“You kidnapped the queen and brought her here?” Zephyr said, somewhere between a shriek and a whisper. “Do you have any idea how many soldiers will be in here tonight, drinking ale, and shaking off the day’s battle? And you decided to put everything I have built at risk by coming to my place of business? Do you realize what you’ve done?”

“We had to get off the streets,” Kiran replied. “This was the closest safe place I could think of.”

“Safe,” Zephyr scoffed. “Safe? You are mad. The entire lot of you. This place is a lion’s den. On purpose. We cater specifically to soldiers and dignitaries and nobility in the hopes that they will let things slip when they are too deep in their cups. If there is ever even any suggestion or whisper that we are hiding something here, all of that goes away.”

“I am sorry, Zephyr. I know it is not ideal,” Kiran said. “But the alternative was that we risked being seen with her as we crossed the city, or worse, captured. I made a judgment call.”

Zephyr stared hard at Kiran, then shifted her gaze to focus on Aurora. “It seems to me your judgment is in question.”

Aurora did not know whether that retort was directed specifically at her, or Kiran, or both. She did not particularly care at the moment. She was tired. Her body ached. Her spirit too. And her mind weighed far heavier things than the words of a near stranger.

“I apologize for the disruption,” Aurora said. “But my mother is not well. She was being drugged by the Locke family. It’s why she sleeps. You may not like me—”

“I don’t much like your mother either,” Zephyr snapped. “She might be better than the Lockes, but that does not make her a saint.”

Aurora swallowed, and the truth tasted bitter all the way down. “I know that. I—I know you do not owe her anything. But you and I, we have an agreement. I take back the kingdom, you get to use and sell magic freely.”

“Princess, after today I am not sure I trust you can even do that. Perhaps you need mother’s help. And what’s to say her royal highness won’t turn around and prosecute us all as soon as this is over?”

“Aside from the fact that my mother may never wake—” Aurora steeled her voice and continued. “—I gave you my word. And I will keep it.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Frustrated, Aurora did the only thing left she could think of to do. She reached for the buckles on the neck of her leather vest and began pulling them free with hurried, agitated motions.

“Aurora,” Kiran warned.

“It’s the only way.”

He pushed between her and Zephyr, blocking the other woman’s sight, and he laid a large hand over the two of hers where they worked.

“Don’t.”