Kat felt her agitation start to burn through her, making her fingernails dig into her palms as she wove nimbly in and out of the crowds that were growing more and more jubilant with every passing moment.

  She was forcing herself to keep her hood down and her eyes hidden, but that was what was lending itself to her difficulty plowing through the bodies that kept drifting between herself and her brother.

  At the very least, Tam was easy to spot in the throng. His straight back kept his head above the majority of the street occupants, and the way he continued striding purposefully down the middle of the road, somehow managed to force people to clear a path for him.

  With a snarl, Kat darted forward, though she almost loosed her aura in doing so.

  When she finally reached her brother’s side once more, she was a little surprised and impressed to find that Eli had managed to stick close to the otherside without issue.

  “Tam, what the hell is your plan here?” Kat barked, unworried that she would be overheard as the chatter and opening thrums of music continued to rise in volume.

  The smell of frying oil and pastry started to permeate the air; the signs and smells of a rousing good celebration.

  “I’m going to walk into the palace and get the children back,” Tam responded evenly, his eyes not moving away from the street for an instant.

  “Yeah, you mentioned that, but how do you plan on doing that?” Kat pressed.

  “Tonight is Prince Jum’s birthday, yes?” Tam asked mildly.

  “What about it?” Kat’s eyes narrowed as she stared at her brother’s eerily calm profile.

  “We’re going to walk right in, and I’ll do whatever I have to.”

  “That answers a lot of nothing—TAM!” Kat seized her brother’s arm and yanked him back, pulling him to a stop. Her aura momentarily flared, making one or two people around them flinch. The passersby gave their heads a shake as though they assumed it had been a trick of their eyes then continued on their way.

  “You can’t just waltz into a palace and turn it upside down without a plan! I can take on a lot of people, but I’m still only one—-”

  Tam pulled himself free and continued walking ahead.

  Kat cursed then using an extra flex of magic moved inhumanly quick to place herself in front of Tam. “There are two covens working together and the Zinferan imperial army. You don’t know the layout of the palace, or how many civilians are in there. The first witch might already be on a ship leaving Zinfera!”

  Tam’s dark eyes were cold, and for a chilling moment Kat thought back to the few people who had confided in her that they saw something horribly dark in her brother…

  “We’ll look in the palace, and if the children aren’t there, then we’ll go to the docks. If the first witch has left, that means there will be less witches against us. But one way or another, we are getting the kids back,” Tam informed his sister before lowering his chin, the black flickering in his eyes glinting terrifyingly in the dim lantern lights of the street. “If you aren’t fighting at my side, then stay behind.”

  “I’d love to fight with you if you’d just take a Godsdamn moment to explain your plan!” Kat threw her hands in the air.

  Tam let out an impatient breath, and opened his mouth to respond when they were interrupted.

  “TAM! KAT! BY THE GODS SLOW DOWN!” Harris managed to skid to a halt between the siblings before doubling over, taking heaving breaths. “I go for one measly nap and you lot take off to do something terrible!”

  “Harris! Great to see you—what the hell has happened to my brother? Did he get kicked in the head by a horse at some point?” Kat demanded while pointing her finger at Tam and staring incredulously at the old family friend.

  Harris gradually managed to right himself again, though his cheeks were still pink. “Oh, Your Majesty, you have no idea what we’ve been dealing with.”

  “Ssh!” Kat hissed upon him addressing her formally, then leaned in closer. “Did you get a chance to hear from my mother what happened?”

  Harris’s expression turned grim. “I did. I passed the physician on the way out of the brothel. I hope Princess Kezia will be alright.”

  Tam suddenly turned to the duke. “Harris, are you going to help us?”

  “Well that depends what we’re doing here, Tam!” The older man placed his hands on his hips. He wore a plain white tunic, and black pants with the sword Wixim had gifted him on his back.

  Tam’s gaze lifted from Harris to sweep over the crowd, he then tilted his head. “We’re buying flour and moonshine. As much as we can carry. Kat, get your hands on a bow, arrows, and flint. We’re burning down the palace.”

  Kat’s jaw dropped, Eli’s eyebrows rose though she gave no other significant look of alarm, and Harris…

  Harris looked like a child who just woke up to find a mountain of presents awaiting him on his birthday.

  ***

  Aradia sat in her inconspicuous spot at the end of Soo Hebin’s long table that overlooked the main palace courtyard.

  At her side sat her brother, who had set his little jaw the instant he had finally stopped screaming following his separation from Penelope and hadn’t said a word. On his other side was Ansar.

  She sighed. “Ansar, have we released Thomas Julian yet?”

  “Yes, mistress. He should already be aboard the ship with the seer child.”

  “Good.” Aradia took a sip from her goblet. “Have you found where the Daxarian queen went?”

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  Ansar continued leisurely enjoying his grilled fish as the dignified music drifted over the attendants of the prince’s birthday who were all seated in two rows of long tables that ran around the perimeter of the courtyard. “Most likely one of the brothels the Ashowan’s and Ryu’s jointly own.”

  “Which of their brothels is the closest one?”

  “The Coy Koi.” Ansar responded before he, too, took a sip of wine.

  “Have the imperial soldiers been sent there?”

  “They have half a unit casually surrounding the building. If anyone matching the descriptions of the queen or the others appear, they will send a message. They have direct orders not to try and get in Katarina Reyes’s way.”

