“Doesn’t she?” He looks me over. “You’re a skinny bit of nothing with no true name and no future. I’ve been trying to get you to do everyone a favor and turn that dagger on yourself for seven years. When will you understand? No one will miss you.”

My jaw feels like it might crack from how tightly I’m clenching my teeth. I remain still because if I don’t, I’ll stab my blade into Jonyah’s thick neck. While he helps himself to my tea, I exhale slowly through my nose and consciously relax my body, muscle by muscle.

Chairs scrape over the scratched wood floors. My gaze lifts to the corner, where the three men are now standing. They pass in my periphery, their heads bowed. The last one looks up, and his eyes, beneath the heavy folds of a scarf, find mine. I stiffen. He has the luminous scarlet eyes of a firewender, a fire shaman.

Sparks dance around his fingers. Instinct takes hold, and I vault over the table as my chair erupts into flames. I hit the ground and then dive behind the center platform.

My pulse races. Shamanborn roaming free in Evewyn? Impossible. The queen imprisoned them all. But if they’d somehow escaped capture, they would be in hiding. These have to be Nuvali, shamans from the Nuvalyn Empire. What in the Sisters are they doing in Evewyn?

Everything turns red and hazy. The pain in my legs becomes secondary as I brandish my dagger and survey the damage.

Flames engulf the room. Tables and chairs glow like kindling. I cover my mouth with my scarf as smoke stings my eyes. The front door bursts open. Plumes of smoke escape into the open air. Saengo stands beyond the threshold, shouting muffled words, arms raised to ward off the heat. Streaks of fire shoot straight for my feet. I run, ducking beneath a table and colliding with Jonyah as the back door and part of the wall explode.

Flaming wood chips fly through the smoke only to be engulfed again by fire. I’ve confronted this brand of chaos once before, when Kendara tied me up and left me in a hut full of burning thatch. But this fire is different. This fire spreads too quickly, too controlled, raging through the teahouse in seconds.

Jonyah shoves me away with a curse as we both stand. Flames snake across the floor. Jonyah whips out a dagger twice as large as mine, although I don’t know what good it’ll do. His back hits my elbow as we grip our useless weapons and watch the fire encircle us, trapping us inside a burning ring. Beyond the circle, one of the shamans steps into view.