Father pulled her into a hug. “Be safe, my child.”

Letting her go, he left the room as swiftly as he’d entered. My throat tightened as he walked away, closing the door without even a glance behind to me. Ash put a hand on my shoulder, his fingers digging in. Even Belladonna glanced at me and I saw the pity there for just a split second before she covered it. She smoothed her skirts and pointed at the armbands against the wall. The magic that allowed us to travel the world with ease.

“Lark, I believe you are the one who has to use that, correct?”

It took everything I had to swallow the hurt and unshed tears. I was an Ender, I would not cry because my father hadn’t hugged me goodbye. But the little girl part of me wanted to sob. Wanted to know why I was so unlovable. Ash’s fingers tightened a little more. “Get the armband.”

Moving, I felt disconnected from the moment and forced myself to put my hurt away.

The armband was made of cedar, smooth and polished to a high gleam. I slipped it up my arm and settled it over my bicep remembering the last time we’d used the band. “Just to be clear, it won’t slide off?”

“No, it won’t come off until you remove it, and no one else can take it off unless they remove your arm. I don’t suggest you take it off,” Ash said. His eyes meeting mine, concern etched around them. “If things go sideways you will have to get out of the radius of the Deep’s reach before you can Travel.”

Belladonna snorted. “Why would things go sideways? That’s ridiculous. We’re going as ambassadors. Or at least, I am.” She put a hand to her chest and batted her eyes up at Ash.

Choke me with a redwood. I stalked over to her. “Belladonna, we are going into a charged political situation and we all know the other families are not above assassination, blackmail, and regicide. So what makes you think you and I are going to be safe?”

Her gray eyes widened as I spoke and she looked from me to Ash and back again. “Father said it was safe. He wouldn’t send me somewhere that wasn’t.”

Unless he was trying to find a way to get rid of her. A chill swept me from head to toe as the ramifications pinged inside my skull. What better way to remove a snake from the nest than to put it into a watery cave full of hungry sharks? Could that be why he argued with me about Belladonna? Argued that she should go over all the other possible choices?

I didn’t want to believe my father was that dastardly, but the possibility was there that he was playing Belladonna. And if he was playing her . . . he could very well be playing me too.

“Let’s hope the king is right then.” Ash pushed Belladonna and me closer. “Princess, have you Traveled before?”

She nodded, her composure already back in place. “Yes, I have.” Of course she had, we’d seen her in the Pit when we’d gone to find the spell that would cure our family from the lung burrowers. Who had taken her then?

The answer hit me hard. Granite. He had been helping Cassava and no doubt had been moving the puzzle pieces around at her request. Including Belladonna and her trip to the Pit. I wanted to ask my sister what she’d been doing there, what messages had she been taking for her mother to Fiametta. Maybe I would get the chance while we were in the Deep. Most likely she would only lie to me, though, so what was the point?

Ash took Belladonna’s hands and wrapped them around me, speaking as if she knew nothing. “Hang onto your Ender. Don’t let go of her no matter what happens, do you understand?”

Belladonna tightened her arms around my waist, a slight tremor in her hands. “I’m ready.”

In that moment, I realized she was afraid. She was scared to go to the Deep, scared that our father might be setting her up to be killed. There was no doubt if it crossed my mind, it had crossed hers. Belladonna was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.

And I had to admit, I was more than a little afraid myself. What better way to get rid of both of us than to send us into a political hurricane that had already killed multiple ambassadors? Our father would come out smelling like roses, and we would be neatly taken care of without a single smear on the king’s character.

My gut clenched. “Ash.” Just his name, nothing else. His eyes met mine, honeyed gold and steady as a rock.

“It’ll be okay, Lark. And if it’s not, I’ll come for you both.” He stepped back to give us room. The globe around us suddenly seemed bigger and more daunting than when I’d Traveled with him. Touching the island destination, I used my free hand to twist the armband.

Belladonna shivered against me.

And the world around us sucked into a sharp maelstrom of Belladonna’s memories.

Worm shit and green sticks, I’d forgotten about this part.

CHAPTER 4

The blows rained down on her head over and over. “Please, Mother! I didn’t mean it.” But the pain didn’t stop. Belladonna fell to the floor her nose bleeding, tears blurring her vision. Trying to cover up didn’t help, hiding only made Mother angrier. She wasn’t even sure what she had done wrong. Only that whatever it was had enraged her mother. More often than not, she didn’t know what would set off her mother.

Cassava picked her up by a handful of hair. “How dare you even breathe a word to that whore? She is nothing compared to me. NOTHING!”

Ulani. That must have been it. Her father had a new mistress who was beautiful and kind. She’d given Belladonna a baked pastry she’d made herself. Had brushed her hair and held her against her chest while Belladonna cried softly. How did her mother know, though?