Aaru and I paused just long enough to grab our bag from the room where we’d stashed it, and then we walked out of the building with as much confidence as we could muster.

No one stopped us.

Outside, the air was sticky and still, and clouds dipped low over the city, ready to spill open. My head spun with worry and sickness and cut-short rage as we marched off the Red Hall grounds and dove into the city, scattering civilians who didn’t want to be anywhere near two of the high magistrate’s guards.

Wet heat clung to us, and sweat prickled down my chest and spine. It was a drowning sort of heat, growing worse as we walked.

We couldn’t go far like this, not if we wanted to go unnoticed. So I ducked down an empty alley and found a small alcove, and there I stood watch while Aaru changed into his regular clothes behind me. When he touched my shoulder, I swapped places with him.

With shaking hands, I switched Nine’s shirt for my hunting dress, managing to do it without ever being fully uncovered. Then I shoved off her trousers and pulled on my leggings, and then my boots. Nine’s clothes went into the sack.

Aaru turned around, framed by sandstone and cloud-diffused sunlight. “Mira—”

“Why did you silence everything?” My heart thrummed ten thousand times. “Why did you silence me?”

His face twisted with shame. “Everyone would have seen you.”

“They would have seen the other”—I moved my hands around my shoulders, indicating wings—“me. They’d never have known. They’d have been dead before they could even wonder.”

He swallowed hard. “Then you would have killed people.”

That stopped me.

I didn’t actually want to kill anyone.

“And the high magistrate would have realized that the real Hopebearer was within his grasp, and he’d kill you this time.” Aaru’s voice went raw with feeling, and anguish tightened his expression. “He’d just murdered someone who looked like you. What do you think he’d have done if he found you, too?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered. But I did know. He’d have locked me away. He’d have exploited my ability over noorestones, using my mother as leverage. That was, if he didn’t kill me outright.

Aaru’s hand trembled as his fingertips brushed my cheek. “I’ve already lost everyone else. I can’t lose you, too.”

I knew Aaru; I knew he’d never use his gift to hurt other people, least of all me.

“Mira, I—”

The sky flashed white, and a clap of thunder was all the warning we had before rain streamed into the city, a soaking downpour loud enough to dull the noise of everything nearby.

Aaru squeezed into the alcove with me. It was a tight fit, but we didn’t need much space. He touched my cheek again, his eyebrows pushed together in worry. “Are you still angry with me?”

No.

Yes.

How could I tell?

All of my emotions were a knot in my chest, growing tighter and tighter, and soon it would strangle my heart. The speech my mother had given. Anahera’s partnership with the Algotti Empire. Tirta—in my dress and gagged so she couldn’t tell anyone the truth—dead on the floor.