Sidara ran for the stairs. Rosa overtook her before the first landing. Moments after that, she stood in an open doorway. A torn curtain hung limp. Lilyana lay sprawled before the window, a dresser overturned at her side. Blood masked her face, but she was still breathing.

“Stay away from my wife!”

Malachi stood between Lilyana and a man-shaped shadow. His nightclothes were in disarray. His sword-point dipped and wove. Rosa saw more fear in his eyes than fury.

“I’m not here for her.”

The kernclaw’s voice was a rumbling echo. Harsh bird-cries sounded beneath, scratching at Rosa’s ears and hollowing out her heart. Her legs shook. She was in the Reveque mansion no longer, nor even in Tressia, but lost among the trees of the Tevar Flood. Unable to breathe. Unable even to think.

“You’ve been poking around in Crowmarket business, Lord Reveque,” said the kernclaw. “Make no fight, and your line will outlive you. Fight me, and they . . .”

Rosa lunged. She hadn’t known she meant to attack until she was already in motion. The woman might have been crippled with fear, but the knight knew her duty.

The shadow parted in a storm of feathers, and her blade kissed only empty air. Rosa back-swung, chasing the wisps of darkness. They danced ever ahead, reforming only when out of reach.

Steel talons raked her wrist. She cried out, her sword falling from nerveless fingers.

“Rosa!” Malachi’s blade hacked down. The shadow pulsed, hurling him away.

Talons closed tight about Rosa’s throat. The blades sliced at her skin. The kernclaw’s weight drove Rosa to her knees. The kernclaw bent low over her, eyes dark and thoughtful beneath the hood. On the fourth finger, inches back from the blade, sapphires glinted on a golden ring.

“Didn’t I kill you already?”

She tried to speak. No breath came. Darkness blotched the corners of her vision. Her right wrist blazed with fire. She grabbed at the kernclaw with her left hand. His form parted beneath hooked fingers, dribbling away like smoke.

“No matter.” The shadow heaved a shrug. “A mistake easily mended.”

Bright pain flared in Rosa’s throat to match the ripping, tearing sound. Gasping for breath that wouldn’t come, she fell. Darkness took her before she hit the floor.

It bled away in a series of rapid, desperate tugs at her shoulder. Muffled words assailed her ears. Shadows burned bright, resolving into white and gold.

“Aunt Rosa!” Sidara’s words broke across Rosa’s thoughts like waves on the shore. “You can’t be dead. You can’t bleed. I heard you say it. You can’t bleed, so you can’t die!”

But I am dying, she whispered without words. I can’t breathe.