I feel like I want to be sick.
But Thiago finally nods. “Fine. I’ll allow it. What do you need? What sort of diversion do you want?”
I cross to him and kiss him gently. “I want you to attack Clydain. Take a small handful of warriors, but don’t get caught. Make it messy.”
It feels strange to be back within Asturia’s forests.
The massive oaks blot out the sky, but the undergrowth is not as wild and untamed as the wyrdwoods that litter Evernight. Evernight feels like a wild kingdom, barely civilized, whilst truffle pigs have trampled the undergrowth here in the forest and my mother’s hunters have chased the deer to exhaustion. I used to love these forests, but I can feel the loss here, the way the wilds mourn for a time when they weren’t so sorely misused.
Eris and I slipped through the Hallow near Thornwood and headed south three days ago.
Though we’re not entirely alone.
“Is it dinnertime yet?” Grimm demands, shadow-hopping from tree to tree.
“No,” both Eris and I drone.
“I could have sworn—”
“No.”
I sigh. “We ate two hours ago. And our supplies are limited.”
“Well, why don’t you kill one of these pigs that seems to be roaming the woods?”
I exchange a long, slow glance with Eris. “Because these ‘pigs’ have tusks as long as my forearm and I value my skin?”
“We’ve been walking for days. I thought you needed to find this crown before the end of the year?”
“It’s been three days,” Eris says very precisely. “And this is not the sort of thing one rushes. Not all of us can walk through shadows.”
“You could have taken the Hallow to Briar Keep,” he snorts. “We could have been there, captured the crown, and be enjoying a nice, delicious roast pig right about now in the dining hall of Ceres.”
“The Hallow at Briar Keep hasn’t been used in centuries.” At first we tried to ignore him, but there’s only so many hours of incessant meowing that one can ignore.
“Why?”
“Because Briar Keep is haunted,” I mutter, shifting my pack into a more comfortable place. “The entire ruins are choked with thorns, and while many have slipped inside, very few of them return. It’s not safe.”
“Haunted—?”
“Perhaps you can investigate for yourself,” Eris says sharply as we break through the trees. “Here we are.”
Nothing has changed.
Eerie thickets of thorns cling to the rough stone walls, and little turrets peer through them at off intervals. A raven caws as we take slow, stealthy steps toward the keep, but the tress are strangely devoid of animals.
Eris’s nostrils flare, and she moves forward with slow, careful footsteps before abruptly pausing.
“What is—?”
A sharp hand gesture silences me.
Nothing moves through the ruins. Nothing but wind shivering through the brambles.
But now I can feel it too.
We’re not alone.
“Who is it?” I whisper.
Eris holds up a hand and one finger.
“Well, o Lord of the Shadows,” I mutter, silently stringing my bow. “Surely if there’s someone lurking in there, you’ll be able to find them.”
Grimm turns and saunters directly into a shadow. “Don’t get yourself killed. I’ll investigate.”
He’s gone for maybe fifteen minutes before Eris shrugs off her pack. “The little bastard’s probably chasing mice. I don’t like this.”
“You want to set a trap?”
She grins.
“Let me guess…. You want me to play the bait?”
Eris flashes a smile as she slowly draws her dagger. “Well, let’s be honest…. Nobody is going to mistake me for any sort of damsel. But you and those big, pretty eyes?”
I roll said pretty eyes. “Fine. Let’s go see what I can draw out of the forest. Watch my back.”
“Always.”
I walk slowly through the empty courtyard, leaves crunching underfoot, and every inch of me prepared for an ambush.
But when it comes, it’s from the most unexpected source.
“Halt!” calls a voice, the familiar sound slicing right through me.
Maia’s mercy. Every inch of me freezes, and I spin around to face my sister, cursing her under my breath. Andraste slips out from beneath an arch.
We face each other, and I can’t stop my heart from racing.
Her gold-plated armor gleams in the burnished light of sunset. Braids sweep her hair back off her face, though the rest of it hangs in a tangle of elegant curls. It’s like looking at a younger, kinder version of my mother.
“What are you doing here?” Andraste’s face hardens. “You shouldn’t be here. Mother will—”
“What? Curse me? Steal my memories? Lock me away in the oubliette? There’s nothing she can do that she hasn’t already done.”
“You fool,” she says bitterly. “You think those are the worst things she could do to you?”
“What are you going to do? Summon her?”
Andraste’s always been better at swordplay than me—despite all of Eris’s teaching. There’s no way I can beat her. Not with cold iron.
But I draw my sword anyway.
Magic? Maybe. It was the one area she lacked, and though I don’t dare rouse the power of the Hallow before I know exactly what danger lurks around Briar Keep, I can feel the ley line quivering beneath my feet.
“Summon her?” Andraste demands.
“Or deliver me to her in chains? Why are you here?”
There’s something about her expression that alerts me. “I wouldn’t deliver you to her in chains. I just wanted to talk to you. I wanted to… see you. And I’m alone.”
“How did you know I was going to be here?”
“Thornwood sent a raven to the castle, and you’re lucky my people were the ones who intercepted it. Some of his men recognized you in the woods. If Mother knew—”
“So she didn’t send you?” Betrayal’s not in my sister’s nature. She’s never once revealed a hint of insubordination. “You’re trying to tell me you’re here of your own volition? That you didn’t tell the queen I was in the country?”
“If she’d sent me, I would be backed by an army. I know who walks at your side. I just wanted to talk to you.”
“Talk? You knew Lysander was going to try and kill me and you led him right
