He hesitantly took the key out of her hand. He twirled it between his fingers. “You planned all this? To let me leave?”

The smallest of a smile graced her lips. “Let you? Nan jour”—my son—“I wasn’t ever planning for the possibility that you would stay. The Elder Court does not deserve you,” she added, motioning below her, down floors and floors, to where the Elder Court held their session, in crystalline chairs. “Ever since your father died, I have been biding my time to show them exactly how I feel. They only care about preserving their own future, and that will not stand. Especially if they plan to destroy my own son in the process. Now go, you’re wasting time.”

He pursed his lips and quickly drew her into a hug, and she was so much smaller than he remembered—or he was that much taller, but she still smelled the same. Like starlight and lavender, where all his childhood memories rested. “I’ve missed you.”

“I missed you, too.” She returned the hug, and then pulled back and looked into his eyes. “You’ve grown up. I couldn’t have wanted better. Siege did so well.”

“I’ll—I’ll send you a message once we’re clear of the harbor and figured out our next moves against the D’thverek.”

“Please do, and if you need me—or our ships, our stars—don’t hesitate to ask. Al gat ha astri ke’eto, nan jour.”

“Al gat ha astri ke’eto,” he echoed, and he found himself turning away from her, toward Elara, toward the elevators, and left.

His mother was right—the guards were changing, and they thought he and Elara were the next to take their posts. They didn’t notice his glowing skin, but then again the guards left so fast they didn’t even trade names. Jax rotated the master key around his first finger nervously as he hurried down the cell blocks holding his friends, and with a swift twist of the key the door popped open.

Siege glanced up from her perch on the bench; Talle’s head resting in her lap. Robb jerked to his feet.

“Ana went to the ruins to find the heart by herself,” he told them, “and we need to go after her.”

Robb’s eyebrows furrowed. “How did you . . .”

He pulled off his Solgard helmet, his silver hair spilling over his shoulder, the glow of his skin so much more apparent now. “Trust me, ma’alor.”

Elara added, “Yes, he’s glowing. Yes, I let Ana go. And yes, we should probably get out of here,” as the elevator at the front of the prison dinged, and the real guards for the shift change arrived. “Like, three seconds ago.”

Everyone hurried out of the cell, slipping through the shadows that clung to the dark walls, and out of the door his mother had told him about. It was a passageway that led out to one of the twelve gardens in the Spire, and they slipped quietly through the streets of Zenteli. By the time the Solgard noticed them missing, they were already at the docks.