For the rest of the day, the only people who visit are tight-lipped guards, who drop off minimal amounts of water and some kind of thin fish stew swimming with tentacled morsels I don’t recognize before they disappear, pretending I don’t exist. A congealed bowl sits near my feet, abandoned after I sniffed it and nearly went cross-eyed.

“Please!” I scream with my hands gripped around the bars. “I need to see the king!”

I haven’t quite worked out what I’ll say should he grant me an audience, but I’m banking on the “everyone hates Rion” card and hope that he, too, has no love for the Aurora King. I’ll tell him part of the truth—that Rion captured me, and I escaped, but then I got lost, and that’s how I ended up on his doorstep.

It’s close enough to the truth to be believable. I hope.

“Please!” I scream. “Please!”

Is anyone listening? Maybe that female soldier with the fancy armor. She looked important and like someone who makes decisions about prisoners. She said the king would question me, but it seems like she’s forgotten about me.

Or maybe she hasn’t forgotten at all.

The way she hissed when she told me Serce’s granddaughter isn’t welcome here felt . . . personal? I recall the blistering rage in her eyes, and she might actually be using her time considering the best and most excruciating way to dice up my organs and string my head up onto a pike.

“Please! Someone!”

“Shut the fuck up!” shouts another inhabitant from his cell. “I’m trying to sleep!”

“Rude,” I say, and then I start shouting again.

Eventually, my voice gives out, and I slump against the stone wall as I slide to the floor, watching the sun set through the tiny high window. I can’t stay in here any longer waiting for Cyan to receive me. I crawl over to the bars and press my face between them, trying to gauge the number of prisoners trapped down here.

I didn’t want to resort to this, but it’s time to blow a hole through this dungeon. However, I refuse to hurt anyone in the process. If I listen carefully, I can hear the ocean’s thunder through the thick stone and decide the back wall makes the most sense.

Footsteps sound from the distance, echoing through the space. It’s time for what passes for dinner around here, I guess. I scramble back and curl up into a ball, uninterested in their slop, even though my stomach twists with hunger.

Once the guards leave, I’ll escape. Once I’m free, I’ll find another way to enter the palace. It means I won’t find the ark through diplomatic means, but at least I’ll be out of here and can start strategizing a new plan.