The pressure in Karina’s head outweighed the pain, or lack thereof, in her chest. She was dying. Adil had kissed her, then he’d stabbed her, and now she was dying.

Just like during the wakama tournament, everything that surrounded Karina stood out in a glittering web of nkra. Thousands of threads floated through the sky, the brightest trailing from Bahia’s Comet, and it was those she grabbed onto as the world fell away beneath her feet. The threads lifted her up until she was in the heavens, gazing down on the world below. Everything she saw and knew was light, and at the center of it all was a small child.

Karina had never known another Alahari besides her mother and sister, but the silver hair was unmistakable. This was her family. Her kin. Trapped in this comet, same as she’d been trapped down in Ziran.

“Mama?” the child asked.

And then Karina was tumbling through the sky, and the child grabbed her hand. Pure energy rushed through her, melding with every inch of her soul. With nothing else to cling to, Karina grabbed hold of the raging force within her and pushed outward against the only other force in Ziran as strong as she was.

Thousands of feet above her head, the Barrier exploded, and Bahia’s Comet vanished.

The spell broke apart within Karina, and she was somewhere between breathless and exhilarated as the tether physically tying her to Ziran blasted to smithereens. Burning remnants of the ancient magic rained down on her face like a thousand falling stars. She was weightless, a gust of wind that could go anywhere and do anything.

With the energy from the Barrier pulsing inside her, Karina grabbed the dagger’s hilt and pulled it from her chest.

Adil’s eyes widened, and he took a step back. “No.”

Shadows circled them, seeping up from the cracks in the temple’s roof. Two sparking serpentine eyes emerged from the miasma.

“Incredible. You actually did it.”

The man who stepped from the smoke had hair whiter than ivory and robes from an ancient era long gone by. It was the same man Karina had seen depicted on the mural in the necropolis, the man who’d had his name and memory ripped from history.

Karina was standing before the Faceless King.

Her ancestor’s eyes softened as he searched her face. “You look just like her.”

How was this possible? Had someone used the Rite of Resurrection to bring the ancient ruler back to life? Was this another one of Adil’s tricks, like making her fall for him?

The king’s voice seemed to come from every direction at once. “There is much for you and me to discuss, Granddaughter, but unfortunately, I must get going. First, though, I should thank our friend Malik”—the Faceless King turned to Adil—“for helping you destroy the Barrier and for making our meeting possible.”

Karina’s brows furrowed. “Who is Malik?”

“Who is Malik, indeed?”

The shadows curled back around the Faceless King’s body, battering the rooftop in swirling wind. Fighting against the tempest, Adil screamed, “I upheld our bargain, Idir! Give her back!”

“Upheld our bargain? Does the girl look dead to you?” The Faceless King’s body was nothing but shadows and wind now, yet his booming voice remained. “My powers cannot be used to harm an Alahari for the same reason a snake is immune to its own venom. I am powerless against my own kin.”

“You tricked me!”

The web of shadows collapsed into itself, and Idir’s voice trailed away. “Many thanks for freeing my son and me, young one. We will meet again soon.”

Karina did not know of any bargains or an Idir, but there was no doubt now that Adil—Malik?—was a threat. As the shadows faded, Karina tackled him to the ground and pressed the dagger he’d tried to kill her with against his throat. Drops of blood welled up where the black metal met his skin, but before she could sink it into his flesh, Adil twisted his hand and the blade vanished. Unperturbed, Karina grabbed his throat and slammed his head against the roof.

“What was that creature?” Karina screamed. “Who are you? What’s going on?”

“Malik,” the boy choked out as purple bruises formed on the soft skin of his neck. “My name is Malik.”

Everything—the story, the necropolis, even his name—all of it had been a lie. She had fought side by side with this boy and kissed him, shown him parts of herself she had never shown to anyone else. She had even thought she might be—that they could have been—

Karina tightened her grip. The light dimmed in Malik’s eyes, but before she could harm him further, someone pulled her away. Malik sat up, gasping for air, only for another guard to run from behind her and slam him back down. Karina glanced over her shoulder to see Farid running toward her.

“Let me go!” Karina shrieked. “He tried to kill me!”

Farid nodded, and the soldier lifted Malik to his feet. “Put him with the other one.”

Malik made no effort to fight back as they clasped him in chains. He looked at Karina, remorse clouding his dark eyes, until the guard brought the hilt of his sword against his head with a resounding crack. They hauled him away, and Farid put a hand on Karina’s arm.

“It’s all right. You’re safe now.” Sweat stuck his hair to his head, and his eyes glinted with a wild look. “Everything is going to be fine.”

Thousands of questions ran through Karina’s mind, each less intelligible than the last. There were no signs of Idir, and even the broken sky had vanished. She wanted to scream that the Faceless King had returned to Ziran, but everyone was already looking at her as though she’d lost all sense.

With no choice but to comply, Karina wiped Malik’s blood down the front of her gown and let them lead her away.

They hurried back to Ksar Alahari under the cover of a hidden carriage. Farid refused to answer any questions until they were safe within the palace walls.

“Where are they taking him?” Karina demanded as the Sentinels dragged Adil’s—Malik’s—unconscious body away.

“The boy is clearly some kind of powerful enchanter,” said Farid, leading her through a thick curtain into one of the safe rooms located in the cellar level of Ksar Alahari. “There’s no telling what would happen if we tried to kill him without knowing what he can do.”

Karina gaped. “You know about magic?”

He nodded. “There are many things I’ve never been able to share with you.”

Her mother had told only her the truth of the Barrier, and Afua hadn’t sensed any other zawenji in Ziran. How could he possibly know?

Farid was as calm as always, but it did nothing to alleviate the coil of unease curling through Karina’s stomach. The sky was its normal hue through the grates of her window, but the memory of the Barrier’s destruction was too vivid for it to have been an illusion.

“Farid, we have to evacuate the city.” For all Ziran’s military prowess, they had no way to defend against a magical attack from the Faceless King. All Karina could do for her people now was get them as far away from the city as possible.

Farid shot her an incredulous look. “There are hundreds of thousands of people within these walls. Evacuate them where? Into the open desert?”

“I don’t know, just . . . not here! Didn’t you see the sky turn blue earlier?”

“. . . Is the sky not always blue?”

“That’s not what I—gah!”

Karina paced around the room, gnawing at her fingernail. Thoughts of the boy she’d known as Adil came to her. She could still taste his kiss on her lips, feel the safe embrace of his arms around her body. Desire and rage battled within her, turning her vision red.

However, her anger at Malik was less important than the fact that the Faceless King was loose in Ziran.

All because of her.

“We have to evacuate the city now.”

“We can’t—Karina, is that blood on your chest?”

In all the commotion Karina had forgotten about the dagger wound. Though there was blood, there was no pain to accompany it.

“It’s fine! I got stabbed by some sort of weapon.”

“You were stabbed?!”

“I’m fine! There was a giant magic barrier keeping the Faceless King out of Ziran, and it just broke. We have to evacuate everyone before he attacks.”

There was a long pause. Farid sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “This is my fault. I’ve let them push you too hard, and now the stress is affecting your mind.”

“I know what I saw, Farid!”

“I’m not doubting what you think you saw,” he replied with the patience of a man comforting a small child. “But don’t you think if the sky had broken and the Faceless King had materialized above Ziran, people would be panicking?”

Karina’s own memories, which had been resolute just a minute ago, faltered. Everything seemed perfectly normal, and she had no proof that Idir was who he’d claimed to be. The shadows could have been smoke from a community oven. Even the moment inside Bahia’s Comet could have been in her head.

“I guess you’re right,” she said softly.