The red bottle the Boatman had taken from his satchel.

It was nerium! My hands shook as I looked at it. Iltani must have picked it up when she’d knocked the merchant’s table over, and Kasha had put it inside when he’d cleaned up.

I could use it! But how? I racked my brain, but Mudi’s voice rang in my head. Listen to your instincts. Trust. I sat, thinking for a moment, trying to stay calm and let my gut take over, and an idea flickered to life.

Maybe we could make the guardsmen fall asleep with it, then get to Uruku with a few members of the Koru. I chewed my lip. We likely would never be even able to get into the Libbu again. They certainly knew someone was fighting for the throne, though whether they knew we were here was anyone’s guess.

But what about an ambush when he was outside the Palace walls?

As I thought about it, running through the possibilities, my head swam, my eyes blurred, the sound of Dagan’s soft breaths melted into the background, and I was once again on a rocking boat in the center of the river Garadun. Terror filled me to the brim, but I forced myself to look at the shore. I would not back away from this gift. I would not shrink in fear.

My hair whipping around my head, I searched the shoreline until I found him. The Boatman. He stood, dressed as a warrior that perhaps he once was, but in an explosion of light, he morphed. His sharp features broadened. His frame expanded into someone larger until the curve of his shoulder took on a shape I’d felt underneath my own hands. His face grew a short, scratchy beard I’d felt against my own neck. His eyes went from a black-brown to the amber color that reflected the love they held for me inside.

He morphed into…Dagan.

And beside him, at his elbow, someone who looked exactly like me stood, too. My healing satchel was at her waist. Her brown, curly hair blew in the breeze as she reached into her bag and pulled out a red glass bottle. The nerium! Her face grew delighted as if she’d made the most amazing discovery. But as she lifted her gaze to study me on the river, a line of worry grew in between her brows. Her hand went to her mouth, and she chewed her thumbnail like I did! She reached up and took Dagan’s arm in hers, but he frowned and walked twenty paces away, ferocity on his brow. The girl’s face twisted with terror as Dagan pulled his emerald dagger from its scabbard and aimed it at her. As fear squirmed inside my chest, I watched, horrified, as Dagan threw the blade with all of his might.

At her.

At me.

The dagger plunged into my neck with shocking force, and blood spurted into my hands. I crumpled immediately on the shore, but felt my own knees giving way on the boat, too. Suddenly, my vision was blurred and something warm was pulsing down my neck onto my tunic, and when I looked down, Dagan’s dagger was sunk to the hilt in my throat.