This behavior was not unusual; Ash felt from a very young age that it wasn’t right for her to have so much when so many people had so little, and she tried her damnedest to feed every hungry person she saw—but when she found out I had no parents, no one to take care of me, she refused to let her mother’s servants put me out at the end of the day.

Neither the queen nor anyone else could talk Ash out of taking care of me. For four years I lived in the Palace like I was an actual nobleman. For four years we explored the catacombs and turrets and libraries and kitchens and pterodactyl rookeries of the imperial residence. When we got bored with the building, soldiers escorted us to whatever part of Darkside we wished.

“Ash. Hey, can you hear me, Ash?”

No answer. I leaned closer, spoke softer.

“Your city needs you, Princess. Something is up. Something big.”

So. We had a good four years. But when we turned twelve, something terrible took place. I don’t know what. I wasn’t there when it happened, but the story was that her othersider ability had revealed itself in a horrible way. People were hurt; some said people died. The Palace hushed it up. But after that traumatic incident, her mother put the first of many magic spells on her. It prevented future accidents . . . but it also made Ash lose her train of thought, struggle to form sentences, suffer from headaches that kept her in bed all day.

By the time the Palace staff put me out like so much garbage, Ash was in no position to defend me any further.

“I need you, Princess.”

Niv appeared beside me. “In my monthly report to her mother, I asked her to consider lifting some of the wards they put on her.”

I was impressed. That couldn’t have been an easy thing to say to the famously volatile queen. But I wasn’t going to give Niv the satisfaction of a pat on the back. “And?”

“She said it’s a dangerous time. When things calm down, maybe.”

“Things will never calm down,” I said.

“No, but there is something new to be afraid of. There’s a force in this city. Palace intelligence hasn’t come up with much, but they know it’s big, and well-resourced.”

“Any connection to Destroy All Monsters?”

Niv nodded.

“And the ultramarine armbands?”

He shrugged. “I’m lucky to get the little scraps of intelligence that I have, and most of that is just whispers in corridors. All I know is, something is coming. Something that will upset the balance. The fragile peace between othersiders and everybody else. Seeds that were planted long ago are beginning to bloom.”