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Act 3 Chapter 64JAYLAH

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Act 3 Chapter 64
JAYLAH

Word travelled the fastest in this city than anywhere else, so the Azuliné Moriare was a gleaming beacon for Daggen's men to see. We had to leave without a trace, but that was no longer possible given the hundreds of people who witnessed the events within the casino.

"He knows," Alexander whispered at the place the man once stood before disappearing with his tail between his legs. "He knows."

I recognized that panic and grief loosened his tongue, so I simply said, "We must leave this city before he can do any lasting damage. The docks are busy any time if the day, so we will blend in better there than we do here."

"He's already done damage," Alexander said, whether to me or himself, I was unsure. "All those people heard. He can so easily expose me to the wrong figures—" He caught himself and cut off the rest of his fears.

I held his gaze. "Once we are safely on a boat, you will have no worries. No one will touch you. No one will override the word of the Queen."

After a pointed blink, he gave a quiet, "Okay."

Out of habit, I felt again for the locket. "Come. They are closing in, I can sense it. And they will not let us leave without a fight."

Although the Azuliné Moriare was the largest casino in the western part of the city, it was nowhere near the harbors. And due to the commotion caused just minutes ago, the streets were now flooded even more with passerby demanding to know how many were dead and how long it would be until the casino had the bodies removed. I saw Razkoff frantically calling in the crowd searching for someone—Alexander—but he took one look and turned away. It became difficult to move against the throngs, but at least we were unremarkable. The story of who the assassin was fighting had not yet broken.

The harbors were sent in as much of a frenzy as I expected when we reached them at sunset. They were a tangle of dark wood decks with their centers well-worn from decades of relentless use. Ships large and small peppered the outskirts. Some leavers were visible on the horizon, dark against the orange smudge of the sun. There were many of the iron-hulled ships from Tilana, some flat brigs from Fas Kaling. The sight of the latter made two decades of generational warnings well up in me.

We went down a few flights of wooden stairs to be closer to the front. Underneath our feet, the water lapped against the poles holding the entire harbor up. Alexander kept throwing covert glances all around us. I knew he had picked up on the same frantic energy I felt ever since we left the casino in ruins. Call it either intuition or divine intervention, but I knew the Navrikans were here.

My heart was already pounding. We passed several sailors bringing in their ships for the night, unloading passengers, but finding a boat suddenly did not seem like our top priority any longer.

What if they have firearms? The horrifying thought came over me all at once. The assassin after Alexander's title had exceeded all the odds and had tracked us for hundreds of kilometers. He found us in this city populated with millions of people within the third day. And he was only one man. Daggen could have sent hundreds.

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