Kale helped Vera slide off his back. Her mouth stretched open with a yawn. Airlea had slept the whole way and didn’t wake when the arca stopped moving. They were on a sheltered ridge overlooking Noble Valley, home of the Alchemist Academy.

“Are those unnaturals down there?” Vera looked taken aback.

“Centaurs,” he replied. “They guard the city.”

“Why do you seem twitchy?” She was perceptive as always.

“Usually, there aren’t that many patrolling at one time. It looks like the entire battalion is out.”

“Do you think something’s happened?”

“Maybe.” Kale shifted uneasily. Something in his gut told him the soldiers were there for him and Vera. Except Idan was the only person who knew they were headed for the Academy. He was also the only person in Acadia who knew about Kale’s unnatural form. But the satyr couldn’t have gotten a message to the Academy in time for them to gather these troops. If Kale told Vera all that, she would likely conclude what he had: Suzie was probably behind it. Upsetting her wouldn’t do anyone any good, though. They still had to get home, which meant they still had to get inside the Academy and through the world-gate.

“This is a problem for us, isn’t it?” Vera asked.

“If we cross paths with a centaur, they’ll know I’m not one of them.”

“How?” she asked.

“The same way a duck knows a baby swan is not one of her own.”

“So we have to avoid the alchemists, a hydra, and a hundred or so centaurs too. Any ideas on how we do that?”

“A distraction after dark.” He was more sure than ever that a fire would be their best bet. Actually, they’d need lots of fires to divide the battalion’s attention. He didn’t tell her that.

“What do we do until dark?” Vera wondered.

“Sleep,” he suggested.

“Not tired,” she claimed.

“You almost fell off of me a dozen times.”

“Why don’t you sleep?” she asked. “You’re the one who walked for a day and a half straight.”

“I’ll sleep later.” Kale flicked his tail. The cockles he’d collected along the way were driving him crazy.

“Which is when I’ll sleep too.” She leaned away to study something behind him. “Right now, how about I help get all the burs out of your tail?”

Kale shifted away. “I’m fine.”

“I’m sure you are,” she said stubbornly. “But it’s the least I can do after you carried me three-quarters of the way here.”

“I carried you so we could move faster. It wasn’t a favor.”

Vera thought for a minute. “If it makes you feel better, I’m doing this so you’re not distracted later when we need you focused. It’s all about self-preservation—not a favor either.”

“I can still see deception marks, you know.”

“Don’t care. I was just trying to make it easier for you to accept my kindness, but I’m going to help whether you like it or not.”

Kale sidestepped her.

“Stop being a baby. I’m not going to take advantage of Ferrox’s half.”

“It’s my half too,” he told her.

“Well, can you even reach that half?”

Kale glowered.

“That’s what I thought.” She snagged his tail as he dodged and held tight.

They stared off—her hanging onto the end of his tail, and him bent in half trying to reach her. Kale knew that getting his tail free would require losing some hairs. Painfully. While he debated doing just that, she pulled out one of the burs, held it up to show him, and then tossed it aside.

“See, was that so bad?”

It was, in fact. It was completely mortifying having her clean his tail. He didn’t want to admit that, though. Her knowing that he was embarrassed would be worse somehow.

“You’ve held my hair while I puked and picked fish bones and spiders out of it. It’s about time I can return the favor.”

“Is that what you think?”

A crease appeared between her brows. “Is what, what I think?”

“That you haven’t helped me?” He tried to bend around to see her better, but she yanked on his tail until he stopped moving. “You’ve helped me more than you obviously know.”

She focused intently on the burs. “If by help, you mean getting you poisoned repeatedly, making your life complicated, and driving you insane. Then sure, I’m a regular star-helper.”

“You also made me enjoy life again.”

“Then why run away?” she challenged.

Kale sighed. “Because the longer I’m around, the more dangerous I will become to you and everyone.”

“When I fell into your life, you thought I would become an evil siphon, but that didn’t stop you from helping me.” She tugged the last bur free and let his tail fall. “Now, trust me to help you hold on to you until we have a solution. Just like you did for me.”

She made it sound so reasonable.

“You can’t find a solution for this.”

“Thank you,” she said inexplicably.

“Huh?”

She walked around so he could stop twisting in half to see her and planted her hands on her hips. “Whenever someone tells me I can’t do something, I get this rush of determination to do that very thing. You’ve just guaranteed that I won’t fail.”

