Of course, I’d known my engagement with Iannis was going to draw public attention to me, that I would have to deal with interviews and public speculation. I wasn’t stupid. But so many things had been going on when I’d agreed to the engagement that I’d pushed this aspect aside, unwilling to confront it. Now that my life was calming down a little, I was starting to experience the reality of what it meant to share Iannis’s life. Interviews, photo ops, fancy dresses, parties, meetings, and more. Not to mention my calendar was no longer my own to dictate—Chen was scheduling interviews without my permission, and Iannis was roping me into missions on short notice.

You asked for these things, I reminded myself. You wanted to take a more active role in Solantha, to provide a voice for the shifter community. This is all part of the deal.

I rounded the corner of the palace, following the path along the side of the massive structure so I could head to the back. There was an excellent view of Solantha Bay from the rear of the Palace. I never got tired of looking at Firegate Bridge—the magical red metal shimmered mysteriously beneath the twinkling stars, drawing the eye away from the ugliness of Prison Isle that stood in the middle of the bay. I wondered how many Resistance soldiers still languished there, awaiting their grim fate.

Sunaya! a familiar voice shouted in my head, and I jumped, eyes widening. It sounded a hell of a lot like Roanas, my dead mentor. Sunaya, move!

“What?” I said, confused, but my body automatically stepped to the side. As it did, a flaming object whizzed past my ear, missing me by an inch. Panic burst in my chest, and I jumped out of the way as the bomb hit the ground. Even so, the explosion tossed me like a rag doll, and I went flying several feet before landing hard in a row of rhododendron bushes planted along the palace wall.

“Fuck!” I clapped my hands against my ringing ears as I struggled to sit up. The grass had caught fire, and the conflagration was quickly spreading toward the bushes. Taking a deep breath, I focused as best I could, then aimed my hand toward the flames and spoke a Loranian incantation Iannis had taught me. A jet of water blasted from my palm, and I swung my arm back and forth, dousing the fire as quickly as possible.

A magical alarm had gone off as soon as the bomb exploded, and I heard shouts from the Palace, as well as footsteps pounding through the grass. I’d just finished putting out the fire when several mages clad in red robes rushed around the corner—our new guards. Iannis hadn’t found a suitable replacement as of yet for Privacy Guard, so he had hired low-level mages for the task.