When Ren rode into the clearing, there was no sign of movement around his cabin. He didn’t spy any horses either.

  But they must be here. This was where the mark had called him.

  Ren dismounted, and when he turned back to look at the cabin, there she was. He squinted. “Are those my clothes?”

  Before Seraiah could respond, Kestrel pushed outside. “Welcome home,” she said. “We have a lot to catch up on. Hope you’re ready.”

  At least she appeared to be wearing her own clothes. “We certainly do,” he said. “How did you escape the Unseelie? They can’t have let you go.”

  Kestrel’s brows rose, and Seraiah appeared surprised too, though hers quickly morphed into a frown of suspicion. Of course, she would think he had something to do with whatever had happened to them at the fae court.

  “Indeed, they didn’t,” Kestrel said. “You can explain how you know about that after you take care of that poor beast.” She jerked her chin at his horse, who looked as exhausted as Ren felt. “We’ll be waiting.” Then she took Seraiah—who still hadn’t uttered a single word, but was most definitely scowling at him—by the elbow and pulled her back inside.

  Ren sighed and brushed a few grains of sand from the front of his tunic. He wanted nothing more than a long bath and an even longer nap, but neither of those things seemed like they were going to happen anytime soon.

  “Come on,” he said to his horse. “At least one of us will get to rest. I hope you enjoy every second.”

  After he’d finished taking care of his horse, Ren dragged himself inside, where he found Seraiah and Kestrel seated at his table. They both looked up at him expectantly, as though he had been the one to summon them.

  He was too tired for this.

  “All right. What’s happened now?” He collapsed into the chair next to Seraiah. She was clutching a small book in her hands, but he didn’t think it was one from his collection. “It must be bad if you voluntarily used the shadows to call me. Did you learn about the potions?”

  “The potions?” Seraiah’s brow furrowed, suspicion sneaking back into her expression again. “No, this isn’t about potions.”

  The mark, Ren saw, had grown down the side of her neck and disappeared beneath the collar of her shirt—his shirt. “You still haven’t explained why you’re wearing my clothes.”

  Seraiah’s cheeks flushed pink. “It wasn’t like I had any other choice. The dress from the Unseelie Court was too warm, and I didn’t have anything else.”

  “Nothing is always a choice,” he said.

  Seraiah’s eyes went wide. “That’s—”

  “Leave her alone,” Kestrel cut in. “We don’t have time for this. Tell him what he needs to know so we can get out of here.”

  “Please, and then I can take a bath in peace.”

  “You certainly need one,” Seraiah said, turning away from him.

  “Unfortunately, you won’t have time for that either,” Kestrel told him.

  Ren planted his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his folded hands. “And why not?”

  “Because you’ll be coming with us.”

  Seraiah pulled at the ribbon sticking out of the book she held. She didn’t seem very happy about the idea of him going anywhere with them. Or maybe she was just unhappy about his presence in general.

  “Where exactly are we going?” Ren asked. “Hypothetically, of course, since I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”

  “We are going to Nyrene to prevent Sterling from taking her throne.” Kestrel jerked her chin at Seraiah. “Show him.”

  Perhaps he was more sleep deprived than he’d thought because he could have sworn the elf had said they were going to keep Sterling from taking her throne. “Wasn’t your quest to find allies to take back the city so you could put Sterling on the throne? And now you want to do the opposite of that?”

  Seraiah shoved something at him. “Read this.”

  It was the little book she’d been clutching. Ren quickly scanned the spidery writing. It described something like one of the theories out of his books—the worst possible one, in his opinion. This was what he had feared since learning of the shadows in Sterling.

  He glanced up. “Did you get this from the Unseelie? Because if so, you can’t trust it. They are involved in all of this. They were the ones who supplied Gavaran with the potion that was given to Sterling.”

  Seraiah blinked at him. “I—No. It wasn’t from them. I had this journal before we went there. It was written by my grandfather, who was the court seer for the elves. The Unseelie were helping Gavaran?”

  “So I was told by the Summer King. Or rather, he implied it by telling me you would be meeting whoever it was. A child faery was the one who helped point me in the right direction. I assumed you weren’t aware of the danger you might be in, so I was on my way to rescue you when I received your summons.”

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  “You were going to rescue us? From the fae?”

  “I was going to attempt it. We are allies. I would assume you would do the same for me?” Ren smirked at her.

  Seraiah pressed her lips together and said nothing.

  Must be awful for her, needing his help and at the same time wanting nothing to do with him.

  “That is sweet and all,” Kestrel said, filling the silence, “but I need you to explain how these potions you say Gavaran got from the Unseelie are linked to that.” She pointed to the open journal in front of him.

  “My theory is the potions were what brought the shadows about. They need something to feed on. Usually it’s magic. You said Sterling hadn’t been able to access her magic, and yet you’ve seen the shadows.”

  “I read about the shadows in one of your books,” Seraiah said. “The theories of what they might be.”

  Ren pressed a hand to his chest. “First you steal my clothes and now my books?”

  Seraiah ignored him. “The thing in Sterling sounds like the theory, where the shadows were described as a living entity that feeds on magic. From Atherly’s vision, I think this is what we are most likely dealing with.”

  “So let me see if I have this right,” Kestrel said. “Gavaran has Sterling kidnapped, feeds her a potion to bring about this shadow creature, lets us rescue her, and now is just waiting for the destruction of the world.”

  Ren rubbed his eyes. It felt like there was sand in them.

