“Easy, lass.” Tye’s soft voice in my ear is too smooth for the reality of the street. His scent of pine and citrus slowly soothes my instincts even as my muscles still tremble. “All right now?”

No. No no no.

Tye releases my mouth, his arms wrapping protectively around me. “Didn’t Shade tell you to stay where you were dropped?”

“I . . .” I swallow. “It was a basement and there was no escape, so—”

“It’s all right.” Tye’s arms tighten, the warmth of his body anchoring me to sanity. “I’d take you into the Light, lass, but the place is crawling with the Night Guard. Can you manage the Gloom a bit longer?”

I nod shakily, pulling my mind together. Search and rescue, that’s why we are here. And the rescue is of Kora, not me. “There’s a qoru here,” I say, reaching for the cool voice that Tye used in the practice arena. “Down at the other end of the street. And I’m sure you’ve smelled the sclices too.”

“You recognized a qoru?” Tye says, his brow lifting in question. I’ve not exactly told him about seeing into Coal’s nightmares, and I doubt the warrior has volunteered the information. “From Coal.” Tye works out the answer to his question, his face grim. “Qoru being here shouldn’t be possible—we are too far from the Mors border.”

I know the words are coming—you must have made a mistake, lass—but my chest tightens in anticipation nonetheless. Tye doesn’t believe me. Though I understand why he’d doubt my assertion, it still hurts.

Tye shakes his head, his shaggy red hair flipping into his eyes. “Bloody academics and their bloody theories. Next time they want me to read some book, I’m reminding them of this. All right. Where?”

A spark of warmth loosens my chest and I point to a stone building at the end of the street. “The one with the rainbow-shaped signpost and the picture of an ale stein. Do you think the qoru captured Kora’s quint?” Captured. Killed, most likely. “We need to check.”

“We need to keep you alive.” Tye pulls me behind him. “Where the bloody hell is Shade?”

As if summoned by the name, a wolf trots around the corner, his muzzle drenched in rust-colored blood. Clearly, I was not wrong about the sclices. Seeing me, the wolf’s yellow eyes flash and he leaps forward, two hundred pounds of muscle pressing into me so hard that I fall backward, caught only by Tye’s strong arm. A warm, wet nose snuffles into my hand, followed by a low, nearly inaudible whine.

“I missed you too, Shade,” I say, rubbing the soft gray fur on his head.

“Can we all snuggle later?” Tye says. “Not that I blame you, lass, with the likes of us around.”

I roll my eyes, opening my mouth to offer a retort just as Tye clamps his hand over it again, this time pulling me down to the ground.

His lips press against my ear, his words a soft, warm brush of air. “Someone is coming.”

A few moments later, I hear the voices myself.

“. . . harvest what else they know,” a fae male says. “And make our honored guests aware that their meat will expire in half a day. Unless they feed now, there may not be another offering for a while.”

I grab Tye’s shoulder so hard that I know it must hurt.

“They don’t eat the meat,” another male answers, his voice younger and more nasal. “They suck the life energy through—ow! Sorry, sir.”

“Any other wisdom you wish to share, Jik?” the older male demands, his deep voice quite unamused.

“No, sir.”

“Then be about it. And be sure to return to the Light before too long.” The voice gets louder, as if the two are separating. “That you can roam the Gloom does not mean you should. It drains you, no matter how strong you are.”

I wait until the sounds die away and Tye’s hand between my shoulder blades eases. When I turn my head to suggest we follow Jik, I find Shade’s wolf sniffing a piece of fabric that Tye pulls from his pocket, the animal’s ears perked up to attention. Tye’s other hand pushes a few stones into a small pile.

“Kora’s scent and a marker for the others,” Tye whispers, unabashedly drawing the rusty sword from my sash and keeping it for himself. “We’ve done this before a time or two, Lilac Girl. Get ready to move.”

Pushing past me, Shade’s wolf scouts ahead, his lithe form slinking through the eerily empty streets. Tye and I follow, our progress made of short hops from the back of one building to another, stepping lightly on the dull gray paving stones. The air smells like dirt, coal—a mining town—with something disturbing just under the surface. A faint whiff of rot carrying on the breeze. Tye’s sharp face is tense, his clear green eyes surveying every shadow, every seemingly abandoned building. Every time we stop, while Shade trots on to get a scent, Tye builds that small marker of his. Twice, his strong arms flatten me to the ground, his preternatural senses aware of the prowling sclices—or whatever else is here.

The third time he pulls me down—this time behind a tall wooden fence at the back of a building, closer to the qoru’s saloon than I’d like—I discover River and Coal waiting there already. The moment I see them, something releases in my chest, some tightness I’ve been carrying ever since we were all separated. I touch them compulsively, River’s hard shoulder, Coal’s warm chest. They’re here. We’re all here, together, where we should always be.

“Any problems?” River asks, his eyes—like Coal’s—drilling into me, checking every bit of flesh. “Besides the fact that we are now officially violating Blaze’s neutrality and should be executed?”

“The Light is crawling with the Night Guard and the Gloom has at least one qoru,” Tye says softly. “Our package is likely alive, being held for feeding.”

My stomach turns but I force my spine to straighten. This is good news, I remind myself. It’s the reason we came. I point to a building two doors down from us, its back alley a jumble of ale barrels, wooden pallets, and empty sacks. “I saw the qoru entering the saloon, there,” I say, trying to sound as steady as the males. “Do you think it was heading to dinner?”

River nods. “Let us ruin its appetite. Leralynn, you—” River pauses, his gray eyes piercing mine before he finishes his sentence.

Don’t leave me behind. Don’t leave me alone. Don’t leave me behind. Don’t leave me alone.

“You stay between Coal and Tye as we move, understand?” River says.

I nod, ridiculous relief mixing with the fear.

Coal reaches for me, his metallic musk filled with calm strength as he brushes his hands along my clothes, tucking in loose pieces of fabric and muffling a belt buckle that I hadn’t realized made noise. That done, he performs a similar inspection of Tye and River, though no adjustments are required in their case. I know him well enough by now to see the tension riding under his gaze. He’s not as calm as he lets on—he never is.

“I checked out that building on my way here,” Coal says as he works. “There is a back window suitable for entry. If there is a qoru here, he’ll want to be beneath ground. Even in the Gloom, that is their preferred habitat, especially for feeding.”

Right. Of course. Glorious.

Following Coal, we move stealthily toward the saloon and line up outside a back window similar to the one I climbed through earlier, though this one is fortunately without bars. With Shade at the front of the stack and Tye bringing up the rear, the males push close enough to feel each other. A team. A unit. Despite my unease, a trickle of excitement runs through me, twining with a bewildering sense of belonging. We aren’t in the practice arena any longer, but the residue of training must be clinging to me somehow. Maybe even enough to do some good. 

A hard hand squeezes my shoulder and it takes me a moment to realize that Tye intends for me to pass the squeeze forward. I obediently press Coal’s bicep in my palm. He passes it on to River. With one more heartbeat, we move in.