“Infernals be damned.” Kale looked to the stars still hidden in the dusky sky. He should’ve known better than to try to dissuade her from doing anything she was determined to do. “Then what’s your plan?”

“I’m going to figure out who else is in Suzie’s little network and shut them down. Then I’m going to find a way to break your unnatural bond. Then I’m getting my heart back.”

He almost pointed out that she didn’t really have a plan. She had a to-do list and no idea how to check those items off her list. Plans included steps and action, but they had no idea what to do next. They were wandering around hoping for a miracle. But he didn’t say any of that. Instead, he asked, “You really think we’ll get a happily ever after?”

“I don’t think life is going to hand us a happy ending, no. But I’m going to work my rear end off to make one of my own.” She stared at her toes. “I’m not naïve. I know nothing will ever be shiny and perfect like a cheesy romance movie. I don’t need perfect, though. All I need is for the world to stop imploding, and for you, Mimi, and Addamas to be safe and happy. That’s my happy ending.”

His happy ending was the same. Except he could give two blasts about his own life. The other three lives, however, were non-negotiable. And to those ends, he’d move the stars to see it happen. “How are we going to stop Suzie?”

“Well…” Vera began when the sound of heartbeats and the whisper of metal against wood caught his attention.

Kale tucked Vera near his side and raised his sword as a line of centaurs approached from behind. The soldiers had trapped them on the ledge with nowhere to go. Kale hadn’t heard them coming, and he had been paying attention. They must have been hiding nearby, silently waiting for that exact moment to come out. The arca peeked at the centaurs with one eye, before falling back asleep like his cargo. Kale wasn’t relieved. Just because the creature didn’t sense danger for itself didn’t mean there wasn’t danger in spades for Vera and him.

“Come quietly, and no one needs to be hurt,” said the captain of the band.

Kale was surprised that their bare arms were unmarked. “Where would we be going?”

“The alchemists want to meet you.”

“Why?” Vera asked.

“They want to know why you planned to burn down the city tonight, if our Intel hadn’t alerted us.”

“Your Intel is wrong,” Vera informed the soldier. “If someone’s planning to burn down the city, it’s not us. You have the wrong people.”

“Not you,” said the centaur. “Him. And the fire would’ve devastated half the city.”

“How do you know about that?” Kale demanded. It was still a plan he hadn’t fully formed.

Vera whipped around to face him.

“As I said, Intel,” replied the captain.

Vera gave Kale one more dark glare and then asked the centaur, “Was it from an oracle?”

A couple of centaurs laughed.

Kale knew the topic of him burning down half a city was far from over. She’d only put a pin in it.

“The oracles don’t speak anymore,” said the captain. “They are not how we knew about you.”

Vera frowned. “Let me guess. You received a package with some interesting prophesies, which have all come true. Until now.”

That wiped the mirth from the centaurs’ faces. “You’re to drink these.” The captain held out two corked flasks of black liquid.

“Poison doesn’t work on me,” Vera informed him.

“It’s not poison. It’s a very specialized potion,” said the centaur. “And it will work just fine on you.”

“Our friend is sick. She can’t handle whatever that is,” Vera tried next.

The centaur considered the arca and nymph. “Our instructions say to let those two come on their own. No potions. You two, however, are not to be trusted. Before we made it to the Academy, you’d screw everything up with some escape plan.”

A growl rumbled in Kale’s chest.

“Of course, if you say no, I have permission to put an arrow through all of your legs, so you can’t run. Which would you prefer?” The centaur held up the flasks at the same time as his soldiers aimed bolts at his and Vera’s legs.

Knowing Vera’s luck, they’d hit an artery, and she’d bleed out. “It looks like we get to drink your sludge,” Kale relented.

“Wise choice,” said the captain.

Vera came to slowly. She was standing on her own two feet like she was waking from sleepwalking. Kale’s cry of outrage woke her. There was a scuffle of large bodies. It was Kale against an entire troop of centaurs. Some non-humans watched safely from their balconies above the small arena.

“She’s awake,” called one of the centaurs. “She’s awake!”

The scuffling stopped, and the centaurs parted. Vera finally saw all of Kale. He was bloody, breathing hard, and his eyes glowed in anger. He clasped a centaur by the neck and pinned another underneath a hoof. The others tried and failed to free their comrades.

