“Then come get it,” Han said, grinning, caressing the serpent’s head. “Now or never.”

Fiona pursed her lips. “You’re saying you can handle it and we can’t? When we are the rightful owners?”

“You Bayars keep saying this jinxpiece belongs to you,” Han said. “It doesn’t. You stole it from Alger Waterlow a thousand years ago. It was supposed to be destroyed, but your family’s got a whole stash of illegal magical weapons, don’t you?”

The two Bayars sat perfectly still, not blinking, their hands cradling their own probably stolen jinxpieces.

“You can’t prove any of that,” Fiona said finally.

“Sure I can. All I have to do is hand this amulet over to the clans and tell them where I got it. They’ll believe me. I’d say my word with them is better than yours. Besides, Hayden Fire Dancer was there that day on Hanalea, and he’s well connected with the Spirit clans.”

“You won’t hand it over,” Micah said. “The clans will destroy it.”

“Maybe,” Han said. “Maybe not. But I promise you this—you won’t get it back. Your father murdered my mother and my sister. The Queen’s Guard locked them in a stable and set it on fire. They burned to death. Lord Bayar didn’t light the fire, but he might as well have. My sister was seven years old.”

Micah’s gaze shifted away. “You were wanted for murder. The queen—”

Han raised his hand to stop the spray of words. “Murders I didn’t commit. Oh, there’s plenty of blame to go around. The queen’s on the list too. But I’m not stupid. Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that.”

Fiona shook her head, eyes fixed on Han’s face. “No. I won’t.”

“After that, somebody—your people or the queen’s—somebody murdered my friends in Ragmarket, trying to get them to tell where I was. Some of them were lytlings, too. They didn’t pick the street life, you know. It was that or starve.” Han tilted his head. “You going to tell me the queen was hunting me because of some Southies that died?”

“You stabbed our father when he tried to negotiate the return of the amulet,” Fiona said. “You nearly killed the High Wizard of the realm. I would say that’s reason enough for the guard to go looking for you.”

“Negotiate?” Han stared at her. “Negotiate? You bluebloods got your own patter flash. On the street we call it having tea with the pigs. He told me straight out he was going to take me back to your place and torture me to death.”

Micah shifted impatiently. “So what’s your point?”