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Kylian’s rage moves through the bond in one hard pulse.

Kaiser follows his gaze and smiles.

“Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.”

“That is Draven’s ship,” I whisper.

“One of them,” Kylian says.

Kaiser gestures to a waiting guard and begins walking toward the mooring ship. “One moment,” he calls back without looking at us. “I need to tell my men where to send the supplies, since we have been running near empty since the last great freeze took out half our generators and cut power to the lower terraces.”

He pauses and looks over his shoulder.

“Fucking mages and their stupid curses.”

His eyes land on me. “If only I could help kill them all over again,” Kaiser adds, with his gaze still pinned to mine.

Kylian steps closer at once, his body moving just enough to cover me from Kaiser’s stare, and the bond hums with the force of everything he is holding back.

My pulse beats hard in my throat.

“He knows,” I whisper when Kaiser turns away.

“He suspects,” Kylian says.

Eagan moves closer, his voice low. “We need to make this visit quick.”

Kylian nods without taking his eyes from Kaiser. “I am already at war with one kingdom, and I do not feel like adding another.”

We move off the pier when Kaiser waves for us to follow, crossing toward the street that climbs from the harbor into the heart of the kingdom, while dockworkers rush toward the dragon ship with sled carts and thick gloves, ready to unload the supplies being passed down from the deck.

I try not to look at the ship.

Every hooded figure, every person stepping off it, every shape moving behind crates pulls my eyes, because Sable could be here, Sable could be close enough for me to reach if I only looked in the right direction.

Kaiser calls something ahead, and Kylian turns his head toward him.

That is when someone crashes into me.

The impact knocks me sideways and down, my hip hitting the frozen boards hard enough to steal my breath, while the hooded figure who collided with me falls too, one gloved hand sliding across the ice before they scramble upright.

Kylian is on me instantly, his hands gripping my arms and lifting me to my feet while Eagan steps between me and the figure with his blade half-drawn.

“Are you hurt?” Kylian says, his voice tight.

“I’m fine,” I say, though my attention is not on him.

The hooded figure continues toward the ship. Their cloak snaps around their legs as they dodge two dockhands and head straight toward the dragon ship.

“Mira, wait up,” the woman calls from near the gangway, her voice breathless from chasing, and a full-body shiver slithers over me. Hearing the woman’s voice, I turn so fast that Kylian catches my elbow again when I lose my balance.

“What is it?”

“I thought . . .” I start, but my words fail as the hooded figure reaches the gangway and disappears onto the ship.

“You thought what?” Kylian asks.

I stare at the ship until the moving bodies and crates swallow every trace of them.