“Look at the Rise,” I said under my breath, and Casteel’s head lifted the slightest bit.

He said nothing as we crossed through the gate with the throng of workers entering the city. He led us toward the narrow streets of the business district, where markets crowded the road covered with the waste that horses and mortals alike had left behind. Awareness pressed against my back, and I knew that Kieran and Delano had found us.

A horse-drawn wagon passed, the driver hunched over and unaware of the small child racing along the cobblestone sidewalk, carrying a stack of papers. His red-cheeked face was stained with soot, and his blond hair was slick and unkempt as he rushed into the street—

Casteel’s hand snapped out, catching the child by the scruff of the neck and hauling him back.

“Hey! Let go of me, sir!” the boy shouted, holding onto the newspapers with everything in him. “I ain’t done—” He quieted as the powerful hooves of the horses and wagon wheels pounded by inches from his face. “Shit,” the child whispered.

“You’re welcome,” Casteel replied, placing the child on the sidewalk.

The kid whirled around, his eyes wide. “Thank you, sir! I would’ve been flattened like me momma’s bread.” He turned wide eyes to the street.

“Flattened like his momma’s bread?” Delano whispered behind me, and I fought a laugh.

“You can thank me by telling me what happened to the Rise,” Casteel said, his hand slipping inside his cloak. “To cause the cracks in it.”

The child’s brows knitted as he stared up at the shadowy area of Casteel’s face. “It was the ground, sir. It rocked here, and I heard from Telly at the fish stand that the ground shook all the way to the capital. My momma said it was the gods. That they’d been angered.”

I didn’t know what would cause such a quake, but I knew it hadn’t been the gods.

“When did this happen?” Casteel asked.

“I don’t know. Like a month or so ago.” The boy shifted from one foot to the other. “How do you not know when everything was shaking?”

“I suppose I was sleeping,” Casteel replied, and I rolled my eyes.

The boy stared at him in disbelief, but the look quickly turned to wonder as Casteel withdrew his hand from his cloak, dropping several coins atop the stack of papers. The child’s little eyes widened.

“Next time, try looking both ways before running out into the street,” Casteel said, stepping around the kid.

“Thank you!” the little boy yelled and then took off.

“Just so you know,” Kieran drawled a few seconds later, “he did not look both ways.”

“Of course, not,” Casteel replied, walking so his body was between mine and the street.

“What do you think caused the quake?” I asked as we moved deeper into the city, cutting down an alley overflowing with trash. I tried not to breathe.

“I really don’t know.” Casteel glanced at me. “I’ve never heard of a quake that extended from here to Carsodonia.”