Cat shook her head. “’Course not. I was listening at the door,” she said. “Then the queen said they should talk to me since I was the go-between. So as soon as I heard that, I left through the window. I wanted to get to you before you came back to town and got hushed or arrested.”

“Where’s Flinn now? Do you know?” Han asked.

Cat shook her head. “The bluejackets took him away with them. I hope they throw him in gaol. He should never have told on you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Han said. “If he thought I was murdering wizards and meant to kill the queen, he did the right thing. He thought I’d thrown in with them that murdered his friends. He had no way of knowing different. And that’s my fault.” Han shook his head. “I need to find him. I need to talk to him.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Hunts Alone,” Willo said. “You couldn’t have known what would happen.”

“Maybe not, but I should learn to trust my friends.” He turned to Cat. “I’m sorry. I ask you to do a job, and then I don’t trust you to know what’s going on. You and Dancer and all of my friends are taking a walk in the dark, just waiting for the bad thing to go down.”

“You’ve always been tight-lipped,” Cat said. “Streetlords got to be.”

“I’m not a streetlord anymore,” Han said.

He recalled how betrayed he’d felt when he’d learned that the girl he knew as Rebecca had been lying to him for more than a year. What must she be thinking now?

“I’ve got to talk to her,” Han muttered, his insides roiling like the Dyrnnewater at the flood.

“Who? Fiona?” Cat said.

Han shook his head. “Raisa. I should have been straight with her before. I should have told her what I intended to do.”

“What do you intend to do?” Dancer said.

“I’m going to marry her,” Han said.

“Marry her?” Cat gaped at him. “Why?”

“I love her,” Han said. “And I should have trusted her enough to tell her the truth. And now maybe I’ve lost her.”

“No,” Cat said, shaking her head. “Cuffs Alister is not getting married. That an’t possible.”

“Hunts Alone,” Willo said. “The Demonai will never permit a marriage between you and the queen. You know that. With Nightwalker fanning the flames, they are more rabid than ever.”

“Queen Raisa has just been told that you are plotting to take away her throne, and now you’re going to ask her to marry you?” Dancer rubbed his chin with the heel of his hand. “Do you think the time is right for that?”