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My rooms in the castle were luxurious by most standards.

Mage magic powered the lights. The furnishings were comfortable—the bed was large, and the armoire held dozens of Silk’s white gowns.

I had shelves for books, a table for eating, and a private bathing chamber.

A fireplace for heat when needed. Best of all was the large window.

I loved the expansive view of Thales, the capital city, and I could see all the way to the harbor and the Pelagios Sea.

That view made the room less confining, although I preferred the privacy. The security in knowing I was away from prying eyes during the times I wasn’t performing as Silk. And when my brother showed up for visits, it was almost like a home.

“I’m still hungry,” whined Nikias as he flopped on the bed. “Sneak into Cook’s mind and make him think he forgot dessert.”

“You ate everything in sight.” My brother was voracious while I’d struggled to swallow. “And tricking Cook for more dessert is a frivolous use of magic.” If I used too much of my gift, I’d weaken, not something I wanted with a Davinicus priest about to pound on my door .

“I’m trying to bulk up.” Nikki flexed a skinny arm. “Training starts soon.”

“You’ll have to pass tests,” I warned.

“Vasari says I’m already in with the Guard.” Nikki laughed, and when he’d been six, that laugh made me smile. Now my heart ached. His magic was more like what our father had, a talent with history and digging up old ruins. A safer career path than the glory of the King’s Guard.

But the desire came from his best friend, Vasari. The boy’s father was Captain of the King’s Guard, and he wielded too much influence on my brother. Influence beyond my control.

I sighed. “Why are you so eager to grow up?”

“I was born to be in the King’s Guard.” Nikki rolled over, propping himself on one elbow. “What did the king make you do today?”

“Find the truth.”

Nikki snorted, but I refused to say more.

He was too young for the details, and I didn’t have time for lengthy explanations.

My two hours were nearly up. Already, the light in the sky was dim.

I had stripped out of my stained gown and veil before Nikki arrived.

Washed away the blood. The shift and leggings I wore were respectable, but with a red priest coming soon, I’d need to dress like Silk again.

I still had time for the important things. Picking up a crust of bread, I added it to the meat and slices of ripe fruit I’d saved from the meal, arranging the offering on a narrow tray.

“You shouldn’t feed him,” Nikki warned as I set the tray on the window ledge. “It’s nothing but trouble if you’re caught.”

“Bogo’s a wild creature who does what he wants. ”

“Right.” My brother rolled his eyes. “So, you didn’t frivolously use magic on that mage boy. Trick him into loosening the window wards instead of tightening them so your flying rat could visit.”

Frivolous, maybe, but I’d been restless, missing the odd little creature who first found me when I was five.

We had a secret friendship. Bogo listened to every foolish dream and didn’t judge when I cried.

He came and he went, following his own pattern, not mine, but he always found me, no matter where I was.

A flutter of wings and the excited squeak had me smiling.

Bogo hadn’t taken long to appear—maybe he smelled the food.

But he didn’t like being watched while he ate, so I peeked from the side with my eyes lowered as he sniffed at the choices.

I didn’t think he was a flying rat, since he had no hair.

He was more like a deformed bat with four legs instead of two.

His leathery wings had tiny spikes at the joints, and when the light warmed his skin, the pattern was beautiful, like a turtle’s shell.

Nikki worried about the wrong things. Bogo had never frightened me, and if his kind had rejected him—well, I understood loneliness. Perhaps that common thread drew us together.

“Why did you name him?” Nikki asked, once again sprawled on the bed.

“He named himself, and I didn’t understand what Bogo meant until years later, when I found an ancient book in the library and learned that it means ‘buy one, get one.’ It’s some old saying. ”

“That makes no sense. Like talking to animals and sneaking into men’s minds.”

“I don’t talk to other animals. Only Bogo.” I dug through the white gowns filling the armoire until I found one that wasn’t too constraining. “And what I do with a man’s mind is at the king’s command.”

“I’m serious, Senna. He’ll get you into trouble.”

Nikki rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.

We were ten years apart in age, and so different that few people guessed we were siblings.

Nikki’s eyes were brown, not blue like mine, and his skin was swarthy while I was pale.

Our father used to say Nikki was the night while I was the star, and then he’d rustle his hands through my white-gold hair before messing Nikki’s night-dark curls.

My brother had outgrown the curls, but his hair had the wave that drew the girls, and he knew it.

“Vasari found a secret passage today,” Nikki said. “A spying passage. He said they’re all over the castle, and he showed me one beside the small council room. You should hear the dumb things they talk about…lots of gossip about the red priests.”

