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“If Sable was brought here, then I am not waiting on the ship while you search for her.”

Kylian’s hand closes around mine before I take a step, his grip firm enough to hold me in place, and when I look up at him, the warning is already in his eyes.

“This is Kaiser’s kingdom,” he says, lowering his voice further. “He does not welcome strangers, he does not forgive insults, and he hates anything connected to the Arcanum more than any king alive.”

“I won’t go anywhere without you. I learned my lesson last time,” I say, because that is the only promise I can give him without lying.

His gaze lingers on my face for a long moment, searching for hesitation, perhaps hoping to find enough of it to use against me, but whatever he sees makes his mouth press into a hard line.

“You do not speak unless I tell you to,” he says.

I raise my brows.

“Fine,” he mutters, already regretting the order. “You do not threaten anyone, you do not wander, and you do not go looking in strange places because you think it might lead to your sister.”

“That one feels way too specific.”

“It is specific because I know you.”

Arlo gives a low huff behind us, and Kylian’s eyes cut toward him.

“You remain on the ship.”

Arlo’s face hardens. “I need to get back to Purgatory, not sit in a cabin while you two bicker.”

“You will get back to Purgatory when we leave this kingdom,” Kylian says. “Until then, you stay where Kaiser cannot use you to make my day worse.”

Arlo looks ready to argue, but Eagan steps beside him and rests one hand on his shoulder with enough pressure to make the warning clear.

“For once,” Eagan says, his tone dry and tired, “choose the option that keeps everyone alive.”

Arlo shakes Eagan’s hand off, but he does not step onto the gangway. The small victory does nothing to ease the guilt twisting in my gut when I feel his eyes on me and refuse to look back.

Kylian leads me down onto the dock with Eagan close behind, and the cold bites through my coat the moment I step into Avelvorn.

The harbor is beautiful in a way that feels unkind.

Snow covers the rooftops, the piers, the carved railings, and the narrow bridges that rise from one street to another, while pale lanterns glow with white flames behind frosted glass, turning the whole port silver, blue, and black beneath the heavy sky.

Everything is clean.

Everything is quiet.

Even the people moving through the harbor do so with lowered heads, soft voices, and careful footsteps over the ice.

We make it halfway down the pier before the guards pop up. They move into place surrounding us, white cloaks shifting over pale gray armor, curved blades lowered just enough to threaten without beginning a fight, and the moment their line closes across the path ahead, Kylian stops with me at his side and Eagan at my back.

No one speaks for a moment.

Then the guards part, and King Kaiser steps through them. For a moment, even the falling snow seems to lose its softness around him.

He is tall and lean in a black coat lined with silver, his pale hair falling past his shoulders, his skin almost colorless beneath the cold light. His eyes are the first thing that makes me understand why Kylian did not want me here.

They are pale green, sharp, still, and empty of anything kind.

Kylian carries danger openly, and Xavian hides his beneath charm, but Kaiser does neither, because he does not need to show teeth or warmth or temper to frighten anyone.

He simply stands there, colder than the air around us, and everyone seems to know how easily blood stains snow.