“The Heir told me how to get into the palazzo through the tunnels,” he said. “There was only one guard outside. I took his keys and his weapon.” Renzo put his hands on her cheeks, studying her as if she were a stranger. The bruise on her face stung. “Serina. I hardly believed Nomi when she told me. But you… you are a warrior.”

“The Heir… Nomi…” she mumbled. “How…”

A cloud passed across Renzo’s face. “They found me.”

“So… so you’re all here together? With the regiment?” A small tendril of hope unfurled within her.

“No,” Renzo said. He unlocked the shackles around her wrists. “But I hope the Heir is on his way.”

Serina rubbed at her sore wrists, shock making her slow. Her mind was still muddy. “And Nomi?”

“She snuck away on some fool mission to go after Asa. I came after her to help, and then I heard about the women captured from Mount Ruin and the executions. So I figured you might need help too,” he replied. He looked different too, older, without his cheeky grin. Serina couldn’t stop staring at him. “I was afraid for you.”

Serina threw her arms around him. “Asa said you were dead. I thought—I can’t believe you’re here.”

He hugged her tightly but drew back before she was ready.

“Our parents are dead,” he said softly, his dark eyes shining with tears. “His men got to them before I could.”

Serina’s throat closed. That’s what Asa had meant. Your family is waiting for you.

She looked down at her hands, callused and dirty, bruises marring her wrists. The last time she’d seen her mother, Serina’s hands had been soft and smooth, the nails perfectly shaped, not a single mark on her skin. So much had changed.

Without looking up, she said, “We’re going to take the palazzo. We’re going to kill him.”

Asa, his soldiers, this country… she would burn it all to the ground.

“Good,” Renzo said.

She took the keys from him and got to work. Unlocking a shackle, moving to the next, passing the key to hands beyond her reach. “Hurry,” she said quietly.

She turned back to Renzo. “You said you have a firearm. Any knives or swords? Silence is a weapon. We need to avoid firearms as long as we can.”

He nodded. “I’ve got two knives. But that’s all.”

“We’ll get more.” She glanced past him to the guard sprawled on the hallway floor. He was starting to move.

“Didn’t you kill him?” she asked. Her mind was sharp now, clear as it had ever been in her life. She knew what she had to do. She knew where this would end.

Renzo looked over at the guard. “I, uh… I knocked him out. I’m not really the killing type.”

Serina used one of his knives and did what had to be done.