The tunnel—a remnant from the people who’d inhabited this shoreline before the Dorians descended from their mountains, full of Bloodlust and a thirst for conquest—was frighteningly irregular. Carved from the same dark rock as Arachne’s maze, the shaft would run wide enough for a carriage to pass unhindered one moment, then without warning would narrow to such a tight slit that I feared we’d be forced to leave Dacian’s hulking figure behind. But, so far, we’d been lucky. In more ways than one. When I’d climbed aboard the Sirena in the first hours after sunset, soaked and shivering, Therius, Tafari, and Parthenia had been the first to greet me. I’d explained that I needed to get my Seven into the city. The old smuggler had many ideas. And this ancient tunnel, if the Dorian was to be trusted, was the best path.

As we reached yet another narrow bend in the rock, I glanced ahead to where Therius hobbled along. Tafari was beside him, a lantern held aloft in one hand, Parthenia clutched tightly in the other.

“How much further, Therius? I thought this was the quickest route in,” I called. My voice echoed in the gloom, tense in my ears.

“Without eyes to mark our passing, it is,” was his placid answer.

His calm demeanor didn’t comfort me. If anything, it set me further on edge. “If we don’t reach her well before dawn . . .”

“The sky will fall and the seas will boil, I know, I know.” He glanced back, blue eyes twinkling in the torchlight. “Don’t worry yourself, my lord. You’ll reach her in time.”

Beside me, Nerina stiffened. “Then what? You’ll drag her to a temple yourself?” And even though we’d been traveling down this dank tunnel, surrounded by its stale air, for more than an hour, still a breeze whistled through the shaft. Proof of the Wind Wielder’s ire.

“You could’ve stayed back.” Our eyes met, hers narrowed and pained. Guilt grabbed me with an ugly claw. “But thank you for coming, anyway,” I said softly.

Nerina swallowed, the slender length of her throat bobbing as she turned away. “Yes, well, couldn’t let you idiots have all the fun now, could I?” she said, voice tight.

Dacian pressed in closer to her until only the thinnest thread of air separated her back from his front. A hand rose, brushed the barest of touches against a length of dark hair that had come loose from her bun, then dropped slowly to his side. But the way he watched her, the strength of the longing held in those yellow wolf’s eyes of his . . . I turned away.

Nerina was beautiful and fierce and loyal. She deserved to have someone look at her that way. She deserved to be wanted as Dacian wanted her—something I couldn’t give her.

Ahead, Therius held up a hand, pulling me from the guilt in my gut.

An order to stop.

I searched the darkness. Then I saw it—the gleam of metal reflecting the golden glow of the torchlight. A gate, iron rusted and flaky, though thick enough to pose a problem, blocked the way. Tafari turned to Parthenia, handing her the torch before he moved to examine it. “It is locked,” he said in his clipped accent.

Dacian, no doubt ready to break the thing with his bare hands, grunted as he moved between Nerina and me. “We’ll see about tha—”

But before he could finish, Tafari put his shoulder against the rusted metal and gave a single push.

The gate’s hinges groaned as it swung open. A thick padlock clattered to the rock-strewn ground, broken.

Dacian and I shared a wide-eyed glance.

I turned my attention to the ebony-skinned former slave, a tendril of my power reaching out, searching, until it brushed against something . . . interesting.

Peleus loosed an admiring whistle. “Didn’t know humans were so damn strong.”

“They aren’t,” I said, eyes still on Tafari. “Are they, my friend?”

Tafari’s jaw tightened, but he kept his silence as he held the gate open for Parthenia to pass through.

Therius motioned the rest of us to pass. My Seven moved forward, but I stopped at the old smuggler’s side. “You aren’t coming, are you?”

The Dorian chuckled, reaching down to his injured leg. Parthenia had cauterized the wound in Arachne’s maze and the male’s God-Blood should have offered its own measure of healing, but when I’d climbed aboard the Sirena earlier, the wound had still been an angry, weeping red.

Seeming to read my thoughts, he shook his head. “My sliver of mortality is catching up with me, I’m afraid. You go ahead,” he said, motioning toward where the others waited with a lift of his chin. “My old bones would slow you down. Besides, Parthenia and Tafari have memorized every route out of the city that I could think of. They’ll guide you true.”

I clamped a hand on his bent shoulder. “We’ll have Aurora in a few hours’ time. She’ll set you right as rain.”

Therius smiled, blue eyes crinkling at the corners. Then he offered me a wink. “Go get your girl.”

The tunnel ended at a half-rotten rope ladder leading upward to an equally rotten wooden hatch. Dacian, of course, destroyed the flimsy thing the moment he stepped foot on it, and Tafari and I were forced to hoist his solid form through several feet of empty air. By the time his massive ass was above ground, I was on my own rear, panting for breath as I took in our new surroundings.

The room was small, nothing more than a bare wooden floor—of which the hatch was a poorly maintained piece—and rough stone walls lined with dusty shelves and barrels. Many, many barrels. And from the mixed scents of yeast and piss permeating every inch of the place, they were full of the lowest quality of ale.

