The voices cut off abruptly, as if the stream of water that had been filling her head for days had suddenly stopped.

  Clarity returned to her mind with a rush.

  Her name was Ophelia Lovelace.

  She was standing in a small room, one that she didn’t recognize. She looked around, taking in the meager setup. A bed, a small dresser, a sink, and a fireblasted toilet.

  She didn’t recognize the room, and she couldn’t remember how she had ended up there. The thoughts rushed across her mind like a rabbit sprinting away from danger.

  Her heartbeat thudded in her chest.

  The last thing that she remembered was in the palace with Aria and that strange man, Sil. They’d been infiltrating the vault where the empire kept its seals—magical seals, she reminded herself. That was why she hadn’t been able to just recreate it herself.

  She turned back to the window she’d been staring out when she’d come to. The glass was cold to the touch, and the massive walls of the city stared back at her from across the street.

  A rush of memories suddenly cascaded through her mind. The fights in the palace dungeons, the setting numbness in her body as her body slowly moved toward death.

  She’d never felt so weak as she did in those moments. Even thinking back to it, the way the guard had so easily dispatched her, the weight of his hand as he pushed her down the hall. It brought a surge of anger to her chest. She’d only survived because of Aria.

  She’d felt a strange fondness for the woman after that. One she couldn’t quite explain. But she’d become stronger.

  Then the attack in the vault had ripped that newfound strength away. She hadn’t seen what happened to Aria and Sil. She knew they were okay, she could even remember Aria’s voice, distant but questioning. They’d been watching over her here, hadn’t they? Did that mean she had been lost in the fog of those voices this entire time?

  She pushed the window open, letting a gust of cool air blow into the room and wash the thoughts away. Chills erupted across her skin, and she had to stifle the chattering of her teeth as she pushed herself out the window and then up onto the roof.

  Her body complained with the effort and she let out a small gasp as she peered down at herself, taking in the frailness of her body. She’d always been of smaller stature, but now her arms looked much thinner, as did the rest of her body. The muscles she had honed over the years were still there, but they felt underused. As if she’d be lying in a bed for weeks now.

  You might as well have been, she told herself as she started walking across the slanted roof of the building. It didn’t take her long to start moving faster; the walk turning into a jog. She’d spent more nights than she could remember doing exactly this, sneaking from place to place, breaking into houses and stealing what she could.

  She dropped to another building nearby and looked around, trying to get her bearings. Based on the location of the palace further in the city, as well as where the moon hung in the sky, she deduced she was somewhere in the Eastern Quarter. Now all she needed to do was find her way over to the Western Quarter.

  Taking off at a brisk pace, she moved quickly, leaping from rooftop to rooftop where the alleyways weren’t too wide. Thanks to the additional agility the System had granted her, she was able to jump further and even more faster than she had before. Despite weeks stuck in the fog, she was soaring through the air between buildings like she always had.

  It was invigorating.

  She reached the Western Quarter just before daybreak. Throughout the trek she’d spotted several patrols of city guards wandering the streets, lanterns or torches held high. They looked ready to lash out at anything that they spotted, and she’d even seen them grab a man from one alley and beat him for several minutes before dragging him off.

  Unease simmered in her stomach, and she’d kept clear of any patrols after that.

  The Western Quarter was slowly waking up when she perched on top of the roof across the street from the building that she needed to get to. The large structure was almost imposing in the way it rose up around the other smaller houses around it.

  She watched people coming out of the houses, wandering into the streets and about their days. City guard patrols continued, though they left the people alone now that the sun was blazing down on the city. She made a note to ask Felix about the patrols when she talked to him.

  That was who she was there to see. The two of them had been friends for several years—since Ophelia was nine years old—and they’d worked hard to build up her crew. Unlike the rest of them, though, Felix hadn’t been forced to call the streets his home. He’d chosen to be a part of their crew. She’d thought it was pity at first. But, no, he’d later confided in her that he’d joined up for the thrill of it.

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  He had stayed for her.

  She lowered herself to the ground slowly, using the ledges and ladders on the building across from Felix’s home to get down. She shivered in the morning wind as she stepped out of the alley and crossed the street, slipping into the lower floor window that she knew would be unlocked.

  He’d always left it unlocked for her.

  The latch clicked as Ophelia lowered the window back down. She ignored the assorted pieces of furniture that took up most of the room’s space, instead pulling the door to the hallway open slowly. Warm air rushed to greet her and she basked in its embrace for a moment before stepping into the hall and closing the door behind her.

  Felix’s room was on the second floor, which meant she’d need to get to the stairs. Careful not to make any noise, she moved down the hall and up the stairs that rose along the back corner of the building. They were meant for serving staff, Felix had told her, but they’d both used them to get in and out of the house without alerting anyone else.

  “What are you doing here?” A voice said from behind her as she reached the top of the landing to the second floor.

  Ophelia whipped around to find Felix staring her down, his mouth slightly agape.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” his voice was hard, his mop of black hair had been cut into an almost square-like style. He looked so different.

  “What happened to you?” She asked, closing the distance.

