LOFTIN

Panting, I waited, knife in hand behind a large oak. He approached quietly, the pads of his feet barely crunching the leaves beneath him. He knew I had stopped, but hadn’t scented me yet. The stench of him hit my nose; putrid and reeking of rot and blood that was not his own. The hound had fed recently, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from trying to feed upon me as well.

In the pursuit, he’d called for his friends. I’d already cut two of the bloody bastards down. He would be the third, and hopefully the last.

He was close.

Within feet now.

He stopped and sniffed the air, and then let loose a growl.

He’d found me.

Springing out from behind the tree, I lunged at him, plunging the knife into his side as his canines tore at my leather bracers. A quick stab to the neck and his high-pitched keening was all that remained of him as I kicked his thick body off me. Laying on the ground, his chest rose and fell sharply as his tongue lolled from his mouth. The beast’s white fur was stained red, and the stain was growing.

I’d been to four human villages, each one blocked with a wall of smoke. And though the smoke was thin, I couldn’t see inside and didn’t sense any fae within the domes that sheltered them. I couldn’t sense any power within them, only the power of the wall itself. And the humans who exited those domes? Worthless. Blathering on about smoke and holding out an assortment of spices hung in bags around their necks or from their belts to repel the fae. I let them think it worked. They weren’t worth my time.

Nemain was sure the girl was in one of the human villages. She’d scoured the land of Faery and come up empty-handed, but she disclosed that her mirror showed smoke—like the walls that bound the human cities. Maybe she was right. Maybe the girl was inside. Despite their weakened state, the walls were still powerful, strong enough that Nemain couldn’t weaken them, let alone bring them down. But I wondered if it wasn’t just another diversion meant to throw a hunter from the girl’s trail.

I wiped my blade with my thumb and forefinger and rubbed the blood that came off it onto the Dorchan’s back. Devil mutt.

It would be wise to stop and rest, but something would be along soon to feast on the canine, and I didn’t want to be around when it did. Exhaustion had set in, and I needed to find shelter and food for the night if I wanted to make it to the next villages and still be able to defend myself the following day.

I was strong, a warrior, the best hunter in Faery, turned bounty hunter out of sheer desperation. But food and a short rest would see that I didn’t fall to one of the Unseelie beasts that still roamed the woods.

Time to make and cover my own tracks.

* * *

A few miles away, a human scent lingered in the air. I sniffed and followed the trail to find a small human female. She’d climbed a tree and was sitting on a low, but wide branch, clinging to the trunk and crying as quietly as she could.

She saw me, whimpering as I approached. “Please, don’t hurt me. I just want to get the smoke and go home.”

I already knew about the human’s silly superstitions, but played along anyway. “Smoke?”

“We need smoke for our wall. I just want to get it and go home. Please don’t hurt me.”

I ticked my head to the side. “Why would I hurt you?”

“Because you’re fae.”

“Do fae often hurt humans where you’re from?”

She sniffled, wiping her nose with her sleeve. “We have no fae where I live.”

“And where is that?”

“I shouldn’t tell you.”

I smiled. Smart girl. “My guess is Ironton.” It was the closest village.

Her eyes widened and her lips parted. “You know of Ironton?”

“I know of all the human villages. You’re far from home. I’m surprised you’ve managed to survive in Faery for so long a time.”

Her sobbing began in earnest. “Something just chased me here. I... I’m hurt.” Her hand trembled as she wiped her wet cheeks. The other arm was wrapped around her middle. One of the legs of her pants was mangled. Blood dripped from her calf onto the ground below. Something had torn into her. Although her leg wound wasn’t fatal, I hadn’t seen the wound at her stomach yet.

“What’s your name?” I asked. If this girl was Nemain’s daughter, I was going to fall on my knees and weep.

“We’re not supposed to give our names to the fae,” she recited.

“I can’t help you unless you do.”

She considered it for a moment, adjusting her grip on the tree trunk. “It’s Trava,” she confessed quietly. Her clothing was finely made and her red, braided hair was snarled with leaves, twigs poking out from the strands.

“What attacked you?”

“I don’t know!” she cried. “I couldn’t see anything, even when it bit into me.”

“Come down from the tree, Trava,” I urged, compelling her to listen and obey. She shouldn’t have given me her name. Now, I could use it against her. Slowly, she threw her leg over the branch and gingerly made her way down the trunk. Trava stood in front of me, quivering from head to toe. She was so unfortunately human it was pathetic.