“I know where we are!” Peleus announced, voice alarmingly loud.

Nerina gave him a firm clout across the back of the skull. “Idiot . . . gods-damned, bloody idiot,” she hissed.

But now that I’d gotten my bearings, I realized other voices—and plenty of them—were drifting in from every crack in the mortar and gap in the wood. “And where would that be?” I asked.

Peleus shot his sister one wary glance, took a few long-strided steps away from her, and replied, “The Silk and Shaft. A . . . tavern . . . of sorts.”

Cadmus, who, as usual, had kept his own counsel until needed, blew a lock of braided hair out of his face with an exasperated puff. “A brothel, he means. And a cheap one at that.”

I lifted a brow, shooting the scholar an amused glance. “And you know this, how?”

The color of his dark cheeks deepened. “Isn’t that why you keep me around . . . to know things?”

Dacian gave a low grunt. “Damn sure isn’t for your use in a fight.”

Cadmus’ lips thinned. “Thanks, friend. So kind.”

Dacian, as if accepting this as a compliment, gave an appreciative dip of his chin.

Dusting off my pants with a sigh, I stood. “Alright, enough. We’re wasting moonlight.” I looked to Parthenia and Tafari, who stood together by a small wooden door, light filtering through its cracks, and watched us as if we were all mad. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Luckily, the occupants of the bawdy house were too busy to pay us much mind as we suddenly appeared in their parlor. Yet as we made our way toward the exit, my attention snagged on a drunken soldier seated on a threadbare settee by the hearth. A whore bounced on his lap as he retold the day’s action in grossly exaggerated detail.

I immediately yanked the hood of my cloak up over my head.

“The High Priestess spoke,” the man slurred to his raptly attentive listeners, “even so, Prince Varian raised his hand for the killing blow. And then what happened, you ask?” He paused, bloodshot eyes moving over his equally inebriated listeners as he drew out the drama. “Hades himself appeared right there in the center of the arena.”

A few disbelieving scoffs sounded. The prostitute, her large breasts pushed up in an impressive defiance of gravity, snorted. “Come now, love. That ain’t the way I heard it. I heard the Prince was so frightened to face the Myridian, that he made the lord battle in chains. Ain’t a bit fair, that.”

The soldier grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, and she let out an offended squeal. “Best be glad we’re friendly, woman. I could have your tongue for such talk.”

We left them to their drunken spat, leaving the Silk and Shaft behind us as we exited onto Sun Street.

Music played across the road, pouring out from the open doors of another brothel, as a lively crowd moved through the cobbled streets between.

Parthenia paused on the walkway and took one look around before quickly turning toward the south. The rest of us followed close on her heels, melting into the throng and moving with the foot-traffic past the taverns and inns and brothels lining the thoroughfare. After a few moments of moving with the crowd, Peleus nudged me with an elbow. “Look.”

Careful to keep my hood in place, I followed the direction of his gaze. A street branched off to the left, following a hilly rise that led to the top of the southern cliff face. There, at the apex of the hill just peeking above the surrounding buildings, stood a round sandstone tower.

And through some unnamable instinct, I knew in my very bones that she was there.

“Parth—” I began, looking ahead of us for her unmistakable wild red hair. A jolt ran through me. Gone . . . the Alban was gone. I turned, frantically searching the crowd—

A hand landed on my shoulder. I whirled and found myself face to face with the whore from the brothel. “What—”

She watched me impassively, her full lips pursed. “If you jump out of your skin every time you see me change,” the woman said in Parthenia’s lilted voice, “it’s going to be a long night.”

Tafari pushed through the crowd, coming up to her side. “Parthenia,” he said as his dark eyes moved over her, frowning at the impressive copy of the whore’s significant assets. “I do not think this is necessary.”

She lifted her chin, gesturing with a nod towards the intersection ahead. Two city guards lounged against the wall of an inn, eyes moving over the mouth of the hilly lane. As we watched, two young males turned in that direction. The guards peeled from the wall. With a shooing hand, the boys were turned away. “They’ve closed the street,” Parthenia said. “Do you have a plan to get past them?” She glanced at each of us. “Any of you?”

Dacian shrugged his massive shoulders, a hand going to just one of the many blades sheathed under his cloak. “Kill them.”

Nerina rolled her eyes. “Yes, brilliant. We’ll just open their throats right in the middle of the busiest street in the whole gods-damned city. I’m sure no one will mind a bit.”

“What are you suggesting, Parthenia?” I asked.

She put a hand on the whore’s ample hips. “You keep your head down. They might not recognize your face, but the way those eyes of yours shine in the dark is a damn giveaway. The rest of you . . . Just let me do the talking.”

Before anyone could form a coherent argument, she headed straight for the guards, hips swaying so hard it was a wonder she didn’t dislocate something.

I shared a glance with Cadmus. “You are surprisingly silent. No words of warning?”

