A high, piercing whistle snapped my head up and around, toward the harbor. A shower of white sparks erupted high in the sky over the bay of the Stroud Sea. Another high-pitched scream of fireworks went up, this time exploding in dazzling, red sparks.

Drawn to the fireworks, I left the Primal Gardens and stepped under the breezeway. The bluffs would be the perfect viewing spot. Maybe afterward, I would visit the lake. I hadn’t returned since the night Ash had been there. I didn’t know if that was because I feared the lake would no longer feel—

“Sera,” came the soft whisper.

I stopped, turning to my left. “Ezra? What are you doing out here instead of…?” Words died on my tongue as I got a good look at my stepsister in the dim lamplight of the breezeway. Her features were pale and drawn, and…

My stomach dropped as my gaze swept over the splotches of dark red that stained her bodice. There were even reddish-brown spots on the green of her gown. “Are you hurt? Did someone harm you?” Everything in me went still and empty. I would do terrible, horrible things to anyone who dared to touch her. “Who do I need to hurt?”

Ezra didn’t even blink at my demand. “I’m fine. I’m not injured. The blood isn’t mine, but I…I need your help.”

A little bit of relief seeped into me as I stared at her. “Whose blood are you covered in?” I asked, searching her gaze in the soft glow of the gas lanterns. My eyes narrowed. “Do you need help burying a body?”

“Good gods, I hope you’re joking.”

I wasn’t.

“Though, you are who I would come to if I needed help burying a body,” she amended. “I feel as if you would be adeptly skilled at such an endeavor, and I know you would take that secret to your grave.”

Well, that didn't feel like a glowing attribute one should be proud of. But what she said was no lie.

“But that is neither here nor there. I do need your help, Sera. Quite desperately.” She clasped her hands together. “Something terrible has happened, and you’re the only person who can help.”

For an entirely different reason, the churning surged back to life as I spared the breezeway a glance. It was empty. For now. “Ezra—”

“It’s Mari. You remember her, right? She—”

“Yes, I remember your childhood friend who you are still friends with and who I just saw earlier today at the Temple,” I interrupted, wondering if Ezra had lied and she had injured her head. “What happened to her?”

“Another child needed our help. It wasn’t supposed to be dangerous. The girl had been living on the streets by the Three Stones—you know the place?”

“Yes.” My gaze searched hers. The pub was in Lower Town. “What happened there?”

“It’s all very confusing. We were supposed to retrieve her, and with everyone celebrating the Rite, tonight was our best chance. That was all.” Ezra spoke in a low, hushed voice as she started walking, giving me no other option but to follow her. She led me out from the breezeway and into the neatly manicured courtyard, toward the stables as another firework exploded over the sea, casting a blue shadow across her features. “And we found her immediately. She was in a bit of a bedraggled state, dirty and unkempt,” she rambled on, a trait we shared when nervous, even if we didn’t share a drop of blood. “And so very scared, Sera.”

“What happened?” I repeated.

“I don’t really know. It all seemed to happen in a matter of seconds,” she said as we rounded the corner, and the stables came into view, lit by numerous oil lanterns. Immediately, my gaze focused on the unmarked carriage Ezra used for such purposes. It was parked a bit off from the entrance to the stables, mostly in the shadows of the interior wall. Tiny bumps erupted on my skin, despite the warmth of the air.

My steps slowed, but Ezra walked faster. “Some kind of argument broke out between a few men in the bar, and it carried outside. Someone threw a tankard, and it frightened the little girl. She ran back toward the den, to this—this alley she’d been living in and—” Ezra sucked in a sharp breath as we neared the silent carriage. She reached for the door as white embers lit the sky beyond the wall.

All thoughts of escaping and the ship vanished. Dim light from an oil lamp spilled out from the carriage as Ezra opened the door. “The men started fighting outside, and Mari was caught in the middle of it when she ran after the girl. I think they believed she was another male. Her cloak was up, you see?” Ezra climbed in, holding the door open for me. “She got knocked down and hit her head on either one of the buildings or the road. I don’t know, but…”

The first thing I saw were slender legs encased in black breeches, bent at the knees, and hands limp in a lap. Then a beige blouse untucked and wrinkled beneath a sleeveless tunic, stained with blood at the shoulders and collar. I lifted my gaze to Mari’s face. Blood smeared the rich brown of her forehead. Eyes I remembered being a sharp black were halfway closed. Her lips were parted as if she were inhaling.

But no breath entered the lungs of the woman propped on the bench, slumped against the wall of the carriage.

I looked at Ezra as she crouched, picking up a bloodied rag. “She’s dead,” I told her.

“I know.” Ezra looked over at me. “I think she—” She drew in another too-short breath. “I was bringing her here for the Healer, but she…she passed right before I found you. She hasn’t been dead long.”

I stiffened. “Ezra—”

Her eyes met mine. “She doesn’t have to stay dead, Sera.”

Chapter 18

“I haven’t forgotten what you did when we were children,” Ezra said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. “When that ugly cat of yours—”

“His name was Butters,” I cut in. “And he wasn’t ugly.”

Her brows lifted. “He looked like he crawled out of the depths of the Shadowlands.”

“There is no need to disparage Butters’ memory like that. He was just…” The tabby cat formed in my mind, complete with a half missing ear and patchy fur. “He was just different.”

“Different or not, you brought Butters back to life when he got into that poison. You touched him, and that cat sprang to life.”

“Only to die less than an hour later.”

“But that wasn’t because of you,” Ezra reminded me. “His second death had nothing to do with that.”

But hadn’t it?

I tried not to think of that night, of what’d happened when Tavius had gone to my mother to tell her what he’d seen me do. The Queen had promptly lost her ever-loving mind. Granted, I was sure discovering that your child had brought life back to a dead barn cat would be quite unsettling, but enough that she had ordered the cat to be captured and…?

Squeezing my eyes shut, I reopened them as Ezra said, “You can help her.”

I slowly shook my head. Marisol had always been kind to me. She was a good person. “Butters was a cat—”

“Have you done it since?” Ezra challenged. “Have you given life back to some poor creature since then? I’m sure you have, so don’t lie. You’ve always had a soft spot for animals. There’s no way you haven’t.”

I thought of the kiyou wolf.

“Have you tried it on a person?” Ezra asked.

Immediately, Odetta replaced the wolf. That was what I’d been about to do when she opened her eyes, but I’d been panicked then. I hadn’t been thinking. I was thinking now.

“Ezra…” I loathed the mere idea of refusing her. She was family. The real kind that went beyond shared parents and even blood. On more than one occasion, she’d been there to shield me from Tavius’s barbed remarks when I’d been the Maiden and couldn’t talk back. It was always Ezra who stayed close to my side during the rare moments when we all gathered—like last night—so I didn’t look as awkward as I felt. She saw me as someone and not a thing. But bringing back a dead person?