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“Kai, what’s going on with you? And why does Theo have a sword?” Her voice wavered. She looked around the large room, at the big chandelier overhead, at the tall, pointed windows covered in black paint. “And why are you meeting at night in secret?”

When Kai opened his eyes, they were rimmed with red.

“We’re a private branch of the Priesthood that’s doing something about the persecution of the Adriels.

The rest of the Priesthood either don’t know we exist, or they turn a blind eye because they know what we’re doing is right,” Kai said.

“We’ve been training in combat to defend our people.

We’ve been covertly trying to gain influence across the city, especially in politics, and waiting for a chance to enter the palace.

” He took hold of Ryn’s shoulders again, tighter this time, and Ryn blinked at him.

She’d never heard Kai plead, either. “Ryn, I wish it wasn’t you.

But you’re the only Adriel who’s ever snuck inside with an influential position. ”

For several seconds, Ryn thought she was somewhere else.

Like the person standing across from her wasn’t the same Kai who spent his evenings reading his studies to her.

The same calm, soft-spoken priest who tended to the needs of the children on their street with his medical supplies when they scraped their knees, and who delivered spare apples to all the houses down the road.

Never would she have dreamed he was a part of something secret, and she couldn’t imagine him learning to fight or speaking up against the Weylin ways.

Only now did Ryn notice Kai wore a sword as well.

“Kai,” she began in her softest voice, “I’m not sure what you’re asking me to do, but if I go back to the palace, it’s only a matter of time before someone figures out I’m lying about my name.

Adriels are forbidden from entering the palace grounds, and I’ve already done that.

I’ll be killed for breaking the law the second my identity comes out. ”

How could he ask this of her?

Moisture layered Kai’s gaze, and he nodded. “I know the risk. I hate this, Ryn. I wish I could take your place. But there’s no seat more powerful in the kingdom than the Queen’s seat. Ryn, if you could take it, you could save the Adriel people —”

“Don’t you know the things that go on inside that palace?

!” Ryn felt the weight of magic all over again, the same stomach-turning heaviness that had made it difficult to breathe when her carriage first pulled through the gate.

“Don’t you know what happened to the last Queen? ” It came out high-pitched and raw.

Ryn’s whole life she’d been told to stay inside, to keep quiet, and to avoid the palace at all costs.

She rarely even left the street she lived on with Kai so she wouldn’t be discovered.

She always wore popular Weylin clothing if she needed to leave the house, she made sure to use common Weylin phrases in her conversations with merchants, and she took the time to bow to the goddess statue when she passed the Sixteenth Temple of Nyx on the road.

Now Kai wanted her to parade herself in front of all of Per-Siana?

Within arm’s reach of the very people who’d love to see her dead?

She pointed back in the direction of the palace.

“There’s something evil in there, Kai! I could feel it, and I escaped it! You can’t ask me to go back there!”

Kai dropped his head and released her shoulders. He nodded, and a second later, he turned to the rest of the Priesthood. “You heard her,” he said quietly. “She said no.”

Theo made a deflated sound at her side. Ryn noted the looks around the room—men biting their tongues, frowning. She studied their reactions with a weak stomach, not noticing when Kai turned his attention to someone behind her.

“What do you want, Heva?” he asked.

…Heva?

Ryn glanced toward the hall and faltered at the sight of her guardswoman standing there in her navy and silver Folke armour. Ryn looked between Kai and her guardswoman when neither of them explained how they knew each other.

“I almost didn’t come here,” Heva admitted to the Priesthood. “I’m not a part of your fight.”

“But you did come,” Kai replied. “So, you must have a reason to be here, like us.”

Heva didn’t answer. Her gaze shot to Ryn instead.

“Did you follow me?” Ryn asked her. She should have been terrified to see another Folke this close to her cousin, but… Kai knew her name.

“I didn’t know you’d be here,” Heva admitted to Ryn.

“I came to speak with the priests.” Then to the Priesthood, she said, “I know Geovani and her priestesses haven’t always gotten along with you—” a few grunts and scoffs lifted through the room “—but Geovani wanted to know who Estheryn Electus was. After finding no recorded history of her among the Electus family, she sent me to inquire if this woman’s presence at the palace was one of your schemes? ”

“Schemes?” Kai released a sound from the back of his throat. “Just because the Adriel priestesses have become lazy and obsolete doesn’t mean we must. Yes, we do things.”

Ryn’s lips parted at his harsh tone.

Kai’s shoulders relaxed. “But no, we aren’t behind Ryn going to the palace. I tried to stop the Folke from taking her.”

At that, Heva looked from one priest to the next. And, as if deciding they no longer mattered, she walked straight to Ryn and put out her hand. “Come, Maiden,” she said.

Ryn blinked down at the girl’s open palm. Back at the carriage, Heva had refused to offer Ryn her hand.

“Where?” Ryn asked.

“Back to the palace. You can’t be here.” Heva’s hand didn’t waver. “It’s not safe.”

“And the palace is?” Ryn drifted toward Kai. Ryn was sure this guardswoman would catch her if she tried to run. Even though they were the same height and appeared the same age, they had vastly different builds.