I stepped behind a painted screen and tugged the white gown over my head, leaving the shift and leggings in place against the cold.

But I closed my eyes for a moment. If the king caught Nikki spying, my brother would be lucky if he landed in the dungeons.

And if the red priests caught him, they’d torture him because he was my brother.

“Promise you won’t go again.” I tightened a leather sheath around my thigh, slid in a fighting knife, and shook out the dress to make sure the bulge didn’t show.

While my father preferred his books, in the months before he died, he’d insisted on teaching me how to use a defensive blade.

Psychic magic might twist a man’s mind, but if that man got close enough to put his hands on me, he’d most likely bleed.

“I can be your spy,” my brother offered. “Learn their secrets.”

“And if you’re caught?”

“Vasari will get us out of trouble.”

“You can’t count on Vasari,” I said. “His mage ranking is higher than yours, and he’ll protect himself first.”

“He’s my friend, something you don’t understand because everyone’s afraid of you.”

While Nikki’s teasing was accurate, the truth still hurt.

My hands shook as I searched for a veil, one that curved across my forehead.

I’d already braided my hair. Standing in front of the polished mirror, I stared at a stranger in white, picking out the fragments peeking through the veil’s weave: eyelashes, the blush on my cheek, the straight bridge of the nose.

The incomplete picture that kept me safe.

As unidentifiable as a masked performer on the stage.

Or the priests when their hoods were pulled low.

“I heard things today, Senna.” Nikki lowered his voice. “They’re worried about the Malice Moon. No one’s allowed to talk about it, and the priests are snatching people off the streets for saying the wrong thing.”

My mind spun back to Sevyn, who talked about a doomsday fish and being prepared. “Nikki…”

“Remember that storm two months ago?” Nikias was sitting up with his arms crossed.

As he leaned forward, he looked so very young.

“It hit the frontier and washed out some valley beyond the Black City, exposing dragon bones. But the bones weren’t from two centuries ago, Senna.

They hadn’t turned to stone, they were still…

bones. And this prisoner they want you to interrogate?

They think he’s from the Faded Lands. The King’s Guard went to bring him back to Thales.

Twenty armed men on horseback, with mage shackles and red priests to make sure the magic held.

All for one man already beaten into submission. ”

Mages used spells to lock and unlock those shackles.

I’d seen them used on a prisoner once before; they were a torment.

All I could think about were the beads of sweat that had peppered that prisoner’s forehead, and how the tendons in his throat bulged with the stifled screams. The memory made my stomach clench.

Nikki shoved at his hair. “They’re taking him to Deimos tonight. To the prison at Iduma.”

Iduma—the red city—the terrifying fortress of the Davinicus priests. On Deimos, an island of no return for those without the red cassock.

The wind stirred, and a ribbony chill slithered through the window. Bogo shook his boney head. He darted away, his little body disappearing in the dusk, his agitated chirp fading.

Nikki was still rocking. “You shouldn’t talk to this man.”

“He’s like every other man, with a mind I can invade.”

“I’m not sure. If the red priests have him, he must be dangerous.”

“I’ll be safe, escorted there and back.”

“Where?” Nikki asked .

“The secret location,” I teased, because the king hadn’t told me where I’d be going. “The king commands this, and I can’t refuse. Besides, if I can’t trust the king, then who can I trust?”

I cupped my hands over Nikki’s shoulders the way I’d done every time he’d come to me, worried about some small hurt or failure.

I’d been his mother since he was nine, when his mother and our father died in a freakish accident.

My mother had died years before. I’d been too young to remember much, and Nikki’s mother was the mother I’d known best.

“I know you worry,” I said. “I love you for it, Nikki, but spying on the king is dangerous. He’s offered his protection, and I don’t want to disappoint him or have him think less of us. We’ve made it this far, haven’t we? We’re together. Isn’t that enough?”

“I want to protect you. If I’m in the King’s Guard—”

“Can’t we talk about it later?” I forced a smile. “You need to leave before—”

A heavy fist pounded on the door, and I pushed Nikki into the armoire, smothering him in white silk while I hissed, “Stay hidden until I’m gone. Do not let that red priest see you.”

“Promise,” Nikias mouthed before I closed the armoire door. Through the wood, my brother made a choking sound, then a laugh as he muttered something about the stench of old shoes that I never wore.

The stench was the last thing I had to worry about.

Ildoran was waiting in the hall, and I doubted he’d forgiven me for invading his life.

No, forgiveness would never come from the red priests.

And I pitied the prisoner from the Faded Lands.