This was her element. Constant motion. A near-impossible task. Nothing remained for herself after being mother and sister, father and two brothers, to Ivy. Her own hopes and dreams were locked away in Mother’s room, lost and untouchable as Mother herself.
Two lunged sinuously through the grass with the speed of a born hunter, Inis struggling to keep apace.
The fighting was on the other side of the house. No, the slaughtering. Inis intimately knew the difference.
Be glad the one you don’t like isn’t dead. That would make things even more difficult. Two’s voice startled Inis. She strove to keep him in view, his tail rising like a shimmering pussywillow through the grasslands where they bordered woods and field. They were headed away from death, possibly toward more death. I can smell his blood where it spilled. Does the thought of his spilled blood make you smile?
It didn’t, though Inis couldn’t explain why.
I think you aren’t smiling because, Two continued, despite how unpleasant it is to acknowledge this, he is a part of something greater than both of us. He is also a part of us.
I’m following you, aren’t I? Inis thought back, fighting off dueling waves of nausea and headache. She’d left Ivy alone, the one thing she’d sworn she’d never do.
Perhaps this was how the fae took people. The stories had it all wrong. They showed up one afternoon and said you had a destiny to fulfill—then they gave you the most wonderful gift—then, when your armor was off and your guard down, when you least expected it . . .
Inis didn’t realize she’d caught up with Two until he nuzzled her hand, half in comfort, half because he wanted her to scratch behind his one good ear. Thanks, master.
Inis crouched, breathing deeply, waiting for the latest wave of nausea to pass. Helping with the wall repair had been stubborn and stupid, more than she was ready for with Two’s thoughts echoing in her blood, Morien’s shard in her chest, but she couldn’t let the Queensguard, someone who’d destroyed her life, be the one who fixed anything for her. She had to have a hand in it, was willing to pay the price.
She shut her eyes, remembering a time when her mother’s cool hands would have passed over her feverish brow, lifting her curls off her hot neck. The simplest comfort in the world, but wonderful.
Stay here a moment while I explore. It’s safe. Two’s weight tipped her back against the curve of a wizened tree. Inis felt like a fae child nestled amid the roots. Her eyelids were heavy.
I could almost forget you’re mortal, the way you keep yourself going. But you’re no good to anyone if you collapse. Two butted his big, sun-warmed metal head into her hand, brief and comforting, before he was gone.
Just three breaths, Inis told herself. She’d allow herself to rest for three breaths. And then she’d follow him.
Instead, she almost cried out when, heralded by a flicker of sunlight on grass, she saw the world despite shutting her eyes.
Don’t be startled. Two’s voice inside her skull again, in the pulse at her wrists and throat. You see what I see. We’re closer to each other already than One and her pretty boy because you grew up with me. Ate your breakfast off me every morning, though you didn’t know it.
Inis couldn’t open her eyes, but didn’t wish to. Any lingering suspicions she had melted away. Two hadn’t left her behind, hadn’t tricked her, was showing her more than she could have seen on her own. They were sharing one sight. Headache forgotten, she focused on the shapes and shadows of the nearby stream, looking through the silver tint of Two’s eyes at the world around him.
They took in the river, the bank, the signs of struggle. The Queensguard’s dirty shirt, all that remained of him. Inis couldn’t unravel what it meant. Her senses were flooded, hearing every buzz from every bumblebee, every click of every beetle leg on bark, every rustle of every worm shuffling through the earth . . .
One is following him, Two explained. But it’s dark and she’s taken many twists and turns. They are already a long way gone. What is the word for when humans steal another human? Kidsleeping?
Kidnapping, Inis supplied.
Have it your way. The word itself makes no difference to those who have been taken. Inis felt Two smile, felt the dizzying rock of his tail flicking back and forth. The assailants