“What will happen if you don’t return with the smoke, Trava?”

“I can’t go back until I gather it. I am the Retriever this year, and so many others have failed. That’s why the wall grows thin,” she explained in a dreamy voice.

“And if you go back without it?”

She shook her head. “My father forbade it. It would shame our family.”

Her own father would rather her die than return empty-handed. The humans had grown as cruel as the fae.

“Will anyone else leave Ironton soon?”

She shook her head. “I am the Retriever, and the only one they’ll send until next year.”

She was condemned. The truth was that there was nothing in Faery to repair their precious wall; no magic smoke or fae who would be able to help. But her family would join her in death soon enough. As would all of the humans in the villages that dotted this land. Because their smoky domes were thinning. Their magic was failing, dying like everything else touched by the Ash in this land. It might take years for them to completely dissipate, but once the magic and the walls were gone, the Unseelie would slaughter them all.

There was no one who would come to their aid. The Seelie that survived Nemain were too scared to come out of hiding to help them.

“Are you sure there are no fae in Ironton?” I asked.

Her pupils dilated. “There are no fae.” She winced as she shifted her weight. “There is a girl, though. Everyone calls her a Changeling. She’s a Trencher. I’ve only seen her once. Her ears aren’t pointed at the tops like yours, and she’s blind. I think people just like to pick on her.”

A Changeling? My core tensed, bracing for the hope that this was a true clue to the girl’s whereabouts. That was the first time any of the sniveling humans I’ve spoken to have mentioned an aberration.

“What’s the Changeling’s name?”

“Karis, I think,” she conceded, eyes wide and fixated on me.

Whomever had hidden her didn’t bother changing her name? How careless.

And fortunate.

“You say she’s a Trencher. What is that, exactly?”

Her lip curled. “She lives in the Trenches, a disgusting slum. The Trenchers aren’t like us. The stench of that place sometimes wafts up into the Slopes. I’m a Sloper, you see,” she boasted.

Humans. Always trying to separate themselves, when they were all the same.

“What does Karis look like?” I asked.

“It’s been years since I saw her, but she has the strangest hair. It’s like this,” she divulged, reaching up to catch a piece of dark ash in her hand. “Not quite black, but not gray. Some shade in between.”

“Her eyes?”

She shook her head. “Can’t remember. Like I said, it’s been years. I don’t go near the Trenchers unless I have to. Even in the amphitheater, we’re given premier seating, and the Trenchers have to sit far up on the mountainside.”

“A reversal of your living arrangements,” I mused.

“The most important among us get the best seats,” she answered, shrugging.

“How would I find her?”

She crinkled her brow. “Fae can’t get through the wall.”

“Assume that I have magical powers and can get through. Where would I find Karis?”

“I have no idea. In the Trenches, that’s all I know. She lives with a runner. He’s delivered things to our house before. His name is Iric. He’s fast and—”

“What does he look like?”

“Chestnut hair and brown eyes. Long lashes. He’s tall and lean and handsome,” she swooned.

“I thought you didn’t like Trenchers.”

“He’s probably the only exception to that rule, not that my father would ever approve of a Trencher for a husband, but the Slopers love him. He’s fastest to deliver anything, and strong enough to carry anything we order home.”

“You say Karis is blind?”

“Yes, she is. It’s strange, though…”

“What is strange?” I prodded.

She sighed. “The last time I saw her, she looked at me. And it felt like she could see me, but she uses a stick to feel in front of her, and at the time, Iric was guiding her. I’d said hello because he had just been to our house earlier that day. He introduced her to me.”

I blew out a breath. Karis was in Ironton, living with a human male in a slum. How in the hell was I going to get through the wall? The information would be valuable to Nemain, but if I didn’t return to her with Karis, she wouldn’t bring my father’s life force back.

“Trava, are you sure you don’t want to return to Ironton?”

She coughed and blood blossomed across her middle. I knew she wouldn’t survive the trip back to Ironton. “I’m sure,” she asserted. “I don’t want to shame my family.”

She was choosing death. “I want you to walk north. Don’t stop until you come to a wide river.” She wouldn’t make it another half mile. How she’d survived thus far was pure luck, but she clearly didn’t want to return to Ironton, and I wouldn’t take her life. “If you hear another fae, climb a tree if you can. Try to get away. And don’t trust them. Don’t give them your name.”

