“I will help you—but we do it my way,” Aramis said. “There will be no more spying. No more lies. And if you step out of line—if you give me a single reason to think you might hurt Galen?” Aramis reached up as if to cradle Ranka’s cheek and settled her fingers on Ranka’s jugular instead, exerting just enough pressure that her touch teetered on the border of pleasure and pain. “I’ll make you wish I’d merely exiled you.”

“Is that a threat?”

Aramis’s lips curved. “Would you like it in writing?”

An odd thrill bubbled through Ranka. She was the Butcher, the blood-witch, the monster. But here was this—this girl who looked at Ranka with half-lidded eyes and arrogant confidence, who threatened her without blinking. It was maddening. It was unacceptable.

And if Ranka was being honest, it was a little bit thrilling.

There was a light to Aramis’s eyes, a flush to her cheeks, and a part of Ranka wondered if maybe—just maybe—some small part of Aramis was enjoying this too.

“Um,” said Percy. “Are you guys okay?”

The charged air between them vanished. Aramis dropped her hand and stepped back, fixing her attention on the doorway, making a grand show of picking at her cuticles. Ranka tried to ignore the dizziness rushing through her, the weakness of her legs, and the strange, lonely ache at her throat where the princess’s fingers had been only a moment before.

“We start tomorrow,” said Aramis. “Congratulations, witch girl. You’re involved now. Let’s see if you survive it.”

And then Aramis was gone, Percy on her heels, leaving Ranka alone with the roar of the sea, the chill in her bones, and the unsettling feeling that somehow, she’d given Aramis Sunra exactly what she wanted.

13

ARAMIS MADE GOOD ON HER threat. For two weeks Ranka was summoned at dawn and didn’t return to her room until midnight, bones aching and brain threatening to leak out of her ears. In the mornings she was woken by tutors, who dragged her off to teach her a litany of useless things.

In the evenings, they trained.

“Come on,” Percy goaded. “Hurt me.”