“It’s happening at sunset,” Deneya interrupted, barging in. “Sorry to interrupt, I know you both usually have your date this evening but—”
“But it’s important.” Vi straightened away from the chair. “Tell me what you’ve learned.”
“Fallor will be meeting with an actual member of Adela’s crew at sunset on the southwest ridge just outside of the forest.”
Vi and Taavin shared a look. They’d been tracking Fallor’s movements in secret. Messages had moved in and out of the city through merchants Fallor was working with as a page in the city guard. TheStormfrosthad been spotted not far from Toris—confirmed through scouting done by Noct’s eldest daughter.
“I’ll go ahead and let you both know how it goes.” Vi held up her right hand. She wore a silver ring on her middle finger that matched an identical one on Deneya’s hand. The woman had given the token to Vi as a gift, imprinted with her communication mark should they ever be separated.
“You’ll go alone?” Taavin was on his feet as well.
“There’s no way I’ll be able to get on theStormfrostif all three of us go together. Adela needs to feel confident that she can overpower me.”
“What if something goes wrong and she actually does overpower you?”
“She won’t.” Vi gave him an assured smile.
“You’ve seen Vi in the training grounds,” Deneya said in her defense. “She can handle herself better than any of us… And has three times the strength,” she mumbled the last part.
“This is Adela we’re talking about.” Taavin’s face was as stormy as the sea he’d pulled her from all those years ago. Vi stepped over to him and grabbed his shoulder gently. “I do trust you, you know that, right? But I—”
“Worry,” Vi finished for him with a small smile. “I worry for you too, more than you can know.”
“Not to break up the moment, but if you’re going to go, you should go now.”
“I know.” Vi gave a solemn nod to Deneya. “You two should pack up while I’m gone. We’ll be leaving this place once I get Adela to agree to help us.”
“Leaving?” Taavin repeated with surprise. “I thought you said you werenearly therewith the crown. We can’t leave until we have a replica.”
“No, I just said I was nearly there. Nothing about the crown.” She gave him a somewhat sheepish grin. “We have the replica. It’s in the workshop.”
“What?”
Deneya followed her into the hall. “If you’ve had the replica this whole time—”
“I haven’t had it the whole time,” Vi interjected. “Just for the past ten weeks or so.”
“Fine. If you’ve had the replica for the past ten weeks,” Deneya rephrased her words with frustration, “what have you been working on?”
“I’ll show you later,” Vi called over her shoulder with a grin. “Follow behind me and I’ll see you both on theStormfrost.”
Down and out the estate, Vi moved quickly in the twilight. She knew Fallor’s rounds, likely better than he knew them himself. She’d long since mapped out the young man’s movements just like she had mapped out the whole city that was the Twilight Kingdom. Even when he thought he was wandering at random to lose any people who might be tracking him, he wandered in consistent circles.
When she found him, he was finishing up a conversation with a merchant. Vi couldn’t hear what they said, but the merchant gave him a token and disappeared into the shadows of an alleyway.
Vi ignored the merchant, focusing only on Fallor as he walked up the quiet residential street. He headed right, and Vi followed in parallel through an alley. She twisted between rubbish bins and around opening doors to step back out onto the main street.
Fallor had pulled his hood. He was trying to lose himself among the crowd. But Vi followed twenty paces behind easily. He looked around nervously from time to time, and Vi would side step—always just beyond the edge of his periphery. He’d recognize her if he got a good look. Fallor had seen her and Arwin working together enough times.
So she lingered at the edge of the city, leaning in a doorway, watching as he walked up the rise to the gateway of the kingdom. The moment Fallor passed through the swirling, fog-like magic, Vi sprinted up behind him.
“Champion, would you—” Ruie attempted to say as she passed. The young woman was on guard duty for the night.
“No time.” Vi gave her a short wave and plunged herself into the haze that surrounded the Twilight Kingdom.
She pushed magic out around her in a quick pulse. It cocooned and stabilized her in the between space. Another pulse of magic, and Vi felt her powers running like a bridge between the city where she had been, and the forest where she was headed. With a third pulse, Vi pushed herself along the pathway.
Reemerging in the real world outside of the Twilight Kingdom left her off-balance. Pinwheeling her arms, Vi grabbed onto a tree. It wasn’t exactly a smooth landing, but it worked.
