And waited.
A child bumped into her from behind and mumbled a distracted apology. His eyes flicked behind her.
She pivoted smoothly, pretending to examine a rack of gloves?—
There. A flicker of gray vanishingbehind the baskets.
Heart a steady hammer, she turned toward the docks with deliberate calm, murmuring pleasantries to every vendor she passed, laughing a little too loudly at an old man’s joke. She scanned glass reflections. Knife handles. The gleam of dark metal hidden in daylight.
She caught the shadow again. Small. Quick. Ducking into another alley off her left.
“Got you,” Selene muttered, pulse kicking.
The dronsian snapped to her side, a living arrow.
She lunged into the alley?—
Selene slammed into her follower with a grunt and a grapple.
“Stop!” The girl yanked down her hood. “I’m not here to hurt you!”
Hazel eyes. Brown hair. Dimples.
“Get Selene. Hurry.”
Alexandra’s last order to this woman inside the collapsing temple. The princess had pushed her into the raining debris, uncaring that the ceiling was collapsing all around them.
The last time Selene saw this woman, she’d fled the room, ignoring the order entirely.
Where she’d spent the last five months was a mystery Selene had no interest in solving.
This woman was an Eye.
“Petrina,” Selene hissed, drawing both blades. The dronsian snarled from the ground at her side, wings flaring. Selene stepped forward. “Are you here to finish what Alexandra started?”
Petrina didn’t flinch. “I’m the last thing you should be worried about right now.” She grabbed Selene by the arm and pulled her to the edge of the alley. “You’re being hunted.”
Chapter
Eleven
“Sound the bells!” Augustus shouted. “Prepare for battle!”
Wind tore through the sails as his voice cracked like thunder across the deck. From the crow’s nest came the answering call: iron on iron, sharp and insistent. The call would echo across Castona Bay, but whether the Perean Navy would come to their aid…?
Thank the gods Selene wasn’t here. Safe inside the palace, far from the line of fire. If he died today, his only regret would be that he’d left her with silence instead of an apology.
Augustus scanned the decks with his captain’s eye and frowned. They were barely crewed, and he had no idea what Omar’s family was capable of. As far as he knew, they were mere merchants, not pirates. Laborers. Family.
Not killers.
Even so. That was no reason to underestimatehim.
“Lili!” he shouted over the rising wind. “We can stop at least one of those ships from boarding us, yes?”
“Aye.” Grinning, she turned for the helm in full command of her vessel. “Where are my riggers? Men on sails! Weigh anchor!”
Augustus kicked the lids off weapons crates. Swords. Axes. Crossbows. The crew wasted no time filling their hands.
