“We’ll host you at Aerie House,” Lord Bayar said. “We have an apartment prepared for you. We’ll send someone after your things. That way the two of you can have some privacy.” He smiled his tiger smile.

“All right,” Raisa said, swallowing hard. “If you think it’s best. Only…” She sniffled and blotted her face on her sleeve, wiping away tears of rage. “If Father can’t be here, I would feel so much better if I could wear the rose necklace he gave me. It would…it would be more like he was here. I’ll fetch it. It will just take a moment.”

“Oh, come on!” Lord Bayar exploded, his impatience getting the best of him. “Speaker Redfern has been here for two hours waiting. Let’s do it, and if anyone asks, we’ll say you had it on. You have the rest of your life to wear the thing.”

“No,” Queen Marianna said, belatedly developing a backbone. “The princess heir shall wear her father’s necklace, if it helps to cheer her. It’s the least we can do. She’s sacrificed enough for duty in this.” And she said it in a way that brooked no argument.

Bayar mastered himself with difficulty. The wizard was definitely forgetting his place. Whatever that place was these days. “Of course, Your Majesty. We’ll send one of the guardsmen after it.”

“Thank you, Lord Bayar,” Raisa said. “But it will be quicker if I go. I’m not sure just where I’ve left it, and I don’t want soldiers pawing through my jewelry. I’ll be right back.” She tried to pull free from Micah’s grip.

“Micah, you go with the princess heir and bring her back safely to us,” Lord Bayar said. “I know you won’t let her get away.” He smiled as he said it, but his blue eyes were bright and hard as sapphires.

And then they were hurrying down the hallway, Micah holding tightly to her wrist. He trickled more magic into her, as if to reinforce his previous efforts.

This time she decided to acknowledge it. “I had no idea you could do magic, Micah,” she said. “Where did you learn how? And where did you get an amulet?”

He flinched, as if she’d broken the secret code. “Well, I don’t know much. My family has some…magical heirlooms.”

“No wonder Mama wants us to marry,” Raisa said. “That gives you an advantage over other wizard houses, right? Because you don’t have to beg your amulets from the clan?”

Micah nodded. “These days, the only amulets you can get are temporary. They lose their effectiveness over time. So you have to keep going back to the clan to restore them, or get new ones. The clan uses that to control the gifted.”

“And these don’t wear out?” Raisa asked.