Kith paced in the shadow of the buildings, checking for the third time whether Cocky had emerged from the palace yet. It hadn't even been five minutes since he'd gone in.

  The minutes felt like hours.

  "Woof!"

  She spun around. First she caught the scent, then she saw her. "Ink! What are you doing here?"

  Ink's tail wagged in frantic circles. She whined and lunged forward, licking Kith's face with pure joy.

  Then she barked once, sharp and insistent. Walked a few steps away. Turned back. Stared at Kith expectantly.

  Follow me.

  "I'm sorry, Ink. I can't." Kith glanced back at the palace doors. "I have to wait for Cocky to come out."

  ***

  Ink slammed The Gilded Turnip's door open with so much force that when it swung back and hit the wall, a mirror on the opposite wall fell and shattered.

  "There goes seven years," Seren said dryly.

  Ink didn't pause. She raced straight to the table where Seren and Dain sat, barking—sharp, insistent, urgent barks that didn't stop.

  "Ink, what—" Dain started.

  She barked again, louder. Then spun and bolted for the door.

  This time she didn't look back.

  Seren and Dain exchanged one glance before darting after her.

  ***

  "KITH!"

  Dain dropped to his knees, arms opening—and Kith found herself pulled into a hug before she could think.

  "Mate! What are you doing in Myr?" Dain pulled back, hands on her shoulders, grinning. Then his expression shifted. "Wait—where's Cocky?"

  Kith jerked her head toward the palace. "In there. Meeting with Jorvan."

  "Jorvan." Seren's voice went flat. "That's not good."

  "The eels warned us something was wrong," Dain said, settling beside Kith against the wall, eyes on the palace doors. "How long's he been in there?"

  "Not long. Maybe ten minutes?" Kith's ears swiveled toward the palace. "I told him I'd wait."

  "We'll wait with you," Dain said.

  Seren positioned herself where she could watch the palace. Ink sat at attention, focused entirely on the doors.

  The minutes stretched. Kith paced. Dain tried to make small talk—about their journey back and what they’d been up to—but his eyes kept drifting to the palace.

  "He didn't want this," Kith said suddenly. "Being king. He just wants to crow at dawn and not have people staring at him."

  "Then why'd he come here?" Seren asked.

  "Because Jorvan invited him and he’s a good king." Kith's tail lashed. "Even when he doesn't want to be."

  The palace doors opened.

  ***

  Kith's head snapped up.

  Cocky stumbled out, feathers ruffled, eyes wild. He looked like he'd been through a war.

  He was shaking.

  Their eyes met across the plaza. Cocky's wing moved—sharp, deliberate.

  For one heartbeat, doubt crashed through him. What if this is the wrong decision? What if—

  Kith was already moving.

  No hesitation. No pause. Pure predator instinct.

  She burst forward, a blur of spotted fur and desperation. Then her jaws closed around him—one swift, brutal motion.

  CRUNCH.

  Seren tried to scream. Nothing came out.

  Dain's hands flew to his hair, gripping, pulling.

  Then they grabbed each other—instinct, horror, needing something solid to hold onto.

  The rowan crown fell, clattering against the cobblestones.

  Feathers exploded into the air. Red spattered the white stone—blood, unmistakably blood.

  Kith's eyes were wild. Feral. The predator look that said something had snapped.

  Ink bolted after Kith without hesitation. Pure instinct. Chase the running thing.

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  Jorvan's assistant screamed.

  "THE KING!" A guard's voice shattered the moment. "THE COCKATRICE KING—"

  "GUARDS!"

  "STOP THAT HYENA!"

  Kith ran.

  Behind her, chaos erupted. Footsteps. Shouting. The clang of weapons being drawn. Ink’s footsteps following behind. Keeping up. Shit.

  Inside the palace doorway, King Jorvan stood frozen, mouth agape. Then his expression shifted—concern, sympathy, all the right emotions flooding his face. "Guards! Someone help—this is terrible! Just terrible for Eldmere!"

  Beside him, Valgarr said nothing. His pale eyes tracked Kith's fleeing form with the precision of a hawk watching prey. Silent. Calculating.

  But if one looked closely at Jorvan's eyes—just for a moment before the mask settled fully into place—there was something else entirely.

  Well. That simplifies things.

  At the bottom of the palace steps, the shattered rowan crown lay in two pieces on the blood-spattered cobblestones. A single peacock feather drifted down, settling beside it.

  ***

  Kith ran.

  With Cocky's body clamped in her jaws, his head swinging with each stride.

  Ink right behind her—chasing—and Kith's heart twisted. Not you too, Ink. Please, not you too.

  Guards behind them. Shouting. Getting closer.

  Turn left. No—dead end. Back, back, different street—she should have scouted the city when they arrived, should have planned escape routes, should have—

  Wrong turn. Another dead end.

  Her lungs burned. Her jaw ached from Cocky's weight, the awkward bulk of him throwing off her balance. The taste of blood filled her mouth.

  The guards were gaining. Footsteps echoing off stone, getting louder. Ink's paws pounding the flagstones behind her

  Kith pushed harder, Cocky's limp weight swinging as she ran. The water rushed ahead.

