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I returned to my room and withdrew the vial of white powder.

It would be fast, though not painless.

I could take out many, but not that many calificars.

And the duc would not be able to come to me in time.

He would rescue me. He was mine, and he would have no choice. But he wouldn’t reach me until after they broke me.

I felt them.

Far away, but already too close.

More than one calificar.

A dozen or more.

They had found me.

I missed Hope.

While I lived in my gilded cage, it was even more lonely than the Garden.

At least there I’d had Hope.

Though at least now I no longer feared death,

The assassins the duc’s wife sent were nothing.

Only a calificar could touch me.

I traded one cage for another.

One jailor for another.

Though now I was gowned in silks and velvets.

I dripped jewels.

And rather than the calificars wishing to kill me, it was the duc’s wife.

I slid the tips of my fingers across his bare wrist.

His eyes widened as I drew the magic within him to me. The magic that was in all beings.

And absorbed it.

Then returned it to him.

He was now mine.

He offered me his gloved hand.

I knew what he planned to do to me in his carriage.

I took it anyway.