  Felix drew back from her for a moment, his amber eyes narrowing. Then they softened and everything about him melted. He drew her into his arms tightly, wincing as he did.

  “Gods, I’ve missed you so much,” he said as she buried her head into his chest.

  They stood there for a long moment before she finally pushed back from him. “I feel like I’ve missed so much,” she said, looking up into his eyes.

  “You have. It’s been weeks.”

  She frowned. She had mostly guessed that it had been that long, but hearing it—solidifying that suspicion—caused the unease in her gut to worsen.

  “What is going on? There were so many patrols...”

  “The city’s on lockdown. The empress has gone full attack on the rebels. Aurelion made a deal, but it’s rocky at best,” Felix told her. “He’s going to be so happy to hear you’re okay.”

  “Is he?” she asked. “Has Aria still been working with him?”

  It was Felix’s turn to frown now. “No. She’s been…in the wind, mostly. She almost killed me.” His voice grew sullen, anger lacing the words. His hand moved to his arm, as if it pained him.?

  “What? Why would she—”

  “Because she wants to snuff out Aurelion’s control. She’s making her own plays now, and she doesn’t care what happens to us.”

  Ophelia drew back at the sudden anger in his voice. It was unlike him.

  “His control?”

  Felix nodded. “He’s the ‘King of the Eastern Quarter’ now.”

  She barked out a laugh, which earned her an admonishing look. “King?”

  “Yes.…It’s not the most forward title, all things considered. But it is the title he has taken up.”

  She felt a burst of anger of her own. “And my crew?”

  Felix scoffed. “It was never your crew. Not since he joined us. You were taking orders from him back then, too. Don’t act so surprised they follow him now.”

  Stewing on that, she let Felix continue.

  “Anyway, the point is, she’s putting pressure on him now. And since she was keeping you away from us, he wasn’t sure whether or not you’d chosen her. But now that you’re back, I can show him you didn’t.”

  “That’s not true,” she retorted. Had she chosen Aria over Aurelion? She didn’t think she had, but she also couldn’t rightfully say, not after spending the last several weeks in that dense fog. She didn’t have any clue who she had chose.

  She shuddered at the thought of just how much she might have missed.

  “What do you mean? Surely you didn’t…”

  “No. At least I don’t think I did. There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense right now.”

  “That’s okay,” Felix said, trying to pull her close again. “We can figure it out together.”

  Something told her not to let him, so she stepped away. She began to pace a few steps away from him, keeping her eyes on him the whole time. “I just…I need some space to figure things out, I think. I’ve been living in a fog since the palace. It’s hard to explain, but this is the first time that I’ve thought clearly for more than a few minutes for as long as I can remember.”

  “She’s been poisoning you, hasn’t she? He can fix that.”

  Ophelia raised an eyebrow, stopping in place. “Fix it how?”

  “There’s this thing; he calls it the System. I don’t really understand how it works, but he can give it to you. It’s…it’s amazing. I’ve never felt so strong in my life. Everything has been so much clearer since I got it.”

  “How?” That nagging feeling in the back of her mind continued to grow. Like an insistent tap, tap, tap telling her she needed to leave, as if beckoning her somewhere else.

  “I finally feel like I have a purpose,” he told her. “He can help us achieve what we always wanted.”

  The tap became a banging drum. Insistent, like a child tugging at its mother’s skirts in the street as they passed a bakery, the smell of sweet treats alluring. She had been that child once. The memory came flooding back without prompting.

  Why was she thinking of that woman in this moment? She shook her head as Felix continued speaking.

  “He can free us from the stranglehold the dragons have on humanity. We can finally be free. That’s why we were partnering with Aria in the first place, isn’t it? But Aurelion will let us live the lives that we want. He will rule over us better than they ever have.”

  “I…” she stammered, struggling to find the words. To understand the feelings welling up within her. Everything Felix was saying was wrong. They had only cared about disrupting the empire once Aurelion had joined the crew.

  Before that, all they had cared about was surviving. Maybe he had given them a higher purpose, but why did it need to be her purpose? Or his?

  This wasn’t at all what she wanted. She had gone forward with the movement because it made sense for them in the long-term. It positioned them in a way that would have opened significant opportunities for the crew. For her family.

  But this? Deposing one empire just to raise up another?

  “That isn’t at all what we wanted.” Her voice became hard. “How could you forget?”

  “Of course it is,” Felix responded, stepping closer, his hand reaching for her.

  The banging drum in her mind grew louder, almost drowning out his words as he stepped closer.

  “It’s what Aurelion wants. It’s what I want.” He said. “Don’t you want me to be happy?”

  She jumped back from him, his fingers closing over empty air. The way his words shifted in that last comment had stirred the pot of bubbling unease within her.

  Felix had never spoken to her like that.

  Anger flashed across his face. “Why do you always fight me?” The edge in his voice grew sharper. “Why can’t you just let me happy for once?”

  “Because this isn’t you,” she whispered. “I don’t know who you are anymore.”

  Then she turned and ran as the drumming in her mind reached a crescendo.