  ***

  The kitchen drain erupted with panicked voices.

  "News, newsss, TERRIBLE news—"

  "Blood in street-water—"

  "The bird-king—King Cocky—"

  Agnes dropped her ladle and rushed to the drain. "Slow down, my lovelies, what—"

  "EATEN!" Blink's voice cracked with panic. "Hyena ate him! Ate the cockatrice king, yesss!"

  "Hang on, let me get Mistress Bree," Agnes said, already rushing out of the kitchen.

  She burst into the main room, breathless. "Mistress Bree, come quick. Something's happened. The eels—"

  Bree was already moving, crossing to the kitchen in swift strides.

  "Dearies, tell Mistress Bree what you just told me," Agnes said to the drain.

  "Palace-water tastes like death and ssscreaming," Blink's voice tumbled out. "Crown fell! Blood in the street-water! Guards running!"

  "Ssspotted hyena grabbed the bird-king," Kwik's voice cut in, quick and precise. "Jaws closed. Crunch. Feathers everywhere, yesss."

  Even through the drain, the horror was clear.

  Agnes looked up from the drain, face pale.

  Bree's looked at Agnes with her hands on her face in disbelief. "The spotted hyena." Her voice was flat. "Kith. That's Dain and Seren's friend." She looked at Agnes, searching for an explanation that made sense. "This doesn't—why would she—"

  She stopped. There was no answer that made this make sense.

  ***

  When Kith hit another dead end, Ink barked sharply—follow me.

  Kith hesitated, confused. But Ink was already moving in a different direction, so she followed.

  Ink led them through twisting alleys toward the river.

  Kith and Ink collapsed on the muddy riverbank.

  She opened her jaws—carefully, because her tongue hurt like hell where she'd bitten it.

  Cocky landed on the riverbank, drenched in saliva, feathers plastered to his body, gasping for air like a drowning bird.

  For a few moments, none of them could speak or move. Just panted. Staring at each other.

  Then Cocky found his voice. "I just had the WORST meeting of my LIFE!" His voice was rising to a near-shriek, breaking completely.

  "I'm thorry—WHAT?!" Kith's ears flattened.

  Cocky blinked. "What did you just say?"

  "I thaid WHAT?!"

  "I can't understand you!"

  "I BIT MY TONGUE!" Kith shouted, words thick and slurred. "To make your death look more realithtic! You're WELCOME!"

  Cocky stared at her. "Oh. That was... very committed. Thank you?"

  "Tho, what now?"

  Cocky’s feathers drooped. “I think Jorvan’s planning to take over Eldmere. He was offering ‘help’—but it was just disguising his real plans. He was using my inexperience to make it easy. I could be wrong. Oh gods, what if I made the wrong decision? But I thought back to that lesson with Benjamin about the poisoned pawn.”

  Kith’s ears flattened. “The cheth lethon? You actually underthtood it?”

  “Well, I understood that bit. And if that’s what he’s doing, staying there would have made it too easy for him. I think, maybe, we can create more chaos from outside.”

  “Hang on, whath thith we?” Kith’s voice—lisp and all—sounded surprised.

  Guards shouted in the distance. Getting closer.

  Cocky's voice dropped to a whisper. "Yes, we. So... what do we do now?"

  "What do WE do? Oh, I don't know—maybe NOT get caught?! That'd be a great thtart!" She paused, ears swiveling toward the shouts. "Run. We run. That'th what we do. Becauth that'th ALL we can do now."

  Ink barked once, sharp and insistent.

  Kith and Cocky looked at her.

  ***

  In Myr, two men in ragged cloaks approached the palace gates.

  The guards looked them over with barely concealed disgust. "State your business."

  "We seek an audience with King Jorvan," Rembrandt said smoothly, though his voice had lost some of its polish over months on the road.

  "The king doesn't see beggars—"

  "Tell him," King Helmut interrupted, drawing himself up despite his filthy clothes, "that the rightful King of Eldmere wishes to discuss... an arrangement."

  The guards exchanged glances.

  "The King of Eldmere is dead. Didn’t you see that? Eaten by a hyena."

  Helmut's smile was cold and bitter. "Precisely. Which means the throne is empty. And I intend to reclaim what that feathered usurper stole from me."

  Rembrandt stepped forward. "His Majesty is prepared to rule Eldmere as King Jorvan's ally."

  The guards hesitated, then one spoke: "Wait here."

  As they waited, Helmut whispered, "Do you think he'll agree?"

  "After that spectacle in front of the palace?" Rembrandt's eyes gleamed. "King Jorvan just lost his cockatrice puppet. He'll need a new one. And you, sire, are far more... agreeable than a bird who could prophesy."

  Helmut smiled. For the first time in months, things were looking up.

  Behind them, the city bells began to toll—mourning for a dead king, celebrating for another kingdom soon to fall.

  ***

  The news of Cocky's death reached Eldmere six days later.

  It is said that Benjamin's screams could be heard throughout the city.

  The kingdom wept with him.