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Wiping my damp face, I take one last look in the direction of the temple.

Last night changed everything for me. I thought it had changed everything for Calysian too. And still, he left me in that bed. He still chose the grimoire.

He did exactly what I expected him to do. And still, I’ll never forgive him.

“What if they killed him?” Eamonn snaps.

“They didn’t.” I know, because if I close my eyes and focus, I can sense Calpharos. I can feel him sprinting toward the city even now. He’s likely using the same power he funneled into the horses the day I almost died. And yet this time, he’ll be the one to kill me if he reaches me.

But it’s not just Calpharos I can feel. I can also feel the third grimoire, my link to it gossamer thin but surprisingly strong.

“I know where the last grimoire is,” I murmur, and Asinia throws her arm around my shoulders. “I stole Calysian’s link to it.”

A low whistle sounds, Demos holds out his hand in an attempt to take Fox’s lead rope from me. Fox snaps his teeth at him.

Demos shakes his head at the horse and leaves him to me. “At least that’s something,” he says. “So the dark god can’t find that grimoire without you?”

“No.”

“Unless he kills her,” Eamonn snarls. “By running from him, she’s made herself a threat.”

“Madinia!” Calpharos’s roar echoes across the dock.

Daharak whips her head to our left, her eyes widening. Demos grabs my arm with one hand, Asinia’s with the other.

“Move!”

Pushy bastard. I yank my arm from him and drop Fox’s lead rope. The four of us take off down the dock toward the ship.

I glance over my shoulder. Anyone stupid enough to get in Calpharos’s way goes flying, and our eyes meet for one brief moment.

My breath catches, and I force myself to run as he roars my name again.

“Do not run from me!”

The dark god is racing after us. Even from here I can see his bared teeth, his murderous expression.

Daharak gives an order, and the ship must have been ready, because the moment we’re up the gangplank, pirates scramble across the deck. The anchor creaks and groans as it’s wrenched from the depths—someone using their power to haul it up faster than I’ve ever seen before.

The gangplank is yanked aboad, and the ship lurches.

Someone hands Asinia her crossbow and she aims at Calpharos.

My heart jumps. “Wait!”

She fires, and Calpharoscatchesthe bolt. He throws it into the water, and Daharak shouts something else I don’t catch.

As one, every pirate who can shield raises their wards.

Calpharos comes to a stop at the edge of the dock. We’re far enough away that not even he can make the jump. But he considers it.

The ship lurches, and I clutch at the railing. Fox trots over to Calysian, and the dark god gently strokes his nose, as if he’s not currently planning my murder.

“Maybe it’s a good thing Prisca is on her way,” Asinia says softly.

Denial flashes through me. “No. Write to her. Tell her to stay in her kingdom.”

“It’s too late for that. If Lorian couldn’t convince her to stay put, we don’t have a chance. I informed her of your plans and she insisted on helping.”

Demos sighs. “Honestly, after what I just saw, I think we need both her,andthe bloodthirsty prince.”

“Don’t call him that,” Asinia and I say in unison, and Demos lets out a faint laugh.

Calpharos’s eyes meet mine once more, and I shiver at the dark promise in their depths.

I don’t need to hear his words. I can read his lips.

“I will find you.”

The end.