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“Is that the only reason you’re doing this?” Osana asked. “To help Wielders? Or are we just your ticket home?”

I stopped myself from flinching, even as Keil tensed beside me. Osana spent enough time with refugees to recognize someone who was counting their days in a new land like a prisoner scoring tally-lines into a wall.

So rather than deny it, I said gently, “It was your home, too.”

Osana jolted as if I’d slapped her. But I could no longer ignore the information I’d been accumulating: her powerful reaction to the Hunters, her confident knowledge of the Daradonian education system, her hostility when she’d believed I was just another Capewell. She’d layered herself in golden jewelry, as though in loud devotion to Ansora. Yet her waxy-white hair ring . . . It was bonestone. The material used to create the towers of Dawning.

Osana was a Wielder of Daradon, just like me.

She swallowed uncomfortably but met Keil’s gaze with a quiet strength. “I’m not leaving the settlement while a Hunter roams free.” She added, with a note of pain, “I can’t.”

Keil’s expression was soft and resigned. Since the night they’d kidnapped me, this group had taken many forms in my mind; they’d been Keil’s cronies, his allies, his friends. But now I realized what they truly were: a family.

So it was with deep, unconditional affection that Keil said, “I understand.”

Osana stood, and Lye’s gaze followed her up, his hand twitching as though to reach for her. But before he could, she shifted to look at me.

“Home is a place you miss when you leave it,” she said quietly. “Daradon stopped being my home the moment the Hunters killed my parents.”

She was turning when I said, softly over the rainfall, “They killed mine, too.”

She paused, the bonestone hair ring peeking between her braids. Then, finally, she walked away.

A mournful silence stretched, the rain battering the windows.

Then Dashiel asked, “What’s our plan?”

Keil cleared his throat, still somber from Osana’s departure. “The Banarrati fete lasts three nights. That leaves us only a small window to grab the sword.”

“And get it off the island without anyone knowing what we’ve done,” Lye added.

Us, we, our. I couldn’t believe how easily they’d taken up a burden I’d expected to carry alone. As the conversation continued, Keil’s specter twined around my fingers. Our eyes locked, and his power flared against my skin.

This will work, he’d said before this meeting, and his touch echoed those words now.

Tentatively, I let my specter ripple out to graze his power. Because despite every obstacle in our path, every scrap of cynicism I’d carried inside me for all these years . . . I believed him.

The week before our voyage passed in a blur of specter training and anxious dreams.

I was plagued by a recurring nightmare of tripping on that accursed bump as I ran from Erik through the palace passages, and was still yawning from restless sleep when Lye came to pillage the breakfast spread one morning.

“Anything from your contact at Capewell Manor?” Keil asked.

“The Hunters’ ranks are coming apart,” Lye said, sidestepping Valeria to plate up an oven-fresh slice of potato pie. “More deaths among them, more panic.”

“Erik’s still picking them off,” I said darkly.

“Which means Briar will be growing more desperate to get the leverage she needs to stop him,” Valeria added. “And Mara will most likely strike again.”

Keil’s jaw tightened. “What about Briar’s activity?”

“This is where it gets interesting.” Lye unsheathed a fork from his belt—apparently, he always carried a spare with him—and spoke around a mouthful of steaming potatoes. “Briar’s been making excursions of her own. She was spotted in Parrey, Avanford, and Creak, all within the last few weeks. Witnesses say she was seen near the residence of the Amber woman.” He raised his brows at me. “Does that mean anything to you?”

I shook my head, frowning; I didn’t know anyone called Amber. Then another thought struck me. “How recent are these reports?”

“As recent as last week.”

“So why is Briar still scouring Daradon if she knows where Alissa is?” Valeria asked, finishing my thoughts. She looked at me. “Could she also be searching for someone else?”