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“And you have the worst way of greeting guests.”

Xavian smiles wider. “Guests?” Xavian laughs. “Two visits in a matter of months, Kylian, you might as well move in. What will our neighboring islands say?”

Kylian huffs at his words, and I find it hard not to chuckle.

“So care to tell me why Draven wants your head on a pike?”

Kylian’s expression hardens.

“Rumor has it you killed some of his men.”

“How do you know about the spies?”

Xavian’s gaze shifts toward me, and his humor fades enough that my stomach tightens.

“I was trying to find her sister,” he says. “I went to Purgatory to look for the ledgers.”

My breath catches. “You went there?”

“I said I would look,” he replies, then his gaze moves back to Kylian. “I had the unfortunate timing of running into Draven while I was there.”

Kylian goes very still.

“He was not alone, not that he ever is, but . . . a woman was with him, and she seemed eager to make herself useful after he purchased her contract.”

“Aren’t they all until he turns them to ash,” Kylian says.

“Does the name Dahlia mean anything to you?” he asks.

Kylian closes his eyes briefly and pinches the bridge of his nose. “I knew I should have killed her,” he mutters.

Xavian gives him a look filled with open judgment. “Perhaps if you had not removed her hand, she would have been less vengeful and wouldn’t have sold your secrets for her freedom,” he says. “Really, Kylian, that was barbaric, even for you.”

I turn sharply toward Kylian. “You did what?”

His glares at Xavian, then turns his attention to me. “You did not want her killed.”

“So your answer was to cut off her hand?”

“I punished her how I saw fit.”

“And look where that got us,” I snap.

“Got me,” he says. “You did not remove her hand.”

I turn away from him, forcing my attention back to Xavian because Dahlia cannot matter more than Sable right now.

“So you went to Purgatory,” I say, my voice tight. “Did you find anything about Sable?”

Xavian’s expression shifts, and the change is small but enough to make my heart beat faster.

“I found out where she was sent.”

Hope hits so abruptly I almost step forward.

“You found Sable? She’s here?”

His mouth presses into a line. “No,” he says, his words crushing, though not enough to kill the hope that has already taken root. “She was taken to Avelvorn.”