“Barely a whisper,” she said, already stubbing out the cigarette’s flaming tip. She tucked it away in her tin.

“Remember, you’re the backup plan when Taviano inevitably betrays us. No matter what, I need you to stay on this beach. If things fall apart, we’ll be depending on you to break the wards and get us out.” Depending on Brigette made me feel as confident as depending on Taviano, but of the two, I thought Brigette would be the least likely to deceive us.

“Let’s go,” Gideon said.

A briny ocean breeze hissed in my ears as we hurried to Taviano’s rendezvous point. He marked his position by igniting a small orb of light that died as quickly as it had appeared. He spoke low and quietly, his voice barely rising above the cacophony of wind and waves. “Let’s get off the beach.”

He led us through loose, boot-sucking sand toward the cliffs. The bluffs were dark, and Taviano steered us to an even darker opening carved in their base. The shallow limestone cavern amplified his voice. “Well, we’re all here. What now?”

Brigette formed a red light ball and floated it above us. I dropped my cloak hood and slid my mask off. “There’s no need to fight if you can stop one before it begins.”

Taviano cocked his head. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I mean it’s my intention to get through this with no violent confrontations.”

“Why, though? Why not use your lightning to blow open the basilica, march in, strike down any opposition, and take Faercourt?”

“I am not a warlord who’s all right with making excuses about collateral damage if people get hurt because of my actions.” Never mind that I had been in such a battle before, and the collateral damage had been me. “I already have enough enemies, and I’d rather not make another one out of the Council of Magic. My intention is to get in and release him without anyone noticing until we’re long gone.”

“I’m not sure that’s possible,” Taviano said.

I clenched my teeth. “We’re going to try to make it possible.”

He sniffed, rolled his eyes, and mumbled something about unreasonable expectations.

“Why does it have to be so impossible, Taviano?” Brigette asked. “You want to make it difficult so it seems like you’re accomplishing some major feat, but really it’s a couple of invisibility and muting spells. That’s beginner’s Magic.”

“Maybe, if we weren’t trying to break into a godsforsaken fortress of Magic surrounded by warding spells designed to protect against those very things.”

“I can handle a few warding spells.”

“A few—” He choked. “You are not breaking into some bourgeois children’s’ playroom in downtown Isolas. You are breaking into the holiest temple of the most powerful governing body in all of the Magical world.”

She balled her fists. Her lips screwed into a snarl. “That doesn’t matter to me.”

“Well, it should. If you break those wards, every Magician on the Council will know it. You’ll bring their sentries down on us faster than Stormbourne can fling a bolt of lightning. The Council will mostly likely lock you up and throw away the key—their understanding of habeas corpus is nonexistent.”

“If you’re not going to help us,” I asked, “then why did you come?”

Folding his arms over his chest, he snorted and peered down his nose. “I had hoped you had formed a better plan.”

“Our original plan had been only to reconnoiter,” I said. “Then you came along, demanding to participate. We assumed you had something to offer. That’s usually how blackmail works.”

He maintained his imperious posture. “Reconnoiter what, exactly?”

“You said there were caves under the basilica. We were hoping to find an entrance from the beach. Maybe some backdoor entry that was vulnerable and easy to exploit.”

He opened his mouth, and by the look on his face, he was primed to say something harsh and critical. But he paused. His brow crinkled. His haughty expression eased. “There may be something...”

“So there is a cave entrance from the beach?”

Taviano’s face scrunched into a reluctant grimace. “Not an entrance, as such.” He crooked his finger, beckoning us.

We followed the cliff line eastward, moving toward the staircase at the basilica’s front entrance. From our position, I could make out only the highest point of the cathedral’s domed roof above us, yet I felt its presence, almost as if it were a living creature hunched at the cliff top, poised to attack at the first sign of threat. My blood chilled, and my stomach roiled, not that it hadn’t been upset most of the evening. A steady diet of anxiety had a way of doing that.

Taviano stopped us in another depression at the base of the cliffs. This time he lit his own ball of light, glowing an iridescent blue-green. “There is not much to this islet, as you can see. The basilica takes up most of the land at the top of the cliffs, not more than four or five thousand square feet, and it is the only way to access the caves, as far as anyone knows. If another entrance exists, then it is at the bottom of one of the pools in the caverns.”

“So we’re screwed,” Gideon said.

Taviano gave him an arrogant look and continued. “Most cave-dwelling fish tend to be pale and blind, but one pool often has other varieties of fish in it, ones that can be found swimming about in the bay.”

Not comprehending his meaning, I frowned. “What’s your point?”

“Those fish must be able get inside those caverns somehow. I theorize they are using underwater tunnels that would most likely not be warded.”

“Load of good that does us.” I motioned to my companions. “Last time I checked, none of us has fins or gills.”

He raised a finger. “But what if you did?”

My breath caught. Slack-jawed, I gaped at him. “What are you saying?”

“A few fins and gills would be a lot easier to arrange than breaking through the wards. A lot quieter too.”

Too stunned to speak, I said nothing. Was it possible? It seemed so absurd.

More absurd than your arrangement with me? Grandfather asked.

Brigette flapped a hand. “No way. I don’t swim, especially not in underwater caves at night.”

Taviano sneered. “Your participation is not required.” He shifted his weight and glanced at Gideon. “In truth, this plan only requires Stormbourne and me. You two can stay and make sure the beach remains secure.”

“No.” Gideon stiffened, clenching his fists. “If Evie goes, I go.”

“I’m perfectly capable of protecting her.”

“But who is going to protect her from you if you decide to betray her?”

“And I’m perfectly capable of speaking for myself,” I said. “Gideon goes with me.”

Taviano bared his teeth. “If I was going to betray you, I would alert the Council now. Your presence on their sacred island in the middle of the night would be enough to warrant punitive action, but that does little to benefit me in the long run.”

“He’s right,” Brigette said. “He’s more likely to call the guards after you break Faercourt out. That’s when he’d look like a real hero. That’s when you’ll be most vulnerable to his betrayal.”

“So that only further justifies my participation,” Gideon said.

Taviano sucked a tooth and sighed. “Fine. But once we’re inside, you have to follow my lead. Stormbourne, did you bring the blueprints?”

I slipped the rolled drawings from my cloak pocket, crouched, and spread them open on the sand. Taviano knelt beside me. “The caverns we’ll come into are not where the prisoners are kept.”