“Thank the gods. I thought something had happened to you.”

  Seraiah blinked up at Kestrel, momentarily confused. A cabin rose up behind the elf.

  Ren’s cabin.

  Yes, she’d taken the faery potion to escape.

  Kestrel helped her to her feet and plucked a leaf from her hair. “Did everything go all right? Did you get the answers you needed?”

  “I-I think so.” Seraiah felt around in her pockets, ignoring the dirt marring the front of her faery dress. Everything important seemed to have made the journey with her. There were her father’s things she’d taken from Ratha, her dagger, Atherly’s journal, and a crumpled paper.

  Seraiah pulled out the paper.

  “What’s that?” Kestrel asked, peering at it over her shoulder.

  “A note from the Winter Queen. I found it in my room after breakfast.”

  “A party, huh? Going to have to cancel that now that the prisoner—I mean, guest of honor—has escaped. Oh, and what’s this? Beneficial to everyone involved?” Kestrel snorted. “She was going to trap you, and the only one benefiting would be her.”

  “Maybe.” She still felt like there was something more to it than that, but she had yet to figure out what it was. Seraiah returned the note to her pocket. “Is Ren here?”

  “No, and it doesn’t look like he’s been around since we were last here, either. Your note is exactly where you left it.”

  Seraiah followed Kestrel into the cabin and spotted the note on top of Ren’s books. It may have been a blessing in disguise if it meant she’d have more time to keep Sterling from Nyrene.

  “Is that a problem?” Kestrel leaned over the back of a chair and picked up the note.

  “No. Yes.”

  Kestrel looked up.

  “I’m not sure,” Seraiah admitted. “I think we’re going to need him. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”

  Kestrel's gaze narrowed. “Tell me.”

  Seraiah pulled the journal from her pocket. “I think you’ll want to sit down for this.”

  After they were settled at the table, Seraiah explained how she’d seen a vision from the past.

  “I didn’t know that was possible,” Kestrel said.

  “It’s never happened to me before, so I don’t know if it is normal or not. However, it reminded me I never finished reading Atherly’s journal.” She opened the book and turned to the entry on Sterling. “Read this,” she said, passing the journal to Kestrel.

  Kestrel’s eyes scanned back and forth over the page, her expression changing from one of concern to outright horror. “Did you see this in your visions too?” she asked after she’d finished reading.

  “Not quite.”

  Seraiah explained what she knew and had pieced together from her mother’s words.

  “Who else knows about this?” Kestrel asked when she was done.

  “Besides me, Atherly, the Queen, and Jensira? My mother,” Seraiah paused and took a breath, “and the Winter Queen. If any of them told someone beyond that, I don’t know.”

  Kestrel looked dazed.

  “I know my mother said that fate cannot be fought, but there must be a way to keep this from happening. I don’t know how yet, but I will figure it out. Until I can, we must keep Sterling from that throne as long as possible. Therefore, I think we need to go to Nyrene.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Conflicting emotions filled Kestrel's eyes at her pronouncement. Seraiah saw joy, quickly followed by fear, before finally settling into wary curiosity. “What’s your plan?”

  “It’s not much of one. We must cut off my sister before she gets to the city. We’ll wait outside of Nyrene and catch her before she can get there.”

  “Why not wait at the portal? Sterling and Kai should still be in the human world, shouldn’t they?”

  “I don’t think we can say that for certain. Sterling wanted nothing more than to return to Nyrene and, with how much time has passed without word from us, Kai will be worried. If Sterling demanded to cross over, he might agree. I fear they may have crossed over already.”

  “I see, and you’re sure we must keep Sterling from the throne?”

  Seraiah tapped the journal. “Atherly saw all of this while she was a queen. I think if we want to buy ourselves time to figure out how to fight this thing, we have to prevent her from getting closer to realizing these visions.”

  Kestrel sighed and rubbed her forehead. “The queen already tried keeping her away from Nyrene and look how well that went.”

  “I know, but this is all I’ve got right now. Until I speak to Ren and see if he’s learned anything about the shadows, I don’t know what else to do.”

