His heart stopped for a second, and he couldn’t think straight. Had she gotten to Drock now too? Is that how she found out that Dev was here? “Oh no,” Dev whispered. “Oh, dear gods, save me. What am I supposed to do now?” After such a short respite without any worries, all of Dev’s fears came rushing back. And here he was, alone, to face them.

“Think, Dev!” he said. “If Drock finally succumbed to her call, then he would have told her I was in the cavelands, not here. Plus,” he said, feeling a small surge of hope, “she hasn’t roared at all since Drock rescued me, so he wouldn’t have had any of her calls to respond to. So that means Drock is still safe. Right?”

He turned back to the window to see if Drock was there with her, but it was too dark to tell. The Revinir and her posse of dragons were definitely getting closer, though, and they seemed to be heading straight for the palace. “They might not be looking for me,” Dev muttered, “but even if they’re not, I definitely don’t want them to find me. I need to hide.”

The thought of finding a hiding place in this dark, unfamiliar, run-down, falling-apart property with animals and bats and spider webs was almost enough to make Dev want to walk out right now with his hands in the air and give himself up. But if there was still a chance the Revinir thought he was dead, he had to keep that lie going as long as possible. He stumbled through the dome, snuffing the candles and wondering if there was anyplace safe to hide in the library.

“They can’t get into this room,” Dev murmured. “They’re too big to fit up the stairwell or through the windows.” And he knew he could lock the trapdoor. But his expression soured. A trapdoor and too-small windows wouldn’t stop dragons. “The Revinir wouldn’t think twice about knocking a tower down or torching the place to flush me out. If they set fire to this palace, there’s no escape for me.” He started down the stairwell, convinced that the library was not the place to be.

By the time he exited into the courtyard, he knew he couldn’t hide anywhere inside the palace. If they caught wind of him, they’d burn it all down. And Dev couldn’t bear to lose this place that he already thought of as his very own. He had to hide somewhere away from the palace. Somewhere they wouldn’t be able to track his scent. Or see him. Or search for him… or whoever it was they were looking for. He started running south across the courtyard.

It has to be Thisbe and the others they’re in search of, Dev thought as he slipped through the overgrowth of bushes and saplings. The fog had returned, and the grass was damp with dew. Concluding that he wasn’t the hunted one, whether true or not, calmed him slightly. He was glad for himself. But he was also glad for Thisbe that the Revinir, for whatever reason, had chosen to come this way instead of toward her home island. Maybe the Revinir was thinking only a fool would go back to hide in the same place she had hidden last time. If so, Thisbe had outplayed the dragon-woman again.