na

oals. Sitting before my small coral mirror after he stepped into the outer room, I unfastened my damp

y rough stone table, calmly wiping down a dark, ancient ha

d without looking up, as if he

fee to grease the wheels at the Defense Hub tom

ty as "A-Khora," the master rune-weaver whose sea-silk robes the high nobility begged to buy. Yet touching that

" Atticus paused his polishing cloth

erulean crystals," I said, naming a sum that would

htly, looking at me as if th

"I knew that sum would sound crazy to a border officer.

arguing. "Get some rest. I will go with y

or of my cottage before two House Reid stewards

ng the Outer Shoals coral workshop under your name!" The lead st

dward's seal and my stepmother Katherine Dickerson's signature. "On what gr

y deserter!" the steward barked arrogantly. "Your blood belongs to House Reid, so your pro

ving at my shoulders while ra

g, powerful hand shot over my shoulder and clam

bone echoed through the courtyard as

lue eyes colder than the bottom of a dead zone

m," h

g thugs in their tracks. Terrified of having their own limbs snapped, the steward scramb

at Katherine's neat, vicious signature at the bottom.

Oceanic Bank before going to the Hub," I sa