Gently, he ran his hands down her back. “You keep going, even when I expect you to stop. Ever since we met. It’s my favorite thing about you, the way you keep getting up, keep moving forward.”

“And smile in the faces of people who hate me?” She buried herself in the worn softness of his shirt. The rumble of his laugh vibrated against her cheek.

“Yes, exactly. It’s hard to smile at someone who hates you,” he returned. “But I don’t think Anika hates you. Twig might.”

She gave him a little push.

His hands glided up to her shoulders and then her cheeks, cupping her face. She put a little distance between them so she could look up at him.

“A year ago, you were learning how to be a Grace.” He brushed his thumb across her cheek. “Your whole world revolved around submitting to someone else’s needs. Now you’re leading a hundred fifty women to freedom. You’re the one in charge. And you’re succeeding, Serina. I know you have doubts, but you are helping everyone on Mount Ruin.”

His words sent heat through her. It surprised her when he spoke like this. She had never imagined she’d see a man joyfully watch a woman claim power. She never thought she’d see a man stand back and support, rather than assert his will. She’d once thought the Heir was handsome. But she’d never seen anything so attractive as the respect in Val’s eyes.

She pressed her face into his hands, tilting her head back, and he accepted her invitation, bending to kiss her. Their lips met and made their own small universe of sunlight and dizzying stars. Serina’s hands slid up his chest, around his shoulders and into the soft hair at the nape of his neck. She pulled him closer, down into her darkness, into the sweet heat of her mouth. His hands moved too, abandoning her face for the curve of her waist. Serina sighed into him, their breath mingling, sparking new flames low in her belly.

Running footsteps drew them apart.

Serina turned in time to see Anika skid into the room.

“We found another body,” she panted.

All the warmth drained out of Serina, leaving an icy wind in its wake. Not another. Not so soon.

“What happened?” she asked, already following Anika out of the room and down the rock-splashed staircase. Val hurried behind her, his hand on his firearm.

“Lion, a girl from Beach Camp. She was one of our sentries on the north side, near the amphitheater.” Anika glanced over her shoulder long enough to add, “She was strangled, just like the others.”

Serina pounded her fist into her thigh. “Any sign of Nero or Diego?”

Anika shook her head. “The girls out with her saw nothing. One moment she was there and the next, gone. Her knife’s gone too, and her water.”