We moved over to the south side of the prison, occasionally looking around at the cages in the middle. Most of the prisoners were Imen of different ages, but I’d seen a couple of Maras, too. They were all chained, dirty, and weak, barely moving, and their eyes had sunk into their heads.

I carved a hole into the southern wall, while Caia kept me company. The Correction Officers didn’t seem very happy to see us, but I’d already gotten used to their natural reluctance toward outsiders. It was mostly a cultural thing, from what I could tell. However, they had no choice but to let us do our jobs—we were trying to protect them, too, after all.

“I still find it weird how fast the daemons moved to plant those explosives,” Caia murmured.

Once I was done with the hole, she handed me another satchel.

“That is, if the daemons were behind this attack,” I replied. Frankly, I wasn’t convinced. Sure, the prison was suspicious, but not suspicious enough to make me think less of the Exiled Maras. But the timing just didn’t fit.

“You think someone else did it?” She raised her eyebrows, and I needed a second to pull myself out of the deep teal pools of her eyes. Caia was simply mesmerizing.

“I wouldn’t exclude the possibility just yet. Think about it this way: they had to have precise knowledge about the mansions and the servants’ movements to be able to plant explosives in the Xunn mansion. Based on our last study of their patterns—at least before we met Tobiah and Sienna—the daemons were barely expanding their hunting grounds up to the second level of the city. As far as we know, Tobiah was the only daemon to reach the top floor, and he’s been keeping his distance since he took Sienna. Maybe the daemons had inside help.”

“Who do you think would be willing to assist the very creatures trying to kill them?” she asked, as I covered the hole. We walked along the edge of the wall until we reached the western side.

The Correction Officers’ eyes followed us around as they patrolled the higher levels.

“Maybe someone who had a bone to pick with the Lords themselves.” I shrugged, then stopped and carved another hole. “We know there are rebel Imen living on the other side of the gorge. Maybe they have loved ones here. Maybe they can’t get back to each other because of the Exiled Maras, for example. It’s just a shot in the dark, but you never know. Or maybe even the Exiled Maras themselves. What if they have some deal going on with the daemons that we know nothing about?”

“That’s highly unlikely.” Caia rejected the premise without hesitation. “Scratch that. It’s downright impossible. They killed Darius and dozens of Maras in the process. Even if they were conspiring with the daemons—and, by default, shamelessly lying to us—they wouldn’t kill their own. No, this was definitely aimed at the Exiled Maras. And frankly, given the tunnels leading up to the higher levels of the mountain… I’m thinking maybe the daemons have been lurking around those parts for longer than we initially presumed. Maybe they’ve been studying the Maras and spying on them for months, even years.”

“That might explain how they had such knowledge of the mansions in the first place.” I nodded as she handed me the third satchel. Our fingers touched, and an electric tingle rushed through my arms, heating me up on the inside.

She had a fascinating effect on me. There was something between us, though I’d yet to formulate coherent thoughts about it. I could feel our chemistry, as it thickened the air whenever we were close to each other. Caia kept me on high alert and had even slipped into my dreams. But my celibacy oath took precedence. I didn’t want to put her through the ordeal of waiting around for me. It wasn’t fair to her.

At the same time, I could feel my resolve slowly withering away as we orbited around one another like two neutron stars about to collide and explode into a sea of light. The more time I spent near her, the more I disliked my paternal heritage. The oath had made sense to me when I took it.

To be fair, it still did. But something tugged at my heart, pulling me closer to Caia, and all I could think of was losing myself in her fire. I bit my lower lip and focused on covering the western hole, pushing the rubble in to cover the satchel.

“It does make sense.” Caia continued our conversation, though I did catch the tremor in her voice. I affected her as much as she did me, and she wasn’t very good at hiding it, either. I found that endearing, and it made me fall even deeper. “If they already knew what the key spots in the Xunn mansion were, along with the movements of Iman servants, the daemons could have easily performed an in-and-out operation to plant the explosives.”

“Which would mean that their advancement to the second level of the city only relates to their hunting practices, not their actual knowledge of the city. So, in a way, the attack was their way of telling us not to underestimate them,” I concluded, and couldn’t stop myself from smiling at her. “You’re brilliant, did you know that?”

Caia stared at me, her cheeks blossoming a beautiful pink. My heart faltered as liquid fire pulled through me. This girl was going to really put me to the test, and she didn’t even know it. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to get my senses back under control, then carved the last hole into the northern side of the prison wall.

“Thank you, I guess?” she replied softly, her lips stretching into a smile.

There were two ways I could see this ending. Caia was intense, and I knew she would set me on fire—even in a literal sense, if I ever crossed her. This chemistry between us would either fizzle out or make me break my celibacy oath. I doubted I’d ever be able to hold onto any half-measure with her.

Her voice alone was enough to make my whole body buck and accumulate pressure, and I feared that only her kiss, her touch, would be able to free me. After that, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop. Judging by the way her pupils flared whenever I got close to her, I had a feeling she’d be right there with me.

“Okay, we’re done here,” I said, clearing my throat as I finished covering the fourth hole. “We’re off to the top, right?”

“Yup.” She nodded and walked back to the metal stairs leading up to the iron gate we’d come through. “Not sure there are any walls left for us to paint, but four trees pointing north, south, east, and west will do the trick.”

The Correction Officer who had escorted us down to the prison straightened his back when he saw us. He’d been leaning against a nearby wall, looking rather lost. They were all affected by the explosion—some more than others.

“Where to next?” he asked us.

There was a willingness to be around us glimmering in his eyes. I hadn’t noticed it before. He, like all the other Maras working for Lord Kifo, did his best to keep his emotions to himself. But he seemed to warm up to us, in his own way. I figured our presence helped dampen the anxiety that had probably permeated his facade in the wake of the attack.

“Upstairs to the top level,” I replied. “We need to repaint some warding symbols.”

He nodded and went up the spiral staircase. It was a long way to the Lords’ mansions, but I still had plenty of adrenaline coursing through me since the explosions. I looked over my shoulder and noticed Caia staring at me, her eyes wide and filled with thoughts I wished I could understand.

We followed the Correction Officer up the stairs, leaving Fiona down in the prison to look for Demios. She knew where to find us afterward, anyway. I took Caia’s hand in mine somewhere along the way. Her skin felt warm and soft against mine, soothing my very soul. She didn’t seem to mind, either.