“Please, don’t.” She held up a palm. “Tarik was my home, too. Besides, as you say, this is long overdue.” She glanced at her sister.

Ren smiled. “I couldn’t agree more.” She stepped away from Danton, and Akeylah unwound her arm from Rozalind’s waist to embrace Ren quickly. “I know you’ll hold down the fort just fine while I’m gone,” Ren murmured against her neck.

“I’ll try my best,” Akeylah said.

Ren locked eyes with Rozalind over her shoulder and laughed. “Is she always this modest?”

Rozalind sighed. “Infuriatingly so, sometimes.”

Zofi slapped both their backs. “Oh, calm down. You’re related to me; you can’t be that fragile.”

Akeylah snorted. “What about you, sister? Are you itching to get back on the road again?” She followed Zofi’s gaze across the rooftop, to a familiar figure in uniform. While she watched, Vidal caught Zofi’s eye and beckoned her over. In the distance, another song started up, a faster-paced tune. “Or are you going to miss anything back here?” Akeylah added with an innocent flutter of her eyelashes.

“Hmm.” Zofi scratched her chin in faux deliberation. “Yes and yes, I’d say.” With that, she flashed Akeylah a wink and skipped toward the dance floor, into the arms of her Talon. Danton and Ren joined them, and Akeylah and Rozalind peeled off to the side, hands entwined.

“And you?” Rozalind asked, voice soft. “Are you ready for what comes next?”

Akeylah leaned her head against Rozalind’s shoulder. Glanced down at their clasped hands, then out at the dancers spinning through the gardens. “Right now, I feel ready for anything.”

34

Zofi

Zofi pulled Akeylah into a tight embrace. “I’ll be back as soon as the cures are delivered.” Her mother’s friends had begun distributing the crop potions last week, but the more bands they could recruit to help, the faster this would go. Zofi planned to deliver one round of potions to her band, then ride out to some of the more remote areas of the Western Reach to request assistance from the smaller bands who’d be dotting that region this time of year.

“Be careful.” Akeylah released her and stepped back to survey the supplies she’d forced upon Zofi.

More than Zofi needed, if you asked her—a fully stocked saddlebag, complete with a brand-new tent, hunting supplies, fishing tackle, and enough food to last her a month. Not to mention, of course, the crop potions. Phials upon phials of the stuff, encased in blown glass just like boosts.