“Vera?” he asked her.

“How did we get here?” She looked over the square arena decorated in every shade of gold imaginable. Which made the dirt floor an odd choice.

“Give her an order,” Kale told the head centaur.

“Come here, girl,” the centaur commanded her.

Vera rubbed her eyes, still trying to process where she was and replied, “Screw you.”

“There, you see. It has worn off just as we promised,” said a blond man with a meticulously groomed beard.

Vera looked up at him and the well-dressed people around him.

“You promised it would wear off hours ago.” Kale backed away from the centaurs, his arm still around the throat of one.

“It seems that giving her the same size dose as you was a bit of overkill after all.”

“The fact that she has regained control of her mind at all,” began a woman beside Beard-o, but he cut her off with a wave.

“We knew she’d be powerful,” said Beard-o. “Now release that soldier before I command them to shoot you.

“You could’ve been wrong.” Kale’s eyes burned demon-red. He pulled an arrow out of his side and held it to the centaur’s neck. “I should kill you all.”

Kale didn’t seem to notice or care about the archers aiming for him.

“Kale, I’m okay.” Vera tried to move toward Kale. Two soldiers flanking her, positioned themselves to stop her. She considered calling on her magics so she could kick their tails out of the way but knew that would escalate Kale. She needed to stay calm. “Really, Kale. Just let them go.”

“I want to kill them.”

“If you do, we can’t go home,” she said. “I want to go home.”

Anger and tension slowly melted from his muscles. “Okay.”

The centaurs hurried to get their men away from Kale.

“Where’s Airlea?” Vera asked, suddenly remembering the nymph.

“I delivered her to the meadow,” Kale said. “They are caring for her there. The arca won’t leave her side until she is healed.”

“Quite the conundrum for us,” said Beard-o. “We’ve been trying to get through the gate for months without success. But your friend had no problem leaving.” His frown deepened. “Or returning. How is that possible? And how did you come to be in Acadia in the first place?”

Wouldn’t you love to know? With fake innocence, Vera replied, “Magic?”

The man considered her calmly, but the woman at his elbow stared daggers.

“What do you want from us so that we can leave?” Vera asked.

“What I want, is to execute you as trespassers, who plotted to burn down my city.”

“We didn’t plot—”

“Ah.” Beard-o lifted a finger, and two crossbows shifted. “I have not finished speaking. Interrupt me again, and I will have my men put another bolt in your abomination of a friend.” Another? Vera scanned Kale and counted three arrows protruding from him. And lots more blood than she’d realized. There was no telling how many he’d pulled out already.

“Kale,” she gasped.

“I’ve been in worse shape.” He winked. “Once was at your hands.”

“As I said, I want to execute you both,” cut in Beard-o. “But I will not because the welfare of my people matters more to me. For their sakes alone, you will stay here for two nights as my guest. If you are still alive after two days, you may leave.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Vera said and belatedly added, “respectfully.”

“My instructions say that to save my people, I must capture you and contain you for two days. Unrestrained.” That detail made him obviously unhappy. “There is something you are supposed to do, and if you do it, you will be allowed to leave at the end of those two days.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Vera asked.

“Something that is impossible.” The man sighed. “But impossible has been happening a lot lately, so you may just succeed.”

Vera waited for more information, but it appeared he was finished. “That’s all I get? You can’t at least tell me what impossible thing I’m supposed to do?”

“No.”

“When did these instructions arrive? If you don’t mind my asking.” Vera fisted her hands by her sides. She already knew who they were from.

“Seven weeks ago,” he answered.

Long after Noah was dead. Someone else in Suzie’s network had sent the package, then. Maybe the same person who’d sent that care package to Addamas’s adoptive dad in Nibiru. A package that had gotten her claimed by a chauvinistic unicorn. Probably the boss Noah had told her about—some cohort of Suzie’s. Unfortunately, whatever the message predicted, would probably happen. Vera just hoped that whatever it was, it didn’t end the world because the alchemists were not making her stay optional. Meanwhile, she’d use the time to track down an oracle. With some luck, she’d learn where Suzie was from, and where to start looking for her network, by the time they left in two days.

“Okay,” Vera said. “So what happens now?”

“You’ll be taken to the most secluded tower and remain as comfortable as your behavior allows,” said Beard-o.

