And she looks like she can barely lift her head.
Soraya staggers to her feet, hauling me with her. “You don’t know everything about me, Z. And it’s going to stay that way.” She trips against me, her body shaking. Weak. “You should have left me there.”
“Never.” Why can’t she see it? Why doesn’t she understand? “Do you remember when you had nightmares and I used to crawl into bed with you and hug them away? Do you remember what I promised you then?”
“We were seven,” she snaps. “We were children. We knew nothing of the world.”
I slide a hand through her hair, forcing her to meet my eyes. “I will guard your back,” I whisper. “I will shield you from the shadows. Always. Forever. Together. And I will never let you go.”
Soraya gives me a helpless look. “You’re going to get me killed.”
Tears prick at my eyes. I don’t cry. I never cry. And yet, there they are. “Are we even really living?”
It’s a confronting truth.
“Not for long.” Soraya claps a hand to her chest as she looks away. “Not if that prick finds us. Here. Where’s my knife? I need to cut this out.”
I dash away the tears. It’s not worth getting my hopes up. She doesn’t want to see it, and without her, I’m only half of what I once was. “Give me a look at it.”
“Don’t—” She tries to shy away, but I get a fistful of her shirt and tear it open. The arrow shaft is embedded just below her clavicle, but—
That’s when I see it.
The dark mottling that covers her chest.
Soraya grabs the shirt and whips it back over the wound, but it’s too late.
I sit back on my heels in shock. The blight. She’s one of the unlucky few afflicted by the blight. It feels like the world drops out from under me. No. No. “Why didn’t you say something?”
Soraya stiffly tears her shirt sleeve to pieces and uses it to blot the blood weeping from her wound. “What was I supposed to say?”
“How long have you known?” Shock makes my voice ring in my ears. “When did you first see it?”
Her jaw works. “A year ago.”
So she knew she was afflicted by the curse when we stole into the Court of Dreams to steal the relic. It wasn’t just her soul she was trying to save. She was staring her death in the eye—a brutal, violent, painful death.
This changes everything.
There’s only one way to fix this. The blight is a cancerous twist on the curse that afflicts wraithenkind. Hundreds die from it each year, and we have no way of knowing who it’s going to strike next.
But if we break the curse….
Maybe she’ll have a chance.
My heart feels like a leaden weight in my chest.
Keir wants to keep the cauldron safe from those who’d use it for their own misdeeds, but I can’t simply let him have it now. And I wanted to. I wanted to… prove myself true for once.
I have my answer.
And I hate it.
“Don’t,” Soraya’s voice cuts through me. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. This is why I didn’t tell you. Because you’ll do something rash—something stupid—in order to save me.”
“I’m not going to do something rash.” My ears are ringing. “I’m going to do exactly what Father wants me to do. I’m going to bring him the horn. And then I’m going to bring him the cauldron.”
And afterward?
I promised myself there would be no war. I promised myself I’d do right by Keir, just this once.
I can steal the cauldron back.
After all, I’m the best thief in the north.
I can fix this. I can fix all of this.
Soraya’s eyes go shiny, and she turns her face away. “It’s almost painful to see how stupid you are. You’re going to get yourself killed. And for what? For me? Why?”
“Because you’re my sister.” My voice roughens. “You’re my only sister. You’re all I have. And maybe I’m stupid to trust you again….” My throat fills thick with unshed tears. “But you’re the one warning me away time and again. I have to believe that means something. I have to believe there’s even a single hint of love left in your heart.”
Her gaze jerks to mine again.
Her jaw works.
But she can’t say it.
All I can see is the impossible pain in her eyes.
“Love will ruin you,” she finally says. “And leave nothing but ashes in its wake.”
“That’s what you always say.” I push to my feet, offering her a hand. “And I don’t care. Now are you going to give me the knife? We need to cut that out of you and get out of here. I have a cauldron to find.”
The first sign we have company comes when we’re half a mile from the lake.
Gravel rains down over us as we cut through a narrow ravine.
Soraya pales as she looks up. There’s no sign of anyone on the ridgeline above us, but there doesn’t have to be.
When our brother and his seven are hunting someone, they’re rarely seen.
“Why is he here?” she gasps, sweat tracking rivulets through her hair. “What does Father want now?”
I think of the questing beast. “They’ve been there for a few days. The creature knew danger lurked within those caves. They must have scared it off at some stage.”
“What in the Shadow Lands can scare a creature like that away?”
“Ruhle’s face,” I say with a grimace. “Maybe it knew he was the bigger monster.”
Our eyes meet. I managed to cut the arrow out of her chest, and her right arm is strapped to her body, but she’s still losing a lot of blood. Whatever she did to me cost her. And while my feet feel as light as air, I don’t dare try and Sift us both again.
“Run,” she says, shoving me in the back.
She’s right on my heels as we slip and slide down the shale-covered hillside. The forest is crawling with shadows, some of them keeping pace with us.
An arrow