His eyes were glued to Parthenia’s borrowed ass. “W . . . well . . . arousal does often cause . . . um . . . impaired judgment.”

“Gods, pick your jaw up off the floor,” Nerina said with a groan.

I chuckled. “Alright then, let’s follow the little spy’s lead.”

Throwing an arm over Cadmus’s shoulder, I sagged, dragging my feet and letting out a few nonsensical murmurings. My Seven followed suit. Behind us, a feminine laugh rang out as Nerina wrapped herself around Dacian’s colossal frame. Beside me, Peleus broke out in ribald song, slurring a word here and there to keep up the act. Nerina’s voice joined in a fair soprano. I was shocked to find she knew all the words. Tafari stalked behind us. His anger practically simmering in the air between them, he scowled at Parthenia’s backside every step of the way.

We caught up with her right as she reached the mouth of the lane. I risked a glance up from beneath the cover of my hood. The guards stepped out of the shadows to block the street. One held a lantern aloft, its soft glow hazy in a fog that rolled down the street from the cliffs above. Both were armed.

The singing broke off, my companions pulling up short as if surprised to find the guards suddenly in the street.

I dipped my head toward the ground, though was careful to monitor the guards, and let out a drunken moan.

“The street is closed,” the one with the lantern said.

Parthenia swaggered forward. “Oh, surely not to me,” she purred in a fair approximation of the whore’s voice.

“Name your business,” the lantern holder said with a scowl, “or turn around.”

Cadmus’ arm brushed against my side, reaching for the dagger at his hip. I gathered my power, muscles tense even as I stayed slumped against him.

But Parthenia just smiled. “Come now, handsome . . . It’s not a crime to be out for a nice evenin’ stroll.”

The second guard eyed her up and down, his gaze lingering on the pale, round skin of her breasts. When his gaze finally moved above her neckline, he blinked in surprise, then smiled. “Delilah! What are you doing out here? It’s a busy night at the Silk and Shaft, I’m sure. How’d you convince your mistress to give you the night off?”

Parthenia grinned wickedly. “Who says I ain’t workin’?” She winked. “Maybe you can come see me when your own shift ends, eh?”

The one with the lantern frowned at the exchange. “I asked you to name your business.”

Parthenia gestured to us with a wave. “We’re headed to the Governor of Nysia’s lodgings. His townhouse is at the top of the hill if I ain’t mistaken. He’s requested some . . . company tonight.”

“You?” the one that seemed intimately familiar with Delilah asked with a laugh. “No offense, lovely, but I don’t think you’re the Governor’s type.”

Parthenia’s hands landed on generous hips. “I’ll have you know, sir, I’m one of my mistress’s top earners. But—” she turned towards me, closing the distance in a few quick steps, and grasped my chin with a hand—“this one is for his lordship. Me and the lady over there are for his lordship’s friends.”

I kept my eyes closed as she angled my face up towards the light. She quickly dropped my chin, and I let my head drop back down, body sagging.

“A pretty one, ain’t he? My mistress bought him from some Cyronian slavers. He’s fresh off the boat and none too happy with his new employment. We had to get him well and truly drunk to be cooperative. These men are here to make sure he stays that way.” She flashed them a smile, a hand going to her mouth as she lowered her voice conspiratorially. “He might be a bit of a spitfire, but the important parts are unsullied, if you get my meanin’. That’s just the sort of treat his lordship likes.”

The guards exchanged a long glance. The lantern holder lifted a brow. “Little old for the Governor’s taste, isn’t he?”

My stomach turned at the thought of what exactly the Governor’s tastes were, but I kept my head down and let out another low moan.

“His lordship appreciates beauty . . . and virginity, for that matter, wherever it can be found.”

Still, they hesitated.

The whore’s lips pursed. “Neither his lordship nor his very important guests will be happy to know their pleasures were delayed by the likes of you two.”

“Fine,” the one who knew Delilah relented, gesturing for us to continue up the street. “But I’m coming by the Silk tomorrow, lovely. I expect to be well compensated for the favor.”

She walked on, passing closer than necessary, her hand dragging across his chest as she flashed him a bedroom smile.

We all passed on. Tafari’s long legs closed the space between them, coming up to Parthenia’s side. His fists were clenched tight.

But Delilah’s client called after us. “Don’t get too close to the tower. Strange things are happening up there. Whatever trouble the Korai’s causing this time . . . Well, it’s made the Imperials jumpy.”

I didn’t hear Parthenia’s answer. The mention of Aurora’s name hit me like a fist to the gut. Strange things . . . Trouble the Korai’s causing. I wanted to rip the male’s head from his shoulders. I wanted to let the power within me out to roam the streets, to end every Dorian soldier it found. But I remembered Brigand’s Bay. I remembered the indiscriminate killing I’d done that day. My power had wiped out the humans and weakened the God-Blooded enough for a blade to be easily put through them. But all that death… The ghosts still haunted my steps. Despite the icy anger unfurling in my gut, more of that was the last thing I wanted. But if I found Aurora less than whole . . .

Gods help them.