“Yes, I’m coming,” Sera said, pulling herself together.

The girl led her to an opulent stateroom with a large bed, gilt-framed paintings on the walls, and a velvet-covered love seat beneath a sizable porthole. She brushed Sera’s hair until it shone, pinning up one side with a comb decorated with tiny blue mussel shells and dressing her in soft lavender silk that draped across her chest and left one shoulder bare, clasped at her other shoulder with a heavy brooch fashioned in the shape of a dragonfly. She tried to put a pair of golden sandals on Sera’s feet but she flat-out refused. Cerulean did not wear shoes.

The servant led her to an even more opulent dining room, ushering her inside and closing the door. A huge oak table with an exquisite candelabra in its center was set for four. Instead of a porthole, there was a long rectangular window covered with delicate latticework. The walls were painted in muted mauve and maroon stripes, the chairs upholstered in burgundy and gold. A large oil painting of a haughty woman with a black dog at her side dominated the wall opposite the window.

Leo was the only one in the room, dressed in clothes similar to those he’d worn on the journey from Arbaz, though the shirt was pale blue and not cut quite so revealingly; the sash that cinched at his waist was a rich indigo and decorated with tiny crystals like stars. His eyes were lined in kohl and his curls fell loose, a crown of soft white scallop shells nestled among them. When he saw her, his whole face lit up. Sera felt an odd lurch in her chest.

“Oh, thank god,” he said, hurrying over to her. “This whole day has been surreal, hasn’t it? For a second, I worried my grandmother might have locked you up too.”

“Do you think she would do that?”

“No,” Leo said. “She’s just . . . she’s pretty intimidating. But she’s agreed to help us get to Braxos.”

Sera’s heart leaped. “Oh, Leo!” she exclaimed. “That’s wonderful.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “And for now she’s taking us to Culinnon.”

“But—but what about Agnes?”

“Her people will find Agnes,” Leo said. He seemed so sure, but Sera had seen him feign confidence before. “What about you? Rahel didn’t hurt you, did she? She promised me she wouldn’t. But when I saw what you saw in her mind, how brutally she treated that poor servant girl, I thought, I don’t know, maybe she would. She’s certainly capable.”

“You saw that?” Sera’s head swam. Though she supposed if Leo had been able to witness her meeting with Leela, it might make sense that he’d see the memories alongside her.

“I guess having your magic inside me comes with all sorts of unexpected side effects,” he said.