“You’ll let your guard down eventually,” I countered. “I have to anoint you, and for that, we’ll need to share memories with kuso-kuso.”

“No,” he sighed, scooting over and plopping his head onto my lap. His locs splayed across my thighs. “I’ll only need to love you.”

I cursed my stomach for fluttering. “Does your neck hurt from carrying an ego that big?”

“Sometimes. It’s exhausting.” He reached to chuck me under the chin. “I’m comforted that no matter how much I irritate you, you still need me alive.”

“Not forever,” I replied dryly. “I promised the abiku I’d anoint a council, not retain a living one. I could anoint you, then kill you after. I’d still have met the Underworld’s requirement.”

“Mm. Guess I’d better stay charming, then.” He waggled his eyebrows at me, then frowned up at the sky. “Those sprites are a hazard, you know. Won’t be long until people figure out that purple ‘stars’ follow wherever the empress goes. Your days of anonymous travel are numbered.”

As if with a life of its own—my hand rose to trace Zuri’s hairline. He relaxed beneath my touch, smiling as though familiar with it. As though embracing me beneath the moon was a long-cherished memory.

“To be fair,” I said, glancing up at the lavender whirls of light, “they have tried to be more discreet.”

We laughed quietly as the sprites arranged themselves like constellations, twinkling in a desperate imitation of stars. The bosun squinted at them doubtfully, rubbing his eyes.

“Brats,” I sighed. “But I think I’d miss them if they left.”

“I envy them. They get to hover at your side without getting slapped.”

I glowered down at him, chewing the inside of my cheek. His gaze was distant. Again, I felt the strange sensation that he was lost in a memory.

“I wish you’d just let me use the kuso-kuso,” I said at last. “What if I can’t anoint you in time?”

When he spoke again, the courtier’s drawl had vanished from his voice. “I think, Idajo,” he said, “you severely underestimate how easy you are to love.”

When he cupped my face and kissed me, his lips were soft, like the sun through palm leaves. Then he stood and disappeared below deck, leaving me alone with my sky of sentient stars.

CHAPTER 26

Zuri insisted we hold the ceremony at the crack of dawn, in the central compound of the sprawling Wanguru Fortress.

His home castle was made up of long, low mudbrick buildings, etched elegantly with geometric patterns and dotted with fortified towers. Upon our arrival, I immediately wished I could spend more time in Djbanti. A cerulean sky stretched over neat, bustling towns and villages surrounded by lush brush forests—purposely untamed to preserve the Djbantis’ expert pastime: the hunting of beasts, providing the exquisite pelts that Djbanti exported throughout the empire.

Beggars lined the well-ordered streets, their gaunt faces a stark contrast to the old, elegant mudbrick high-rises. Clearly, the commoners of Djbanti had not always been poor. Hollow eyes watched our procession to the fortress, and children fought dogs for scraps in the alleys. The damage wrought by Zuri’s warlords grew clearer by the hour. More than ever, I was desperate for my Pinnacle to succeed.