She felt his gaze, even though Vikal had long let the match go out. He was staring at her, eyes wide in concern. Beneath his calm, she could feel his fear like turbulent waves pressing up beneath the icy surface. Imeria reached for his face, and the threads of his mind wrapped around her fingers. She need only tug, and his mind would be hers to wield.

I could make him sleep, could make him slit his own throat if I wanted to. I could⁠—

Imeria wrenched back her hand, startled by her own thoughts. “Careful. The drug is potent,” she said, and thrust Vikal the pipe to pass around.

Around her, the drain tunnel filled with smoke. It smelled chalky and medicinal, and it burned the inside of Imeria’s nose. In mere moments, the precioso would take root in each of the men. A single puff would make monsters of them. Not even the palace guard, the finest trained in Maynara, would stand a chance against their superior speed and strength.

The pipe passed to Luntok last. Imeria struck another match and relit the bowl for him. His chest expanded like paraw sails as he inhaled, and his gaze snapped to hers in the second before the flame went out. She saw the spark of power reflected in his eyes.

“Very potent,” Luntok muttered. He clenched his hands into fists. Imeria heard his knuckles crack in the dark.

Vikal laid a hand on Imeria’s shoulder. “We are ready, my lady.”

Imeria closed her eyes. Took a deep breath. At this quantity, she didn’t know how long the precioso’s effects would last. She could only feel how its power pooled through every pore of her body. The drug possessed her with the vehemence of a wrathful god.

Again, she reached for Luntok’s arm. “Lead us in, Son,” she said.

He parted the vines and hauled himself up into the palace gardens before reaching down to help her climb. When they breached the surface, a calm breeze broke the night air, which was thick with humidity. Silvery light streamed through the canopy of palms. The nectarous scent of flowers drowned out the last remnants of smoke.

“Full moon tonight,” Vikal murmured. “They might see us coming.”

“They won’t,” Luntok said. “I’m sure of it.”

For the first time that night, she shared his confidence. So what if they did catch them?

With the precioso in her veins, Imeria was the master. And she was going to make every last one of them bow.

Twenty-Two

Laya

Laya gazed at the opposite end of the table. The sight of Luntok’s empty seat filled her with the same hollow feeling that struck her that very morning, when she’d seen the faint dent in the pillow where Luntok had rested his head.

The previous night, Laya had told him she loved him. And when she’d woken, he was gone.