  “It’s possible he doesn’t know.” Seraiah said. “Gavaran’s involvement is not my concern, though. We can worry about him after we have found Sterling and Kai and figured out a way to remove the shadows.”

  Now she was looking at him again.

  “What? You want me to find her? I thought you knew exactly where she was. Didn’t you leave her with the elf prince?”

  “That was weeks ago, and I fear they may have already crossed over. That is why we are going to Nyrene to cut them off.”

  “And you want me to go with you to help with that?”

  Seraiah glared at him, and he grinned. It was so easy to goad her. “Just tell me you need me.”

  “Ren, this is not—,” Kestrel started, but he held up a hand to silence her, not looking away from Seraiah.

  “Well,” he prompted.

  “I need your help,” Seraiah said through gritted teeth. “You said you were our ally. You said you were going to investigate the shadows. Now prove it. Help me figure out how to get them out of my sister.”

  “That wasn’t so hard now, was it? You could have started with that and saved us all a lot of time.” Ren pushed his chair back and stood. “Let me clean up, and I’ll be ready.”

  The city of Nyrene rose before them, looking the same as the last time Seraiah had seen it. However, as they drew closer, they got a look at the new wall decorations and the soldiers guarding the gate.

  “Let’s stop here,” Kestrel said. “It will help no one if the guards find us first.”

  And so they’d set up camp to wait.

  Now, they sat around a small fire that Kestrel had reassured them the guards would not notice.

  Seraiah felt Ren’s eyes on her from where he sat between her and Kestrel. She slipped her hair over her shoulder to cover the mark. He hadn’t said anything about it on their long walk here, but she’d noticed him looking several times already.

  He leaned toward her, and Seraiah had to force herself not to flinch away. “Do you want me to remove it again?” he asked quietly.

  Seraiah studied his face, the firelight flickering over it. He didn’t appear to be teasing her as he often did.

  “Will you take on the shadows again?” Kestrel was pretending not to listen to their conversation, but Seraiah knew she must be.

  “They have to go somewhere.”

  “Then no,” she said, surprising them both. “Leave them. For now.”

  She told herself it was to protect everyone from Ren becoming like the Sterling of Atherly’s visions, and not because she felt bad for him and wanted to lessen his burden.

  They went back to staring at the flames in silence until Ren spoke again.

  “When do you expect Sterling to arrive?”

  “Could be tomorrow or could be two weeks from now.” Kestrel poked at the fire.

  “Assuming she comes at all,” Ren said. “If the elf prince is with her, would he not stop her from coming here, especially if he’s noticed the shadows?”

  "As much as I hate to admit this," Kestrel said. "I’m not sure Kai could or even would stop her. He wants a sister. He won't see the monster.”

  “They will come,” Seraiah said. She hadn’t been able to summon a vision of them, but she was still certain of this.

  “What happens if we’ve already missed them, and they are in there?” Ren gestured to the walls of Nyrene, faintly visible in the gloom of night.

  “I’ve thought about that,” Kestrel said, “and I was going to wait until tomorrow to propose it, but I think we should send someone in there to gather information.”

  Seraiah knew exactly who that someone was. “You can’t go.”

  “I know the city the best. It is my home,” Kestrel said.

  “That’s why you can’t. Everyone knows who you are. You’d never make it back out again, and we can’t lose you.” Also, she did not want to be left alone with Ren.

  “Neither of you can go,” Ren said. “They know both of you. The only one who might know me is Gavaran. I will be the one to go.”

  Seraiah stared at him, open-mouthed. She hadn’t expected him to volunteer. Then again, maybe he wanted to go straight back to Gavaran. Ren had worked with him before, after all.

  “Is that a good idea?” Seraiah said at the same time Kestrel said, “You don’t know where you’re going.”

  “Good thing I can read a map,” Ren said. “You can draw me one.”

  “Fine,” Kestrel agreed.

  “But what about—” Seraiah tried again before Ren cut her off.

  “You’re going to have to trust me at some point, you know. How do you expect me to help you if you won’t let me?”

  He was right. She had to trust him, or this partnership would never work.

  Seraiah watched in silence as Kestrel drew in the dirt with a stick, explaining the layout of the city to Ren.

  “The only place you’ll want to be careful is around the castle,” Kestrel said, tapping the spot on her dirt map. “You’ll likely have to get close if you want to get information, but I’d avoid going inside. Can’t risk you running into Gavaran.”

  “Or Virelai,” Seraiah added.

  “Who is that?” Ren asked.

  “Gavaran’s daughter. If you’ve never met her before, then it shouldn’t be a concern. If you act like a servant, she’d probably ignore you anyway,” Kestrel said. “There is someone you should look out for if you can.” Kestrel described Eryx to him.

  “And Wisteria,” Seraiah added. “She’s a servant in the castle. She helped us escape. If you find her, she would be able to help you.”

  “Anything else I should know?” Ren asked.

  “I think that’s it. You’ll be on your own for anything else,” Kestrel said.

  Seraiah stared at the crudely drawn map, her stomach churning. She still didn’t like this, but she couldn’t have said if it was because she thought Ren would betray them or if it was because she was worried he might be caught. As much as she hated to admit it, she needed him to figure out these shadows.

  “It shouldn’t be too hard. A quick look around and I will be back,” he said.

  “Wait. You’re going right now?” she asked.

  Ren stood and brushed himself off. “What better time than the cover of night?”