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So she had been persuaded to participate.

Ava had thought she was too uneasy with what Sirna planned, but obviously she was able to overcome her finer feelings.

“Look in the carts. Every one.”

Evelyn looked at everyone with a cold stare and then began searching, taking her time while Sirna stood with Melodie, knife almost touching her throat.

Did he mean it to rest on her skin? If so, he hadn’t noticed it wasn’t.

Hopefully because it could not.

She had focused on knives while she had woven the braid. She knew they were Sirna’s preferred weapon.

And it was time she found a weapon of her own.

Sirna held everyone still with the threat to Melodie, especially her father, so she was on her own.

She moved to Gregor’s cart and slipped inside, hunting for his tool box.

She found a long knife on a high shelf, the blade almost as long as her forearm, and a long-handled hammer.

She held both close to her body, and moved back out to join the others.

“She’s not here.” Evelyn emerged from Reckhart’s cart, the last one she’d searched, and put her hands on her hips.

“She has to be.” Sirna tightened his hold on Melodie. “There is no way you don’t know where she is.”

Ava reached Gregor. She tapped the back of his hand with the handle of the knife, deciding it would be easier for him to hide it against his leg than the hammer.

He glanced sharply at her, and when he saw nothing, his eyes widened. Not sure what else to do, Ava crouched down and slid the knife into the top of his boot.

He went still, then flexed his hand, his attention going back to Sirna.

Ava leaned right up against him, and though he flinched, he held still.

“I spelled a protection against knives into her braid,” she whispered into his ear. “If you look closely, the blade isn’t touching her, and I think he means it to.”

She would let Gregor take his own risk assessment on whether to trust her working with his daughter’s life or not.

She wasn’t completely certain of it herself.

But Sirna would hurt her—or try to—very soon.

He was losing his calm.

It was an ugly thing to watch.

“Tell me where she is.” He screamed so loudly, Melodie hunched away from him as best she could, the shout in her ear obviously painful.

“Put my daughter down.” Gregor had his attention, and Ava decided there wouldn’t be a better time.

She had been moving around the back of Sirna since she’d given Gregor the message about Melodie’s protections.

The little girl was following her movement. She could tell by the quick little glances she threw her way.

She caught her gaze deliberately as soon as she was behind him.

“Get ready,” she mouthed. Then she lifted the long hammer and slammed it into the back of Sirna’s knee.