I drew myself up. “That book belongs to the Ducal Library. If you would not demean your royal blood with the shame of thievery, Prince Ruven, prove yourself a gentleman and give it back.”

I held out my hand. He cocked his head, examining me as if I were some curious creature on display in a menagerie. Then he sighed, with exaggerated pathos. “It pains me that you hold me in such low esteem, Lady Amalia. Very well.” To my shock, he held out the book. “If this will repair my standing in your estimation, by all means. Take it.”

I reached for it. My fingers gripped the leather cover, keeping carefully away from his.

And they froze there. I could no more release the book than I could stomp a hole through the plaza flagstones.

Ruven chuckled. “Leather is also skin, my lady. It makes an effective bridge of flesh, does it not?”

The swarming tingle of his magic spread up my hand and past my wrist, numbing my arm to the elbow.

“What,” I asked through my teeth, “do you think this will accomplish?”

“I had hoped we could be allies, Lady Amalia, and perhaps more. But I can see now it is not to be.” He shook his head in apparent regret. “Despite my regard for you, circumstance has made us enemies. And if you are my enemy, why should I not kill you now?”

A line of ants seemed to crawl up every vein in my arm, toward my heart. I still couldn’t pull away from the book.

He respected power; I must not show fear. “Because if you kill me, you start a war.”

Ruven’s smile broadened into pure, brilliant joy. “With this book, we will be ready for a war.”

“It’s the middle of the plaza, in broad daylight. There are a hundred witnesses.”

Ruven shrugged. “None of whom are close enough to stop me, or even see anything amiss. I’m already leaving the Empire. It pleases me if they know I can kill.”

“I could release my fire warlock.” The moment the words left my mouth, I regretted them. He must not wonder where Zaira was.

But he seemed cheerfully unconcerned. “Good! Maybe she’ll burn half the city, and someone will put her down. If Vaskandar cannot have a fire warlock, we certainly don’t want Raverra to have one.”

A heat started from within my arm, as if someone had slid shards of hot metal in through my wrist. I gritted my teeth.