“Something she won’t recognize?” Gorlas shook his head. “That’s impossible.”

“Don’t worry. I have a plan.”

“It’d better be a good one. If you go down”—he motioned to Brannie—“so does your cousin.”

Now they were all staring at her.

Brannie took a step back. “I don’t plan to go down that easy,” she retorted. “So you can all stop looking at me like I’m already dead.”

Gorlas gave a small smile and asked Keita about Branwen, “Is she very much like her mother?”

“Mirror images, if you ask me.”

“You know my mother?” Brannie asked.

“Yes. She once tried to take my head.”

“Did you deserve it?”

“A little.” He walked to a small wood box, opened it, and handed Keita several items. A good-sized purse that rattled with much coin, a rolled parchment that Brannie would guess had a map drawn on it, and a small vial with something liquid and red inside.

“Why are you giving me this?” Keita asked, holding up the vial.

“You know why,” Gorlas said plainly.

Keita looked down, but eventually nodded. In silence, she walked to a corner, her back to them, and it looked as if she was pulling up her skirts.

Brannie blinked and looked at Aidan, who returned her gaze with one of his own. Eyes wide.

Is she really putting that up her . . . yes. Yes, she is. Smoothing down her skirts, Keita turned back around. “Is that to kill yourself?” Brannie asked, stopping everyone in the room.

“Uh . . .”

“If it can do that—kill you, I mean—are you sure you should put it inside your pussy?”

Cringing, lips pressed together tight so he didn’t laugh, Aidan began to study the ceiling while Gorlas merely stared at her, his eyes wide. Keita glared.

“Can we discuss this somewhere else, cousin?”

“Because you are suddenly shy?”

Keita faced Gorlas again.

“It’s a valid question,” Brannie insisted, but Keita merely raised her hand to shut her up. Not as if that had ever worked on her before unless they were in the midst of an ambush.

“Thank you, Gorlas,” Keita said to the elf.

“Take care of yourself, my dearest Keita,” he said, hugging her tight.

“Are you returning to Fenella right away?”

He pulled back, his expression surprised. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Fenella is practically abandoned. The Zealots . . . they attacked the universities, the guilds . . . nothing and no one are safe. Until this war is over . . .”

Keita nodded. “It will be,” she promised. “Very soon.”

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

“You don’t really think I’m going to let you kill yourself, do you?” Brannie asked her cousin.

“You’ll do what I tell you to do,” Keita snapped back, walking quickly through the streets. “But just so we’re clear, destroying the perfection that is me is not my first choice.”

“If I have any say—”

“You don’t, cousin.”

“Keita—”