“Okay.” She blinked and began walking in the direction I instructed, and I made tracks toward Ironton with an unsettled feeling in my gut. There could be other humans named Karis, but what were the odds? If the missing princess were indeed hidden within the human city, how in the hell was I going to get her out? If Trava wasn’t dying, I would have sent her in to get Karis. However, in her condition, she wouldn’t be able to search the Trenches for the blind girl.

I had to find another way, or else find another human whose guts weren’t spilling out of her abdomen.

The magic was strong enough that I couldn’t pass through the wall.

At least, I thought it was.

There was only one way to find out, and I had to figure something out fast. Nemain didn’t say how long I had, but I knew her patience was worn thinner than the wall I was about to try to break through.

* * *

KARIS

I watched the wall until Iric stirred, mesmerized and unable to glance away from the undulating surface. The fae I saw on the other side didn’t linger and hadn’t returned. It still felt like a dream. I pinched myself often enough to know that I was lucid, but it didn’t seem real.

Now I knew what Iric meant when he described it as less a wall and more a dome that settled over the city. Broad at the base and arced over Ironton, its top was clear and completely open, with no smoke roiling over the sky. But that was all I could see; the wall, the smoke within it, and the things that were trying to get into the city. When I tried to inspect my hands, the damp skirts over my legs, the grass beneath my fingers, or the watchtower itself, I saw nothing but darkness. In Ironton, I was still blind.

The Governor made a mistake. Trava couldn’t have been gifted with fae sight, because I was. And I received the gift precious hours too late to stop her. But what if I could save her? What if I could get the smoke and save us all?

By dawn, the reasons why I should go far outweighed the reasons I shouldn’t. I’d been given a gift and needed to be brave enough to use it. On my own.

“Iric?”

I needed supplies, and Iric could help me get them. His sleepy reply came from above. “Yeah?”

“Can you come down here?”

“What are you doing?” I listened as he climbed down from the tower and reached a hand out to him. His callouses brushed my skin as he took hold of my hand. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. What is it?”

“Iric, something is very wrong on the other side of the wall.” My lips and chin trembled as I spoke the words. I thought I’d calmed myself down by now, but was wrong.

“Did you hear something? Do we need to sound the bell?” he asked anxiously.

I swallowed thickly. “No, but I saw it. I can see through the smoke, Iric. I’ve been gifted with the faery sight.”

He laughed for a brief moment, like I was trying to play a trick on him. When I didn’t join him, his laughter faded away. “You’re joking.”

I shook my head. “I’m not. I can see the smoke, the domed wall, and the things attempting to come through it.” I grabbed on to his upper arms to steady myself.

“Can you see me?” With his thumb, he tipped my chin up. I tried to imagine what he looked like. I knew colors. Knew that at one point, I had seen its infinite shades. I knew what things looked like and could picture them in my mind: grass, metal, red, birds, glass. At one point in my life, I had perfect vision.

From the descriptions of others, I knew that Iric had brown hair and lighter brown eyes, but wasn’t sure of their shade or the shape of his features. He was a head taller than I, muscled but lean, with bronze skin. He was also decidedly handsome, from all the female whispers that always trailed him through the Trenches. I’d made an image of him in my mind, but wasn’t sure if I was remotely right, because I couldn’t see him standing right in front of me.

“No, I can’t see you,” I breathed, “but I can see out there.” I nodded toward the wall.

Right then, an ear-splitting boom came from the wall. I crouched and covered my ears.

“What is it?” he asked, clutching my upper arms. “What’s happening?”

With wide eyes, I searched the roiling gray until it parted with another bang. This time, it wasn’t a hand at all, but the enormous tail of an equally large beast that was banging against the enclosure. “A beast.” My voice trembled. “It’s... huge. Its tail struck the wall. Can’t you hear it?” There were spines all along the scaled tail of the animal, but the smoke concealed the rest of it.

He tucked me under his chin, resting it on my head and wrapping his arms around me. “No, I can’t. This is crazy, K.”

I knew it was. “Iric?” My heart thundered.

“Yeah?”

“I need to see if I can save that girl – Trava. You said you didn’t think she had the sight, and I know that’s true because I do. If she’s still alive somehow, I could bring her home safely.”

He pulled away from me and began pacing through the grass. “She’s probably already dead. If you’re seeing monsters from here, that means she came across them, too.”

At times, Iric could be exasperating. “But what if she’s alive and terrified? I could help bring her home. I have to try!”

