Marina had never before failed a task I assigned her.
Without so much as a disturbance in the air, she appeared at my side.I gripped one of the spikes—as tall as I—that ringed the higantorus’ back, and she leaned close, speaking softly.
“She’s nowhere, Sora.I don’t understand it.I’ve searched everywhere.There’s nowhere left to look.She’s just … gone.”
I stared out at the outline of land, still far in the distance.A ferry slowly chugged toward the higantorus to offer us passage to shore.
“It’s not your fault.”
Marina turned hopeful, perhaps even surprised, eyes toward me, and I realized I’d never said that to her before.Never had to.
I looked from the too-bright light shimmering across the waves to her.“How were you to know she’d justpopout of sight like that?”
“Because I, unlike you, have been here all this time, since the first parvnit appeared in Domdurro.”
I bristled.I was certain I’d never grow accustomed to hearing my homeland referred to by the name of its conqueror.
“I know parvnits can do that, even if I’ve never seen it done.It’s called transpopping.I should have known she’d do that.”
“How?All she kept talking about was how she wasn’t gonna let me out of her sight.Even suspecting I was going to … you know, she didn’t let up.If I’d known she could transpop, I still would’ve guessed she was more likely to get caught underfoot and stomped”—I smiled at the thought—“and squashed”—my smile deepened—“than to disappear like that.What purpose does that serve her?”
“None that I can think of.She should have been trailing after you, trying to spy on you, if anything.”
“But she didn’t—wasn’t.”
Marina tapped a foot against the higantorus’ back with a wetplop,plop,plop.“So we just leave without her?Without knowing what happened?”
“You know I’m no fan of loose ends?—”
“You’ve never left even one.”
“And I’m damn proud of that.But when that ferry gets here, I need to be on it, and I’m not leaving you behind.”
Marina’s dark eyes glistened.“I missed you, Sora.”
Pretending to be taking in a panoramic view, I glanced around us.The other passengers, who were mostly fae, with some creatures and a small human family, were milling around, readying for transport.None seemed to be looking our way, but we couldn’t take the risk.I’d begun this journey under the pretense of being a whore because anyone might be a spy.
I clenched the spike harder instead of squeezing Marina’s slim shoulders as I wished to.“I missed you too, Mina,” I said, sotto voce.
It wasn’t technically true since I’d been unconscious and unable to miss anyone.“Without Teo…” My throat contracted, squeezing my words to a halt.Immediately tears sprang to my eyes.Urgently, I blinked away their burn.
To become the Opalese’s most effective assassin once more, I was going to have to do so much better than this.
Marina’s fingers slid up to brush mine.I allowed myself a second of her comfort before yanking away.I widened my eyes until they stopped leaking.
“Without Teo … I couldn’t do without my only other true friend.”
I used to have plenty of friends, but they were sycophants eager to ride an aristo up the ladder of nobility.Beyond Marina, a friend’s loyalty was only bought and never true.
“He’s really gone?”Marina said.“You’re sure?”
I’d already told her how I felt my connection to my twin sever.How he was the one to save me even when it had cost him his life.
I clenched my jaw and gritted out the words.“I’m sure of what I felt.What I still feel.Rafaela and Alonso are sure too, and their info was rock solid.”
She harrumphed.She didn’t trust either of them; they’d never given her reason to.
I gazed across the ocean, to the land that had once been home to the ruling dynasty of Lingdon—Rafaela’s family.Everyone else in her bloodline was dead.Executed.Her father, mother, and two sisters.
