“My mother is going to love you!” she said. Leo’s stomach sank. He didn’t want any of the Triumvirate getting their hands on Sera—or worse, finding out that her blood contained magic.

“These desserts look magnificent,” he said, changing the subject. Rahel needed no further encouragement.

“Aren’t they? These are wine-poached apricots, and that’s a chocolate lava cake that’s so gooey it makes you want to scream. What’s your favorite dessert?”

She was looking at Leo like he was the treat. He made himself give a long, slow smile, the kind that always worked best on the tavern girls back home.

“Well,” he said. “I do love a good cobbler. Peach if I can find it. With whipped cream.”

Rahel licked her lips. “I can get you that! My chef makes anything I tell her to. I’ll be right back!”

She slipped out and left Sera and Leo alone.

“What . . .” Sera sank down onto a plush pink chair.

“Yeah,” Leo said. “She’s a lot to take in.”

“What do you think she’ll do with us?”

“It’s not her I’m worried about. It’s her mother, and the other two queens.”

Sera nodded. “She doesn’t seem to care about who I am. But she likes you quite a lot.”

Was Leo imagining the hint of resentment in her voice? He was pretty sure Sera liked girls, given that she had three mothers and came from a city of only women. Why would she care if Rahel thought him handsome?

He moved to look out the window, a large circle covered in gauzy gold curtains. The lights of the market were already tiny as stars in the distance. “We’re moving pretty fast. Wonder how long till we reach Ithilia.”

“What do you think Agnes and Vada are doing?” Sera asked.

“They’ll make a plan,” Leo said, and he hoped he sounded surer than he felt. “They’ll figure something out. Agnes wasn’t born with all those brains for nothing.”

“At least we kept her out of the Triumvirate’s hands,” Sera said. “Being the heir to Culinnon and all.”

Leo was relieved that he felt no jealousy about that whatsoever. His sister could have all the islands she wanted. He felt like he didn’t know who to trust in this country—as much as Agnes had been longing to meet their grandmother, Eneas’s parting words plus the letter he’d sent Phebe had left Leo with a cold sense of foreboding. Whatever the deal was that had been made and then broken, it seemed Ambrosine wasn’t happy about it. But she was also their best chance at surviving the Triumvirate and getting to Braxos—especially if she was controlling the flow of ships to the Lost Islands.