He let out a frustrated breath. “Why? Why do you have to? She’s a Sloper. Do you think she’d do the same for you if the situation were reversed?”

“It’s not about that!” I insisted. “And even if it were true—”

“It is,” he argued, the anger thick in his voice. And then I understood. Why would the fae pick me when they could pick someone else who wasn’t damaged? Why not an esteemed Sloper? Or someone like Iric? The thoughts had assaulted me through the night as I watched, but in the end, there was no argument that trumped the fact that I had the sight and needed to do this. The responsibility had been given to me.

“Okay, let’s assume you’re right,” I bargained. “In the end it doesn’t matter, because we aren’t like them. We’re better. If I can see her home and somehow gather the smoke we need—and believe me, Iric, we need it—I owe it to everyone to go and try.”

Iric stopped pacing and came to a stop in front of me, his toes brushing mine, his breath fanning the small, flyaway hairs as he settled his chin on my head and hugged me tight. “You’re like a sister to me. You can’t blame me for not wanting you to bear this burden. There are so many things that could go wrong…accidents that could happen to you on the other side.” Hesitant, he added, “You said there are monsters.”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“What if you go across the wall and become blind again?”

The thought had crossed my mind. “Then I’ll cross back.”

“What if the wall won’t let you back in?”

I picked at my sleeve. “It will. The woman from the Trenches made it back with the smoke. It’s been years, but she came back.”

“So they say, but she had smoke. Maybe that’s the key to getting back in.”

“Maybe it’s not. Maybe it really is as simple as stepping back through to the other side.”

He stepped away from me and sighed. I could hear his fingers rake through his hair. “You have an answer for everything, but K, I don’t think this is as simple as you’re making it out to be.”

“And I don’t think it’s as complicated as you’re making it out to be. Look, I’ve thought about it for hours, and I’ve already decided I’m going through that wall, but before I do, I need your help. I need supplies, something other than a dress to wear—something I can easily move in—and then I need you to take me back to this exact spot and let me go.”

“Are you just trying to leave because of Vivica? I know she’s said some awful things to you, but you should never listen to her, K.”

“It’s not because of her.”

“Is it the others?”

He promised to never bring that up again. “It’s not them,” I scoffed, trying not to get exasperated with him. “Iric, I can see through the smoke. I swear it. I’ve never lied to you, and I’m not suicidal.”

His teeth ground together.

Dew clung to my skirts, weighing down the hem. Though it was homespun cotton and soft, it would not be easy to travel in.

“I need boots.”

“Boots?” He sank to his knees and took one of my feet in his hands. “Why didn’t you tell me?” His calloused thumb brushed the bare sole of my foot through the gaping hole on the bottom.

“Because you have more than enough to worry about. The state of the soles of my shoes aren’t important.”

“Yes, they are. You’re like a sister to me, not to mention my best friend. There’s nothing more important than my family, and I count you among them, K.” He rose to his feet, his voice just in front of me. “What if something happens to you? I’m fast. I could make it to the smoke, and if Trava is still alive, I could help her back.”

“But you don’t have the sight!” I argued. “Without it, you can’t see the fae. You’d just see the woods around you. And besides, the fae are the ones who gift the sight. Maybe the sight isn’t all they gift. What if they also offer protection?”

“Yes,” he contradicted sarcastically. “That must be why so many Retrievers have made it back to Ironton.”

His sense of humor sucked sometimes.

But what if we could combine our skills? With his speed and my sight, maybe we would stand a better chance at success and survival... “What if we went together?” I suggested.

He paused to consider my question. “We could. We could do this. But we’d have to make sure the boys don’t starve.”

“We can give them enough iron to last until we get back,” I offered.

“How do we know how long we’ll be gone?”

“We give them all we have and pray they use it wisely.” That was the only answer I could give him. “If we succeed, if we make it back with the smoke, the Governor will have to reward us.” With a grin, I added, “Even the Slopers would appreciate us then. Imagine, a hero from the Trenches.”

“Two heroes,” he agreed quietly, pensively. But he and I both knew I would never be hailed a hero in this world.

I listened as Iric climbed the ladder. Another moment later, he descended, taking my hand and positioning it on my staff. “You have to promise me that you won’t take one step outside that wall until I can get more information and we can properly prepare.”

I wanted to argue; Trava could die while we hesitated, but he was right. If we went into Faery unprepared, we might not make it back alive. “I promise, but you have to promise to hurry.”

