Nyx was aware of Safiyah beside her, fairly humming with anticipation. This was the deal. It was Nyx who wanted the answers this time. Safiyah was ready to burn the place down around them. Nyx wondered how that would go, with over a thousand bel dames on Blood Hill. But then, she didn’t expect to make it out of this interview.

“There’s no room for bel dames in the new world, Nyx,” Alharazad said. “I didn’t believe it, not until Fatima came to me about it. If we want power in the new order, we need to be something else.”

“‘We’? You mean you and her.”

Nasheen was about power. Having it. Wanting it. Killing for it. Without power you weren’t anything. And when you saw power shifting, you either fought for the old way or you blazed a new one. Alharazad and Fatima had decided to burn it all down behind them. And murder Nyx and Khatijah and all the rest of their bel dame sisters behind them. Nyx should have figured that.

“We need what those aliens have,” Alharazad said. “The First Families would have them shot out of the fucking sky. But let me tell you what a stronger leadership would do. One led by Fatima and myself. With the aliens’ help, we finish Chenja. We end the war properly. That’s all any of us ever wanted.”

“This is all very unfortunate,” Fatima said. “You really need to tell us where Raine is. When a man like Raine has been lost, the Queen has only one choice to avoid civil war, and that’s to disband the order that took him out.”

“How many women will die for his death? I assume you’ll blame more than just me.”

“We’ve chosen a suitable number,” Alharazad said.

“Tell me this, then,” Nyx said. “Since I’m such a fucking idiot. Why did you take Raine to Ras Tieg? The Queen’s cousin? What was that about?”

Fatima said, “That was not our call.”

“That was done at the Queen’s request.”

“To what purpose?”

“When she found out he was still alive, she asked that he be moved there to assist in taking care of their shifter problem,” Fatima said. “Two problems settled with one piece. There’s a rebellion there, you know. She requested that he be left there for you to dispose of. And if you didn’t, well… we had an agent in place to act if you didn’t.”

“I—hold on. What?”

“Raine was never meant to come home,” Alharazad said. “We told him he couldn’t come home so he’d convince you to let him stay in Ras Tieg. You forget, Nyxnissa. I was a bel dame long before you. And a far better one. We played you from the start. And you sang beautifully.”

“What agent?” Nyx said, and then she knew. “The fucking Ras Tiegan girl.”

Alharazad grinned. “Not so slow after all.”