  Aradia nodded to herself reasonably. “I do feel badly about Princess Kezia and Sir Hugo Cas getting mixed up with the assault. I always liked them.”

  “It was the best time to attack. The queen and her mother were distracted, and the children were near the window,” Ansar consoled without any emotional inflection.

  Aradia continued eating, then glanced again at her brother in his child form, who sat with his hands curled stubbornly over his knees. “Eat something. This is far finer than what will be offered here on out.”

  His breath hitched, then he lifted his furious gaze up to her. “My dad’s going to come get me, and then we’re going to save Penelope. You’re going to be really sorry.”

  The first witch raised her eyebrows and pursed her mouth while looking pitifully at the child. “Even if he does, I will steal you back. Again, and again. You will know that I am always chasing you. Always coming for you. And that will place Tamlin Ashowan and anyone around him in danger. Do you understand?”

  Fear and agony played across the boy’s face as his eyes glimmered with an instant influx of tears.

  Aradia gave a soft laugh of disbelief. “My. I’ve never seen you truly so vulnerable in our hundreds of years of knowing each other, brother. I can’t wait to torment you with this when you finally remember who you truly are.”

  Aradia looked back at her dinner plate, her mind already drifting back to the matter of the cooked turtle on the table and how she had never really enjoyed this Zinferan delicacy, when the child spoke again.

  “A lot of people were scared of me where I grew up.” Aradia only partially turned toward the boy, with a bemused eyebrow raised. He was staring at her, his face fading to a more calm look, though his eyes still stormed. “Sometimes even my birth mother, and my uncle were scared of me… I didn’t like it. But you should know something.” The boy tilted his head thoughtfully for a moment, before his dark eyes settled and locked with Aradia’s—she was almost smiling in amusement. “People are more scared of my dad than they ever were of me.”

  Aradia’s amusement faltered.

  “I didn’t want my dad to know this, but I’ve heard a lot of people call him the devil.”

  A creeping chill started to press itself into Aradia’s chest. Even Ansar stopped eating to look with a frown at the back of the boy’s head.

  “I don’t know about you, lady, but… I don’t think there is anything scarier than the devil.”

  After a beat of heavy silence, Aradia turned in her seat to face the child more squarely. “That was quite a sophisticated threat for a seven year old.”

  The boy’s face scrunched up. “I didn’t threaten anybody!” he exclaimed heartfully. “I’m just telling you that my dad’s going to save me, and you’re probably not going to wanna mess with him again.”

  Evidently feeling pleased with himself, the boy plucked up the bowl of broth on his left and slurped at it loudly.

  Aradia’s eyes drifted up to Ansar, he was already staring at her with steady concern.

  The tip of her tongue poked at a molar point in her mouth as she leaned back in her seat and lifted her wine goblet back up. She allowed her gaze to rove over the party pensively.

  Tamlin Ashowan was a witch…So there was no way he was actually her brother… The timing wasn’t right. It wasn’t possible.

  But the boy’s words still stuck in her mind like a pesky thorn that was giving her more than a few inconvenient questions.

  “FIRE! THE PALACE IS ON FIRE!”

  Aradia’s attention snapped up to see over the outer wall of the courtyard a faint, orange glow that could almost be a trick of the light.

  The shout had come from the doors to the courtyard, where beyond lay the back east and south wings of the palace that were closest to Gondol.

  “Good thing we have a few water witches still here in the palace,” Aradia chuckled while taking another leisurely drink. She observed that even Soo Hebin from her place in the center of the table beside her son didn’t appear all that bothered.

  However, her attention snapped down when she noticed the smile on the boy’s face as he peered at the doors expectantly.

  Eyes narrowing on the expression, Aradia set down her cup. “Ansar.”

  Without needing anything more explicit to be said, her ally grabbed the boy by the shoulders and hauled him up as she, too, rose to her feet. “I’ll summon Wixim. I believe it is best we air on the side of caution and take our leave now.”

  The child opened his mouth, the shouted word “No” rising in the back of his throat before Ansar’s hand came up and covered his mouth, silencing him.

  The three of them proceeded to head back into the front building of the palace, Aradia gave a brief jerk of her chin in Soo Hebin’s direction when the concubine shot an irritated glance her way.

  It was time to leave.

  Though as Aradia, Ansar, and the child approached the doors, the first shrieks within the courtyard echoed out.

  Aradia swung back around, her left hand rising. She had a vial of the water from the Goddess’s Pool stowed away in a discreet leather satchel tied around her waist, along with a small pouch filled with powdered Witch’s Brew…

  She relaxed when she realized that the screams had merely come because the first wave of nobles to be poisoned had started either collapsing or coughing up blood as their bodies warred against whatever Soo Hebin had dosed them with. From the few glimpses Aradia could see from her position at the back of the stone terrace that was elevated over the courtyard, she observed that it was though the concubine had been rather thorough in selecting multiple different types of poison to really strain the physicians that might attempt to heal the nobles.

  Aradia turned back toward the doors.

  She’d decided that the other concubine Deoh Rin would be the easiest replacement for the throne, but that would not come to pass until after Aradia had departed from Zinfera. The Giong Coven would take care of it.

  For now, it was time to leave. Aradia had wanted to be present when the Daxarian king’s response to their ransom note arrived, but alas. It just didn’t seem like it had quite worked out that time.

  Oh well.