He grunted his assent. We walked side by side in the grassy paths that lay between the fields of crops, passing the Border Gray who would take our place. Normally, we stopped to talk to him, but there was no time this morning.

“Let me guess,” he chided. “Nothing came through the wall.”

Iric replied in the affirmative with a stilted laugh.

If he only knew what was outside it.

We followed the smooth, dirt path until we came to the Trenches, winding through the alleys and streets, until the shanties thinned and we finally arrived at our home.

Inside, Iric quickly removed his jacket. I heard the fabric swish against the wall as he hung it on the hook and dressed for his deliveries. “I hate leaving you here,” he admitted. “But I need to make these runs to earn enough iron to get what we need. Then the rest of what we have saved will see the boys through until we return.”

“I won’t stay with Vivica again,” I retorted.

“I know,” he bargained. But I could tell in the strain of his voice that he wished I would.

He was worried. He’d found me that day, shaking and crying, rocking in the corner. I didn’t tell him what happened, but he knew it was bad. “I need to rest. I’ll be right here when you finish your runs.”

He tapped the tin roof of the tiny porch twice before stepping off it. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

When I was sure he was gone, I waited five minutes and then left the house, my staff quickly tapping the earth in front of my feet. Iric would be far ahead of me, and no one would have to know where I was going.

The only woman who would have the answers we needed was the woman Iric admitted was staring at me from her home near the Trench Market yesterday; the only one who had made it back from Faery with the smoke. She could tell me what I needed to bring, what I would face, and how to find and bottle the smoke our wall needed to be rejuvenated.

My staff knocked back and forth over the worn path I knew led to the market. When I could hear the hustle and bustle of bargains being made, iron being exchanged, and the scent of wood smoke and spices, I paused, hoping someone might help me find her.

About that time, Dusty’s small hand slipped into mine. “Karis, why are you here alone?”

“You caught me,” I confessed, crouching down and flashing him a smile. “I need to find someone. Do you think you can help me?”

“Sure I can.”

“Where are your brothers?”

“They’re still asleep,” he claimed, shifting his weight on his feet.

“Good. Do you know the game ‘Bets and Bargains’?”

“I do. I’m better at it than even Mage,” he boasted.

I smiled at him. “I’m sure you are. I’ll make a bargain with you. If you help me, and you keep this excursion a secret from all your brothers, I’ll buy you and all of them breakfast.”

“Sure,” Dusty quickly agreed. “What do you need from the market?”

“I need to find someone who lives nearby, a woman. Iric said she was outside watching us from her house yesterday as we passed by on the path from the amphitheater to Watchtower thirty-four.” I described where on the path we’d stopped, so he would know where to search for the woman’s house.

“Then we need to go all the way across the market,” he announced authoritatively, tugging my hand as we started walking. “What’s the woman’s name?”

“I don’t know, but Iric said she was the only Retriever to have returned with smoke.”

“I’m not sure which house is hers, but I’m sure we can find her.” Dusty paused. “Are you sure we should be bothering her?”

“You don’t have to go with me to speak with her, but I need you to be my eyes.”

He squeezed my hand comfortingly. “Okay.”

There were only a few houses that could be hers, Dusty reported, and all of them were empty this morning. Two, he concluded, were lived in, but no one was home. The third one’s roof had caved in, and the walls had collapsed.

My heart sank. Iric would know which house it was, and he knew what the woman looked like. He could bring me back before we left Ironton.

“Tell you what – I can have Iric bring me back later. He knows exactly where to find her. And I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Why don’t you find us something for breakfast?”

“Eggs!” he exclaimed, tugging me in the direction of so many delicious smells. The market held wares, but also freshly prepared food. Eggs would do us both some good. I should have just enough iron to buy both of us something to eat, and for him to take some to Mage and Root.

We waited quietly while he asked the vendor to make our breakfasts. The sound of someone beating rugs, and the dust that came out of them, wafted into the air, tickling my nose. A couple of men haggled over the price of a knife next door. Lambs bleated in a nearby fenced booth.

Dusty’s hand tightened on mine.

“What’s the matter?” I whispered.

“Nothing. We should just go soon.”

“What is it?”

Even after I pressed, he wouldn’t tell me what was wrong. We took our cups full of eggs, an extra for the other two boys and a portion for Iric, and Dusty quickly led me away from the market. He took me to the small, but new home he and his brothers had built themselves. I didn’t dare ask where they got the materials.

