn slowly. Silas. Shining with guilt that only someone like him could wear like a crown. His hands are nowhere near that coin he was flipping before—it’s tucked away now. But his stance is wrong. Shoulders tense. One foot slightly back. Ready to bolt. And there it is again.

That metallic clink. The sound of stolen gold singing in his fuckingpocket.

My jaw tightens, rage prickling down my spine in a wave I don’t bother to stop.

“Silas.”

He freezes. Smiles too easily.

“Riv,” he says, voice light. “You’re looking very ‘murdery’ today. That’s new. Something on your mind?”

I take one step forward. Controlled. Precise.

“Empty your pockets.”

The silence hits like a shift in gravity.

He blinks. “That’s a bold opening line, even for you.”

“Don’t fuck with me.” My voice doesn’t rise. It drops. Cold. Final. “You took more than one coin.”

There’s a heartbeat where no one moves. Luna straightens. Caspian’s already starting toward us, slow but lethal in his approach. Even Elias—gods help him—stops whatever cringeworthy thing he was about to say and pays attention.

Silas’s smile falters just a fraction.

Then he does the stupidest possible thing. Heruns.The bastard actuallyruns.

“Son of a—” I’m moving before the words are out of my mouth.