Instead of guards, Akeylah reached for the bloodletter she kept on the bedside table. She hadn’t tried to shield yet today. She wasn’t sure if she had enough Arts in her system yet, or if she was still run dry from healing the king. Just in case, she gripped the blade tight and crossed to the windowpane. Holding her breath, she flicked the gauzy curtain aside, just enough to peer outside.

At first she saw nothing except the sky, a small smattering of bright stars set against the purple-pink predawn glow. Closer at hand, a few lights glimmered here and there in neighboring towers, but otherwise, the Keep was dark. Silent.

Tap. Another pebble reflected off the pane.

Akeylah leaned forward until her forehead touched the window. Like that, peering straight down, she was able to see the figure on the grass. A familiar figure, dressed in men’s pants and a formal shirt rather than the dress Akeylah had last seen, yet unmistakable. She’d recognize her anywhere.

Rozalind stood on the lawns, haloed by the rising sun as she raised her arm to toss another pebble.

Heart turning over, Akeylah unlatched the window. Opened it just far enough to make Rozalind stop, midthrow.

She shouldn’t do this. She should call the Talons right now. Have the queen arrested.

But Akeylah wanted to hear Rozalind’s confession from her own lips. She wanted to demand an explanation. And now, with a bloodletter glinting in her fist, unshielded… Suddenly, Akeylah felt stronger than Rozalind. Strong enough to confront her enemy head-on.

So she extended an arm through the window and waved once.

Rozalind waved, too, a come here gesture broad enough for Akeylah to see even from this height.

This is a bad idea, cried half her mind.

End this, screamed the other half. The stronger half.

Akeylah dressed in pants and a shirt that left her free to move. She may not know how to fight like Zofi, but she’d bring backup. She wasn’t a complete moron.

“I’m going for a walk,” Akeylah announced to the Talons posted outside her door. “One of you with me.”

Unlike the captain, who undoubtedly would have questioned her motives, these low-ranking Talons didn’t try to dispute her orders. One fell in behind her, and the other remained at his post, obedient.

Akeylah spiraled down to the first floor, and at the exterior doors, she told the Talon to wait. “I’ll call you in a few moments,” she said. “If you don’t hear from me by the time the sun has fully risen, come outside.”

Her contingency plan settled, Akeylah stepped out onto the lawns. Her slippered feet rustled in the grass. The cool air of the dying night kissed her cheeks, sank damp tendrils into her plaits. She hesitated a second, just beyond the exit, for her eyes to adjust to the lightening sky.