“Tower?” Vera peeked at Kale, who blinked a tad too long. “That doesn’t seem to be the best option for someone like my friend.”

“Who is your friend, by the way? We never got his name or an explanation for how he came to be an unnatural.”

Vera shrugged. “He’s been one since I met him.” Technically true.“I call him Scotchie.” Also true.

Beard-o gave her a look that said he didn’t believe any of her crap. “The tower is for you. Your friend will remain in the dungeon.”

“You said we were to remain unrestrained.”

“You, not him,” clarified Beard-o. “I cannot have him wandering free after what he did to my men.”

“He needs medical attention,” Vera pointed out. “He cannot be dumped into some damp, moldy dungeon.” She’d never actually seen a real dungeon, but that’s what she pictured. When no one corrected her, she figured she wasn’t far off.

“I will have supplies gathered for you. You can tend to his injuries as you see fit.”

“I’m not a doctor.” She was trying not to freak out about the amount of blood dripping down Kale’s sides, but she was totally freaking out. Kale was growing more and more somber by the minute. He was in bad shape. Otherwise, he’d be ripping these people a new one, alongside her.

“If you’d rather, we can put bolts through each of his hearts and end his suffering quickly,” offered Beard-o. “I’d thought the abominations were supposed to be indestructible, but perhaps the stories were exaggerated.”

“I just need to rest, Vera,” Kale said gently. “I’ll be okay.”

“Fine. Two days and then we are out of here. Got it?”

“Got it,” Beard-o repeated awkwardly, the phrase foreign to him.

“Send medical supplies to the dungeon first. I’m going to take care of Kale before you lead me to that stupid tower of yours.” And then she was going sleuthing for an oracle.

The trip to the dungeon seemed to take forever, with Kale stumbling along behind. She’d been worried about him having to climb up tower steps, but seeing him struggle down the dungeon stairs was even more terrifying. She was sure he was going to fall, and no one would be able to catch him. When they finally walked into his cell, which was every bit as bad as Vera had imagined, Kale murmured, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I’m going to need your help getting the arrows out. And whatever poison they were dipped in.”

“They’re poisoned?”

“Yep.” Kale leaned against a sticky stone wall. “Hey, it’s probably a good thing.”

“How is any of this a good thing?”

“Because I’m not going to be conscious when you pull them out.” With that, he slumped to the floor.

“Kale?” Vera ran to his side and felt for a pulse. It was there. Crap, now what am I supposed to do? I thought you weren’t supposed to pull out an arrow… Then again, these are poisoned. Vera hurried to grasp the first and pulled. It barely moved. It never occurred to her that removing an arrow would be difficult. She swung around to beg the centaurs for help, but they backed away.

“Knock when you’re ready to go to your room.” They closed and barred the heavy wooden door. Only dim light filtered through a small opening.

Vera gritted her teeth and wrapped both hands around one of the bolts. She dug in her heels and pulled until the bolt slipped free. She didn’t let herself dwell on the copper tang in the air or the squelching of metal against muscle as it came out. She would never forget, though. Methodically, she moved to the next and then the final. Once they were free, blood oozed down his sides and mingled with ribbons of golden alchemist magic—the poison.

Vera curled against him, touching his skin with her hands and burying her face in his chest. She was going for the most skin-on-skin contact she could manage. The toxins took her to her knees. Unlike the poisons she’d extracted before, this was magic-based, which meant her siphon wanted to consume it.

That didn’t seem like such a good idea with magic wielders around to sense if she suddenly had alchemist magic in her void. They already knew Kale was an unnatural. If they figured out she was a siphon, she wasn’t sure they’d abide by the two-day rule. Vera pushed the hunger away and let the toxins filter through her. After a few minutes, Kale’s breathing evened, but it was still shallow. She figured that was a result of blood loss as the injuries continued to weep.

A while later, the door groaned open for an old woman carrying a pile of cloth bandages and a jar of something that looked like muddy water.

She held both out to Vera, breathing hard from her trip down into the dungeon. “This stop his bleeding.” Her accent was thick, but Vera didn’t recognize it.

The woman blinked long and swayed with a hand to her chest. The centaurs behind her didn’t move to assist her. Or seem to care one bit.

Vera rested a hand under the woman’s arm. “Are you okay?”

“Of course.”

She turned to leave, and Vera had a mental image of her falling back down three flights of zigzagging stairs as she had a heart attack. But Vera couldn’t help the woman until she helped Kale.

