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I n a wash chamber near the Lapis palace’s great hall, Nix poured fresh water into the basin and picked up the soap Helena had made to fight the strange plague.

They still didn’t know what the illness was or what caused it.

More were sickened every day. More deaths.

More grieving. Between helping here and managing the needs of her Call Breakers, Nix was bone tired.

She hadn’t even had time to find another to follow Miren and see what she was getting into.

Aitor had been on the trail, but he’d fallen ill after eating here and—

Nix dropped the soap into the basin.

None of her Call Breakers were sick except those who’d eaten here.

Dashing out of the wash chamber, Nix barreled into a male Lapis carrying a tray of sliced apples.

Nix gripped the male’s shirt. “Where is your kitchen?”

“Wh-what?”

“Kitchen. Where?”

“That way. There.” He pointed, and Nix flew down the corridor, leaving him openmouthed.

The sound of clanging dishes and a commanding male voice drew Nix around a tight corner where the wall opened into a kitchen the size of the entire cider house.

A stone table ran the length of the room, copper pots hung from black hooks on the walls, and knives in every shape and size sat in tidy lines near a massive set of crockery.

There was a back door leading outside. It wasn’t huge, but it was large enough for a full-sized dragon to enter with a hefty load.

“Take them now!” a male Lapis pointed a thick finger at a row of servants, his eyes opened wide. “Well? What are you waiting on? An engraved invitation?” His forehead creased into an array of deep wrinkles, and he swore at the lot, not even noticing Nix.

Nix held up her hands. “Chef, I must speak with you before anyone else leaves this kitchen.”

His nostrils flared as she walked around the servants. “And who are you?”

“That’s Mistress Nix of the cider house,” a mousy servant whispered. “The mistress of the Call Breakers.”

The chef rolled his eyes. “Get out of my kitchen. I have no time for your nonsense. We have dragons to tempt into eating so they don’t starve!”

“I think the food is exactly what is killing them.”

“What are you talking about?” The male’s tone was sharp, but fear shadowed his features.

“Can we speak privately?”

His face slammed shut like a door in a windstorm. “No. I have a job to do. I know what your type is like. Always causing chaos. Go,” he ordered the servants.

She wouldn’t be able to stop them without attacking the chef, so she let them go. She wasn’t sure her hunch was correct. Right now, she had no evidence, not even a shred of it. The only thing dragging her in here was a cold worry chilling her insides.

Hurrying to the chef’s side, she hissed at him. “You had best listen to me, fool. None of my Call Breakers have the plague, none except those who ate here.”

The chef cocked his head. He pulled a large, skin-bound book from under the stone table. He put a meaty hand on the book’s cover. “This is my record of deliveries and staff.”

Nix bumped him aside with a hip and threw the book open.

“Now, see here—”

“Your matriarch and I are pretty close these days, chef. I think she’d chuck you if I said you’d poisoned the clan.”

The chef swallowed loudly and stepped back.

Nix flipped past a cover page with the Lapis symbol and found the book was arranged from back to front with the most recent items noted in the first quarter of the tome.

She ran a talon down today’s page but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Venison from Lapis hunters. Vegetables brought in by Lapis. Apples…

Nix’s talon cut into the page.

Apples brought in by a Call Breaker.

She locked eyes with the chef. “Who brought the apples? I didn’t approve of any shipments.” Baww might have done so in her absence, but it was unlikely, as they usually brought a full load at mid-season and end of season. They didn’t bother with a mere basket. It would feed but a few.

“I…one of yours.”

Nix exhaled in a gust. “Yes. I see that. But were you here? Who brought them?”

“She has been coming often. We thought it had been approved. She had your seal on her agreement.”

Throat dry, Nix tried to imagine who it could be and why. And if it was possible that whoever was bringing the unapproved fruits was the one poisoning the Lapis. None of this made sense.

But only one dragon stood out in Nix’s mind.

The light from the back door went dark as a figure walked quickly inside.

Nix looked up to see Miren standing there with a basket of Call Breaker apples, their specific shade of red like fresh blood.

Nix slid the chef’s book toward him. Miren stared, a rabbit caught in the lion’s gaze. “I will take care of this, chef. Find all the apples in the castle and make sure they are destroyed and buried. See that you serve no more. I will meet you in Matriarch Amona’s chambers in one hour.”

The chef ran from the kitchen.

Nix walked slowly toward Miren, not looking forward to what would have to follow this revelation.

Miren dropped the apples and launched out of the back door, taking off into the sky.

Nix followed, flying fast and catching up to her with little effort. Nix grabbed Miren’s wing and dragged her to the ground, tossing her to the dirt of the path that led to the sea cliffs.

“I don’t care what you do to me,” Miren spat. She scrambled to her feet, eyes bright with fury.

“I care about you, Miren. Did you poison the Lapis?” But how could she act against Vahly’s clan after taking the blood oath in the Red Meadow alongside everyone else?

“They took my sister from me!” Her wings spread wide, and sparks crackled between her pink lips.

“They stole our bond and threw her into war too early, and now she is dead. It is their fault!” Miren marched toward Nix, then stared into her face, nose brushing Nix’s.

“She wanted to break the Call. She was going to join us. But they found out, and they sent her to the front. Maur and Amona, they sent her on a suicide mission!”

Nix didn’t flinch as Miren’s sparks flickered over her cheeks and chin. “So why didn’t you stop at Maur? Was that not revenge enough?”

“I wanted Amona to suffer.” The fire in Miren seemed to die, and she dropped back a step, her gaze going to the ground. “I wanted to watch them die. To hear them groan in pain like my sister. I want them to hurt. All of them.”

“Well, you certainly accomplished that goal.”

Miren’s eyes flashed. “What are you going to do about it? Are you so loyal to the Lapis now that you’ll turn one of your own over to them?” She almost seemed triumphant.

But that wasn’t at all what Nix had in mind. “No, darling. That is not what’s going to happen here.”

“Then what? You’re going to let me go?”

“Did you not make an oath to the Earth Queen? I would suppose that murdering her clan members would break such a promise, and the breaking would burn through your heart.”

Miren began to say something, but Nix cut her off.

“No, I know. You made no such oath. You acted at making the promise that day in the Red Meadow. You lied in body and soul. And now you’ve killed hundreds of your own kynd, Miren.

Hundreds. And younglings too. They had no part in what happened to your sister.

No, I will not turn you over. You will receive your punishment as a true clanless one from another clanless one. Get on your knees.”

Miren stumbled back. “Wait. Nix. Euskal will never forgive you.”

“I must suffer that grief. You have done that too. This is your fault, dear, not mine. I am only cleaning up this mess. I will make it fast. Take your punishment and be glad of it, for Amona would do far worse before she saw you dead at her feet.”

Miren was crying, kneeling. A part of Nix raged against this, but duty called, and she had promised to answer.

“You, Miren, are a traitor to your own kynd, to the clanless, and to your Earth Queen. You have caused Vahly, Earth Queen and my dearest friend, grief. For that there must be a reckoning.”

Nix drew her dagger and drove it into Miren’s eye.

The traitor fell, and Nix walked away, having no desire to see that dagger ever again.