  “Right,” Kestrel said, “and we have no idea where he is.”

  “No,” Seraiah said, “but I think I have a way to find out.”

  Seraiah pressed her fingers against her neck over the top of the mark. She had no idea if she was doing this right or if it would even work for her. It was Ren’s magic, after all, not hers.

  "Anything?" Kestrel asked. She sat crossed-legged in front of Seraiah, watching for any sign the mark had changed.

  Seraiah shook her head, dropping her hand to her lap. "Same as last night. Nothing that I can tell."

  After explaining what she’d learned to Kestrel, she’d immediately attempted to use the mark. Unfortunately, it hadn’t gone as well as she had hoped.

  "Does it look like it changed?" she asked.

  Kestrel leaned forward, scrutinizing her neck. "Maybe a little?"

  "I'll try one more time, and if it doesn’t work, we will have to go to Nyrene without him. We can find him after we find Sterling and Kai." If she couldn’t reach him in time, then it would be up to her, Kestrel, and Kai to hold Sterling back. She’d have to pray to the gods the shadows hadn’t grown, and they would be enough.

  Seraiah lifted her fingers back to her neck and closed her eyes. She poured all of her focus into the mark, willing Ren to come to her.

  A few minutes passed, and there was no answering response. Not so much as a twinge.

  "Nothing again." She sighed. “I guess that’s all—ahh.” Seraiah curled in on herself as searing pain ripped down the side of her neck all the way to the fingers of her left hand.

  “What is it? What happened? Are you all right?”

  “I—” Seraiah panted, trying to catch her breath. “Pain.”

  “Let me see,” Kestrel demanded. She pushed Seraiah’s hand out of the way. “Oh. Well. It’s certainly bigger now.”

  When the pain subsided, Seraiah tugged at the neckline of her borrowed shirt. From the corner of her eye, she could see the curls of shadow extending down her left shoulder.

  It was even bigger than it had been before Ren removed it.

  “Oh no.” Her stomach turned as she thought about the shadows crawling beneath her skin. She could almost feel their oily presence wriggling just under the surface. If this was like the thing infecting Sterling, did it mean she would end up like the visions too—a puppet for the shadows to play with?

  "Maybe that means whatever you did worked. Does anything feel different? Can you tell how far away Ren is?"

  Seraiah was reluctant to check in case it meant the shadows would spread further.

  “Well?”

  “Give me a moment.” She closed her eyes, focusing on the connection between her and Ren. "Close, I think," she reported.

  "How close?" Kestrel asked. "An hour? A few days? A week?"

  "I don't know. I can't tell. Less than a few days? Maybe not soon enough."

  “Then we go without him.”

  Seraiah bit her lip, looking at the journal she’d left on the table. “All right,” she finally said. “We’ll give Ren until tomorrow, and then we’ll head to Nyrene.”

  A week ticked by, but Ren felt like he was barely moving. He only slept a few hours at a time, pushing his horse to its limit and still, it wasn't enough.

  Where was magical teleportation when you needed it, he thought ruefully, slipping off his horse.

  After another long day in the saddle, Ren settled in for a few hours of sleep on a bed of sand, using his bag of stolen goods as a pillow. He was close to being free of the desert, so it wouldn’t be long now before he could sleep in his own bed—well, for one night, at least, and then it would be back on the road again.

  Ren’s eyes had barely closed when he felt a faint tickling sensation at the back of his mind. It lasted no more than a few seconds before disappearing.

  Exhaustion, he told himself before drifting off into a deep dreamless sleep.

  When he woke, the sky was still dark except for a smattering of stars—and the sensation was back. He closed his eyes, focusing on the feeling.

  It almost felt like when he reached for a mark, but that couldn't be. The only person currently possessing one was Seraiah, and she had made it very clear how she felt about it.

  Unless she’d changed her mind because she was in danger. Except—

  His eyes snapped open at the sharp tug, calling him in the direction he was already headed, not to the Unseelie Court, but to his cabin.