We gave the boys their eggs, and though I expected Dusty to point me in the direction of my own home so I could rest, he offered to walk me back.

Inside my house, I waited for him to leave, but he was in no hurry, which was odd. “I’ll stay here while you sleep,” he insisted solicitously.

“Why would you do that?” His brothers would no doubt come searching for him, and he never stayed with us so long.

He didn’t answer.

“Dusty, why did you want to leave the market so fast?” Hot anger coursed through my veins. A cool, fierce wind forced the door open and flew through the cave. I could hear his sigh as the wind calmed and he pulled the door closed. “What did you see in the market? What aren’t you telling me, Dusty?” I sat on my cot, waiting as he crossed the floor boards and settled on Iric’s cot across from me.

“I saw Iric and he... he was angry. You were supposed be home asleep, not in the market. I was supposed to distract you.”

Distract me?

My stomach clenched. “Dusty, no. Tell me he didn’t.”

Dusty sniffled.

We left the market an hour ago, maybe more. That meant Iric was planning to go after the smoke without me. Iric was gone; just as foolish as he was brave, and I had to go after him. And if one of the fae monsters hadn’t already eaten him, I was going to kill him.

“Dusty, I need you to run to the market and see if you can find a few things for me, and then I need you to get back here as fast as you possibly can. Do you understand?”

“What do you need?” he asked as I rummaged through a box I kept hidden under my cot. I placed all the iron I had in his hand and gave him a list of items—which I made him repeat to me three times.

Pants, shirt, and boots that would likely fit me. I felt for the knife beneath my cot.

“Please don’t forget what I need. Now go, Dusty. It’s important that you make like your fool of a brother and run.”

His footsteps rushed across the floor and the door hinges squeaked as he opened and closed it behind him. I grabbed my forehead and uttered a curse, and then cursed myself for not seeing Iric’s intention from the moment I told him and he agreed to go with me. I should have left without him like I intended to do.

Another half hour passed by the time Dusty returned. In the meantime, I packed what food we had in a sack—a small piece of bread that didn’t smell too moldy, an apple, and a canteen of water—and attached a rope through it so I could wear it on my back.

“Turn your head away,” I told Dusty as I shrugged off my dress, tugged on the pants, and buttoned the shirt he brought me. The pants were tight and a little too short, but they would be covered by the boots he brought. Those were also too small, but better than the ones I had. The soles were thick, with no holes in the leather.

“All clear,” I told him as I began to braid my hair.

The front door burst open and someone strode in. “Mother,” Dusty sputtered in surprise. He backed into me as she approached, bumping into my legs. My hands found his shoulders.

“What has he done?” Vivica growled, taking my hand and placing a bag full of jagged iron into it. “What is the meaning of this note?”

I opened my mouth, but she started reading aloud before I could tell her what Iric had done.

“As the fastest runner in Ironton, I vow to bring back the smoke my city desperately needs. Ration the iron and help the boys and Karis as much as you can. Iric.” She paused, collecting herself. “Karis, tell me my eldest living son did not foolishly run into Faery. Tell me he is safe.”

“I can’t do that.”

Vivica let out a wail that even frightened Dusty. He moved into my side, reassuringly solid.

“I’m going to find him,” I told her.

“You? That’s rich. Now I’m going to lose another son to the fae. It was one thing to lose Roane to the mine…but Gregoire, and now Iric...”

“I can stop it, Vivica. I have the sight. I can see through the wall,” I admitted. “And I believe I’ll be able to see on the other side of it.”

“What?” she breathed. “When did this happen?”

“Last night.”

She waved her hand in front of me, the air whooshing past my face. I rolled my eyes. “I still can’t see in Ironton, but I swear I can see outside of it.”

She scoffed, “Arrogant fool. I told him he’d miscalculated Midsummer.”

“Who did you tell?”

“The Governor.”

I understood then how she’d had the occasion to tell him. Swallowing thickly, I tied a leather strip around the bottom of my braid and slung the sack across my shoulder.

“You’re really going after him?” she asked quietly.

“I am.”

“Karis?”

I stopped in front of her.

“Bring back my son. And if you find Gregoire, bring him back to me, too,” she demanded through gritted teeth.

“Take care of the boys while we’re gone, Vivica. If Mage gets caught stealing again, you’ll have three sons in Faery, and I can’t be in two places at once.”

I shoved around her before she had a chance to argue. She was their mother. It was time she acted like it.