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My voice hisses out through a cage of my teeth. “I also said ten drops of your blood for every drop of his.” I want a pool of his blood around him like the one beneath Edana. I want him to lie against this wall and whimper like she does. I want him to know he’ll never stand again. I want him to remember David Prince’s death mask as he wears it for himself.

“Sean Kendrick.”

The voice comes from behind me. I incline my head even as Mutt’s eye catches mine.

“It is late for this sort of entertainment, isn’t it?”

With great reluctance, I snap the blade away and step backward from Mutt. Mutt’s hands remain by his side with the spear and his wicked carving knife still dark with blood. We both face his father, who stands with Daly at the entrance to the aisle. He wears a buttoned undershirt that he must’ve been sleeping in, but he is no less powerful-looking in it. Daly, shamefaced, won’t meet my eyes.

“Matthew, your bed is lonely.” His voice is cordial although his posture is not. Malvern meets Mutt’s gaze and for a moment, nothing happens. Then Malvern’s expression hardens and Mutt strides past him without a word or glance toward me.

Malvern turns his eyes to me. I am shaking still, struck with what Mutt nearly did to Corr and with what I was ready to do to Mutt.

“Mr. Daly,” Malvern says without turning his head. “Thank you for your assistance. You may return to your bed.”

Daly nods and vanishes.

Benjamin Malvern stands an arm’s length from me, his eyes steady on me. He says, “Do you have anything to say?”

“I would not” — I close my eyes for a moment. I need to get my bearings. I need to find the stillness inside me. I cannot find it; I’m destroyed. I stand in the ocean, my hands cupped to the sky. I’m immovable in the current. I open my eyes — “have been sorry.”

Malvern cocks his head. For a long moment he looks at me, at the switchblade in my hand, at my face. Then he folds his arms behind his back. “Mr. Kendrick, go put that mare out of her misery.”

He turns and walks from the stable.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

SEAN

The next day is bitter and ruthless. The wind races around the horses’ feet and makes them wild. Overhead, clouds like ragged breath flee in front of the cold. There’s a gray ocean above and below us.

I meet Puck at the head of the cliff road. She frowns when she sees me; I know my face must be a wasteland of fatigue after last night. Her hair is held down by a lumpy knitted hat, but a few strands snap across her face. The vendors are struggling to keep their tents from flying away. The riders heading down the cliff path endeavor to keep their mounts from doing the same.

Puck tugs down the edge of her hat with one hand. Something nearby creaks and groans in the wind. Dove tosses her head. I see terror in her wide eyes.

“Take Dove home,” I tell her. “This isn’t a day to be on the beach.”

“There isn’t any more time,” she replies. “I thought you said I should get used to the beach. There’s no more time.”

I have to shout to be heard over the wind. I spread my empty palms to the sky. “Do you see Corr in my hands? This isn’t a beach you want to get used to.” Killing sands, that was what my father called a day like today. Today the riders would die because they didn’t know or because they were desperate or because they were foolishly brave.

Puck frowns at the cliff road. I see her uncertainty in the wrinkle between her eyebrows.

“If you trust me on anything, don’t risk today. You’re ready as you’ll ever be,” I say. “Everyone else is robbed the extra day, too.”

She bites her lip in dark frustration, looks at the ground for a moment, and then, like that, she’s done. “It is what it is, I reckon. Is Tommy Falk down there?”

I don’t know. My interests don’t lie with Tommy Falk.

“Hold Dove,” she says, when I can’t answer to her satisfaction. “I’m going to get him if he’s down there.”

I don’t want her on the beach on a horse or off it. “I’ll go look for him. Take her home.”

“We’ll both go,” Puck says. “Wait a moment. I’ll get Elizabeth