“Wait,” Vera said. “Let me take care of my friend and then I’ll help you upstairs.”

“I am not needing your help,” scoffed the woman. “I have other chores I am still to do.”

The woman retreated to the steps and took the first one unsteadily, like it pained her. Why in the heck would they make someone in her condition climb up and down these freaking stairs? Behind her, Kale wheezed. I don’t have time for this.

“Hold on. I need your help,” Vera called to the woman with a wince. Fortunately, she didn’t see it since her back was to Vera. “I think he’s dying, and I need you to show me how to do this.”

The old woman hesitated.

“Please.” Vera was not above begging.

“All right.” The woman turned precariously and came back down the step. Vera fidgeted to keep herself from grasping the woman’s arm to support her. She had a feeling the woman with frown creases would not appreciate being Vera-handled. Once they were safely closed inside the cell, without the thuds of a falling old woman to haunt her, Vera breathed a sigh of relief.

“He should not have fight with soldiers. Then he would not be in this…” The woman frowned, searching for the right word. “Mess.”

“I’m sure you’d fight too if you’d been captured,” Vera said with all the gentleness she could muster. Really, she wanted to tell the woman she didn’t know what she was talking about.

“I am not fight.” The woman uncapped the bottle and unceremoniously doused Kale’s wounds. “That is why am alive to be old.”

“You’re a captive?”

“Of course. Do I look like alchemist to you?”

Vera hadn’t really paid much attention to what alchemists looked like. Honestly, even studying her weathered skin and thin wispy hair closely, Vera didn’t know if she could see a difference. “What are you?”

“I am human.”

Vera jerked back. “You’re from Earth?”

“Now I worry you are not bright,” said the woman. “And I understand why you need help. Don’t stand there like dimwit. Put pressure on wounds until potion clots blood.”

Vera gritted her teeth and pressed the fabric to the wounds, reminding herself that the woman had had a long and hard life. And she was helping patch up Kale even though she didn’t have to.

“Creatures of Earth not human,” continued the woman. “Only seem human because no magic to devour. My kind are real human.”

Suddenly Vera understood. “You don’t have magic.”

“Yes, that is what human means.” The woman rolled her eyes at Vera’s apparent stupidity. “Alchemists use human blood for magic. Let human stay in city. If kick human out, no way for human to protect self from magical creatures.”

“Are there humans in other realms?”

“If are, probably not lucky to have wielders to protect like here. Are probably dead.” She handed the bottle to Vera.

“The alchemists don’t care too much, if they’re making you run up and down to the dungeons.”

“Alchemists not make me to work,” the woman defended. “Granddaughter sick. Work her errands so not lose job.” She applied the last of the potion and bandages then slowly straightened.

“Thank you for helping me,” Vera said. “How can I repay you?”

“By not wasting more my time. Have chores.” She turned to leave.

Vera set the bottle and rags down and cast one more look at Kale before following. Kale was resting. His breathing was strong and even. She’d check back on him later.

“Where you are going?” the woman asked suspiciously.

“To help you up the stairs.”

“I am not need help.”

“Consider it repayment for helping me,” Vera insisted.

The woman tried to ignore Vera but only made it a couple of steps before relenting. “Fine, but only so I get to top sooner. And then you will leave me alone.”

Vera hooked her arm under the woman’s and accepted her weight. The woman gripped the railing with her other hand. Her knuckles were enlarged with arthritis. Even with Vera’s help, she was sweating and panting by the time they reached the top. More centaur guards were stationed near the landing and watched them. The woman pulled away from Vera with all the dignity of a queen, and without another look or word, moved slowly on to finish her granddaughter’s chores.

Vera realized too late that the woman was probably the best person to ask about oracles. She probably knew everyone and everything. When Vera went to chase her down, one of the guards stepped in front of her.

“We will show you your room now.”

“Wait,” she tried to go around him, but he barred her path. Vera stopped to glare. “Can it wait two minutes?”

“No. Our orders are to take you to your room as soon as you leave the dungeons and…request that you stay there.”

Vera twisted to see around the centaur, but the old woman was gone. She threw her hands up. “Fine. Show me to my tower.”

She didn’t figure they’d let up until they’d followed their orders, but she wasn’t going to acquiesce to their request to stay put. She had an old woman to find, and then she was coming back to stay with Kale.