Patrols of guards swarm the palace’s courtyards, sealing the gates and inspecting every inch of the grounds. More soldiers line the halls and the building’s rooftops. Beside me, Constantine says nothing. His jaw is tight, set. He doesn’t mention a word about what happened last night. He doesn’t talk about the Strikers’ escape.

Does he think I’m involved in it? He knows I was in my chamber during the time when they supposedly escaped. His guards can attest to it.

But it doesn’t mean he believes it.

As we make it down to the main atrium, I hear a female voice that I recognize. Then we see them. There, at the bottom of the stairs with a team of her personal guard, is Mayor Elland. The weight on her is as heavy as it was during our last meeting, but she stands straighter now, her eyes hard and her chin high. There’s no sign of the affection I’d seen in her earlier in the day.

Kneeling in a row before them, bands across their eyes and hands tied behind their backs, are three prisoners the mayor had ordered arrested from her estate.

Curiously, General Caitoman is nowhere to be seen.

One is elderly, while another is young. Too young. I think of the first time I’d ever seen Red, that scrawny, young boy soldier standing poised over me with his gun, reluctant to shoot. This child can’t be much older than he was, but the defiance in his eyes is still bright.

I think of Raina and her dismissal of the consequence of the unplanned assassination.

They pause at the sight of us. As we reach the bottom of the stairs and approach them, the mayor casts me a sidelong glance before addressing the Premier.

“Premier,” she says. “These are the workers I mentioned to you. After questioning, we discovered their ties with the girl who attacked you yesterday.”

“Just three?” Constantine says mildly. The tone of his voice doesn’t match the dark emotions welling in his chest, and the mismatch makes me uneasy.

The mayor seems to hear it as well, but she doesn’t react to it. “Three,” she confirms, her voice full of confidence. She turns a scornful eye down to the prisoners. “And if we find more, Premier, I will bring them before you.”

He smiles thinly at her. “You do me a great favor, Mayor Elland.”

She gives him that wink of hers. “I’ve known you since you were a boy, Premier. It’s the least I can do.”

Constantine’s gaze slides to the workers kneeling on the floor. “It looks like we’ve found a few rats in our midst.”

My heart tightens. It’s a direct call to me. I’ve been called a Basean rat too many times to miss the pointedness of this particular insult.

But I force myself to keep calm. He doesn’t know anything yet, or else he would have mentioned it already. And Mayor Elland is putting up a good front. So I stare at the prisoners too, saying nothing through our bond.