“No, the palace isn’t safe either, but I’ll try to protect you,” Heva stated.

“What do you mean, you’ll try?” Kai demanded and folded his arms.

Heva’s gaze remained on Ryn when she said, “I’m her personal Folke guard.”

Kai closed his mouth, but a few of the priests started to whisper.

Heva spoke only to Ryn again, “I’m not going to lie to you, Maiden—at least seven high political powers want you dead, regardless of whether or not they know who you are.

Seven influential political powers with a lot of money,” she emphasised.

“I’m just one person against them. I might be the first Folke guard to die in the trial period trying to keep my maiden alive. ”

The Priesthood fell quiet; Kai looked like he might be sick.

Heva lifted her chin a little. “But Geovani wanted me to protect you the moment she saw you. And I might not be the deeply spiritual type, but I believe in that woman. So, I will.”

Still, Heva’s hand didn’t move. Still, her gaze remained solely on Ryn.

From the side, Saturn piped up, “We’ll take up an offering. We’ll fund you, Adassah. We will be your benefactors.”

Kai’s head snapped toward him. “She said she didn’t want to go back!” he protested.

“And we can’t possibly be expected to work alongside Geovani and the priestesses,” Theo muttered.

“Quiet, you two,” Saturn scolded. He reached for Ryn’s hand and gently placed it into Heva’s.

But as Heva’s grip tightened around Ryn’s fingers, a spark of something lifted in her chest—terror?

Hopefulness? The urge to run and vanish into the darkness outside?

Ryn ripped her hand back and nearly bumped into Kai.

Saturn sighed and turned to Heva. “Tell Geovani we’ll get her whatever she needs. Tell her that, for once, we’re on her side with this.”

Heva gave him a curt nod, but her attention fired to Kai dragging his hands through his hair and pacing in a small circle. Ryn thought Kai might protest again, but he stopped before her and cradled her cheeks. A tear spilled down his face.

“Ryn, you can do this,” he said. All thoughts of running melted away as Ryn looked into her cousin’s eyes. “You’re brave, and pretty, and smart. You can do this,” he repeated.

A slow, sharp pain settled in Ryn’s chest. She couldn’t imagine surviving the next day, let alone three months. There was no way her secret wouldn’t come out. And her death wouldn’t be easy, either—it would be public and horrid.

Brave. Pretty. Smart? What did it matter if she was dead?

“What if I can’t?” she rasped. “What if the King is heartless like gossip claims? What if he really has no heart to steal?” She imagined what the King looked like; a cruel, dark being stamped with the hideousness of all the bad things he’d done.

How could she look someone like that in the eyes and keep her food down while trying to be brave and pretty and smart for him?

While trying to convince him to fall in love with her?

Kai swallowed and placed a hand atop Ryn’s head, like a father, like an older sibling. A dark look came over his eyes and a snarl curled his lip. “Then kill him,” he said. “Before he kills you.”

Heva’s gaze darted to Kai in surprise, but she didn’t object.

Neither did Saturn, or Theo, or any of the priests.

Ryn forgot how to take a breath as that settled in, as she wondered if that was what everyone in this room really wanted.

If that was what they’d been hoping to send her in to do the whole time.

“For the Adriels,” Kai added. “For your mother, Ryn. And my parents. And all the parents who were discovered and slain unjustly. Do it for them.”

Why did Kai mention her mother? Only he knew what her mother’s death meant to her. The pain she’d buried.

The torches around the room turned hotter and brighter than a moment ago; Ryn’s flesh burned as she looked at the Priesthood, at Kai, at Heva.

It was clear to her now what they all were.

Enemies of the King. Devoted Adriels. Her people.

Her hands felt wet as if they were covered in blood, but she lifted them and saw it was only sweat.

“Let’s not get carried away.” Saturn’s objection sliced through her thoughts. “For now , we just need you to be our spy. We have three months to decide what to do in the end.”

Ryn closed her mouth. Saturn had failed to remind anyone what a spy’s death would be.

The last spy caught committing treason against the King was dragged through the Mother City behind a steed.

Ryn had been so afraid when the rumours reached their village; she’d slept in her mother’s bed for three nights afterward.

It was absurd. Only a fool would walk back into the palace to die.

But death was just the peace at the end of a long, difficult road—that’s what Ryn had told herself after her mother’s passing.

And though she’d never admitted it to Kai, there were days when Ryn had missed her mother so much, she’d craved the reunion death would bring.

But she couldn’t win the despicable King’s love against the three fairest maidens in the kingdom. So, would she be able to kill him in the end? And could she really spy on the most powerful beings in Per-Siana for the Priesthood? Could she will her feet to walk her back into that palace at all?

A phantom clock ticked in her head, rushing her decision. But perhaps she already knew the answer as she looked around the room and saw the desperate faces—faces of people who’d lost loved ones, people who’d been treated like insects because of their heritage, people who’d suffered.

Yes.

For her people, she could try.

But still. Kai was her cousin, whom she loved. Who loved her.

She wished someone else had asked her to do this instead of him.