Shock curdled any words I might have spoken. Venasha’s baby, mage-marked? She hadn’t said any of this, in all the silly stories she’d told me about him. But she must know. She couldn’t have missed that bright circle, or not known what it meant.

“I don’t care.” Zaira glared at Marcello. “You can’t take that brat away from his parents. Look at them. Look how happy they are.”

“They could come with him.” Marcello’s voice hung low and uncertain. “We don’t take children from their families, Zaira. We just—”

“Haul them off and lock them in a fortress on an island hundreds of miles from their homes. Yes, I know.” She waved a furious hand at where Venasha had put Aleki down and was showing him how to weave his flower stems together into a bracelet, while Foss smiled at them both. “He’s not hurting anyone. No one is hurting them. They have a good life here. Don’t destroy it.”

Marcello cast an anguished glance at Aleki, then at me. “He has to join the Falcons, Zaira. The Serene Accords provide no exceptions.”

“Pretend you didn’t see him,” Zaira urged.

Marcello’s brows set in a stubborn line. “That would be high treason.”

“And it wouldn’t accomplish anything.” I let out the ache in my chest as a long sigh. “His mage mark isn’t subtle like yours, Zaira. It’s just forming, but soon it’ll be visible from across the room, with a bright color like that. He can’t hide.”

Zaira showed her teeth in a snarl. “He shouldn’t have to.”

“Um, I hate to interrupt, but I can hear you,” said Foss.

The three of us whirled. He stood there, hands behind his back, hanging his head sheepishly. “I have good hearing,” he apologized.

Venasha stepped up beside him, Aleki gathered once again in her arms, face solemn and worried. “You saw.”

I nodded, my eyes stinging. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She adjusted Aleki, who’d started squirming; he grabbed a jeweled pin from her hair and seemed content to turn it in his hands, examining the way the light caught in the stones. “I wanted to ask your advice, Amalia. I don’t know what to do.”

The fear in her voice stabbed at my heart. I stepped closer and squeezed her shoulder. “Whatever happens, I’m here to help you. We’ll keep him safe, and keep you together. I promise.”

Her shoulder, rock hard under my touch, relaxed a bit. “His eyes started changing around when those children were stolen. I knew that wasn’t how Falconers worked, but still … I didn’t want to admit what it meant. Especially with the Shadow Gentry giving speeches and posting notices about fighting the Empire if it comes for our children again. But now I can’t deny those flecks have formed a circle.”