She heard a crack of thunder in the sky and when she turned to Karam, she saw lightning strike at the ground by her feet. Karam dodged it and kicked her leg out hard enough that one of the Crafter women fell, hitting her head with enough force that she didn’t get back up.

Tavia turned to Lionus, who was heading back toward her with a venomous snarl.

“We want to help you,” he said. “You should kill your enemies and be done with it.”

He thrust his hand out again, but this time Tavia saw the ice coming.

Fool me once.

She swiveled out of its way with seconds to spare and before she was even fully facing Lionus again, she swiped out her knife and watched as it cut through his cheek.

Lionus wiped the blood from his face and pushed her to the ground.

The moment she fell back, Tavia pulled the miniature mirror doll from her jacket. She never let her pockets go empty, after all.

She smeared the blood—Lionus’s blood—from her shoulder where he’d pushed her and onto the doll’s face.

Then Tavia snapped the left leg of the doll inward.

Lionus let out an ungodly scream.

The sound of blades and thunder disappeared from the air.

The two remaining Crafters ceased their attack on Karam and looked to Tavia with destruction in their eyes.

“You’re going to pay for that,” one of them said.

Tavia clutched on to her blade.

If this Crafter got one step closer to her, then she would—

A fist cracked against the girl’s face with enough force to send her crumpling to the ground with a yell. The blood sprayed from her mouth and onto the soil and she grabbed at her face like it might just fall apart.

“Enough,” Karam said. She looked to Tavia. “You are bleeding.”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

“I thought I taught you not to do that.”

Tavia breathed out a laugh. “I’ll try harder next time.”

“Do we need to start killing each other now?” Karam asked, turning to Lionus as he clasped his leg between both hands. “Is this why you came? To begin a war with us, too?”

Lionus opened his mouth to respond, but the next voice that echoed through the forest was not his.

“No,” Saxony said. “And if they know what’s good for them, they’ll start respecting the way that things work around here.”

She was flanked by at least ten of the Rishiyat Kin, as well as Asees and Arjun.

“I might have summoned you, but I’m not going to hesitate to send you right back if you touch any of our people again.”

Saxony looked to Lionus, who was still weeping on the ground, holding his broken leg.