Swallowing, I square my shoulders. “So what do you think of Brig?—”
Cold metal bites the flesh between my shoulder blades, exposed by my strapless dress.
Gianna’s eyes go wide. She throws up her hands as she takes in whoever is behind me, holding me at gunpoint. She whimpers, barely audible over the ambient noise of the city.
“Keep quiet, start walking, and don’t stop until I tell you to,” a woman’s voice hisses in my ear. “Move, now.”
I try to glance behind me for Isolde. But the blue-haired Blade is nowhere to be seen.
Gianna walks first, her steps hesitant. I follow. To an outsider, it must look like we are out on a stroll. A few people walk past, their faces a blur of indifference or hidden behind scarves to block out the ever-present sand and dust. No one bats an eye.
“I’m so sorry I brought this danger to you, Leigh,” Gi whispers. Somehow, she believes this is her fault. But I know it’s mine. Whoever attacked me at the kelpie races must have followed me to Aurora.
Fuck, Janus was right. Being out here in a new city without the entirety of my guard, I’ve thrown myself into the lion’s den.
“Turn here,” the abductor commands. Gianna and I obey, turning down a narrow street that must double as a weekend bazaar. Empty wooden stalls line the sides, leaving a walkway in the middle. “Stop here. Now, slowly, face me with your hands high so I can see them. Any funny business, one or both of you will have a bullet between your brows.”
I swallow hard. When I turn, I come face-to-face with a woman dressed head to toe in black, a scarf covering obscuring her features. But her eyes—a striking midnight blue—pierce through me.
“You attacked me at the races,” I say. It’s a guess, but this person and my attacker have similar strong builds.
The kidnapper nods. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
“You two know each other?” Gi squeaks.
“What do you want?” I ask.
“Isn’t it obvious? She’s here to murder us,” Gianna says.
“Who are you?” I ask. The abductor uses her free hand to unwrap the covering around her face.
I gasp. Marlowe Wilkes, the former Borealis Blade Commander and current fugitive. She’s wanted for attempting to blow up the capitol to liberate the Nebula people in Nyx’s name. Her face is gaunt, her opalescent skin now suntanned and drawn, but her red hair and sharp features are unmistakable.
A wry smile twists Marlowe’s chapped lips. Gianna’s jaw drops.
“Wilder’s been looking everywhere for you,” I say. But of course, she already knows that.
Marlowe shrugs. “It’s easy to evade arrest when you taught the people hunting you all they know. And it’s good that I found you first because I have vital information about the wolves’ strategy.”
“What strategy? You mean Prince Alden’s proposal or the prints breaching our borders?” I ask. Gianna glances at me, but now isn’t the time for an explanation.
“Their plot goes much deeper than a simple proposal or border control issues, Your Majesty,” Marlowe says.
I blink. Sunlight reflects off the gun’s barrel. “What do you mean?”
Marlowe narrows her eyes. “First, I need your word that you will pardon me for my crimes. I made a mistake with Nyx, but I’m trying to make up for it. To do that, I need your word you won’t send me to prison.”
I laugh. “You have a gun pointed at my head, blackmailing me by withholding information vital for national security, and yet you want me to believe you’ve changed?”
“Yes.”
My face tightens. “You betrayed Wilder with that bomb. He would despise me if I took away his chance to arrest you.”
Marlowe’s grin falters. They were close. Closer than commander and subordinate. She was a friend. Her betrayal gutted him. Before he left for Aurora, he’d been tearing himself apart trying to find her and get answers about her betrayal. “My offer is final. And I promise you want to know what I know. Your grandmother’s life depends on it.”
Time stops. “My grandmother is in Glaucus.”
“Is she?” Marlowe taunts.
