“Good.” Sanjeet nodded curtly. “If we’re lucky, Aritsar will never know it was in danger. Prevent the disasters before they happen.”

My pulse began to race. Five or six months? My council siblings had never separated for that long. Not ever. What if something happened to us?

Mayazatyl dusted off her hands with satisfaction, patting a leather bundle that bristled with weapons. “Look, I’ll miss you all and everything, but . . . Am’s Story, I can’t wait to leave court. I’ve been streamlining my inventions ever since the abiku attacked Ebujo. My new cannons can shoot twice as much holy water as the old ones, and I’m dying to test them out.”

“The abiku at Ebujo were demons,” Kirah reminded her. “Holy water won’t work on alagbatos. Besides, alagbatos aren’t evil, or at least they aren’t born that way. We should try to appease them first.”

“I’ll bring my lyre,” offered Theo. My council brother from Sparti slipped the instrument from a sling on his back and patted the strings. “If my songs can put Kameron’s pet beasts to sleep, I’m sure they can handle a fairy.”

“Dayo and Tarisai will stay in Oluwan, of course,” Ai Ling said, pacing. “They can handle the alagbato in Olojari, but we can’t risk them going much farther from the capital. Not after convincing all the continent rulers to stay. I’ll stick around a little longer, to help Tarisai manage the monarchs. But after that, I should go to Moreyao.”

“I’ll delay leaving for Dhyrma,” muttered Sanjeet, staring grimly out at the Oluwan City skyline. “At least for now. There’s too much to do here. If Malaki doesn’t listen to Tarisai, then I’ll have to mobilize the Imperial Guard. Order evacuations. Build barricades, trenches. Camps for refugees.”

Everyone began to talk at once, faces brightening as they planned their departure, and traded strategies to wrangle alagbatos. They . . . were excited to leave. All of them. My family wanted to flee the safety of our home. They were eager to face danger, eager to leave me. My jaw tightened as I remembered the apparitions of undead children filling the Imperial Hall. Ghostly, lisping shadows crept at the edges of my vision.

“Stop it,” I bellowed, and my siblings froze, turning to stare at me. “Sorry. I . . . I just—” I stammered, picking anxiously at my hair, until my coils lay in mats. “You’re moving too fast, all of you. It isn’t safe. Scattering across the continent. Abandoning the capital, abandoning each other? This isn’t how our family is supposed to work. This isn’t right. It’s foolhardy. It’s—” My fear blazed into anger. “Selfish.”

After a beat of shocked silence, Mayazatyl emitted a sharp laugh. “Well that’s rich. Coming from you.”

I blinked at her. “What in Am’s name is that supposed to mean?”

“What do you think?” She avoided my gaze, twisting her silky twin braids angrily in one hand. “Tar, if abandoning our family on a whim is selfish, then . . . then you’re more selfish than any of us.”