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It’s not the year I thought it was.

Chapter 11

Tuonen

The Wrong God

Something is wrong, something is wrong, something is fucking wrong.

The entire ride back to Shadow’s End, the words kept repeating in my head. It didn’t help that I was at the back of the line, the last rider in formation, with the carriage carrying the Forest Gods who were our guests for the night, my father and Hanna on Sarvi at the front, which left me alone with my thoughts.

It also didn’t help that the moment we stepped out of the City of Death, a snowstorm swooped in, the temperature dropping enough that even I felt cold. It wasn’t long before snow covered the iron path that led from the city toward Death’s Passage, and I was straining to see through the oncoming blizzard. Every now and then, I swore I heard and saw something lingering behind me, moving shadows in the whiteout, but that could have just been my paranoid nature. Finally, the dark of night swooped in, and I could barely see anything at all.

By the time we pull up to the castle, my hands are numb—and I’m wearing gloves. I remember seeing my father walking out of Inmost without his gauntlets on, the way that Hanna wasmoments from grabbing his bare hand. Did she forget she can’t touch him, that she can only touch the Shadow Self?

A complicated thought comes into my head as I dismount my horse and hand him off to one of the Deadhands.

Is it possible my father before me, the one I saw walk out of the dungeons, isn’t my father at all?

But why would I be looking at his Shadow Self? Did my father decide to stay in Inmost for some reason? Why would he do so without telling me? And wouldn’t Hanna notice it’s not him?

Unless she also knows.

Perhaps the two of them had something planned.

But if that’s the case, why is it a secret from me?

I watch as the two of them enter the front doors of the castle, now hand-in-gloved-hand, smiling at each other in a way that’s both smug and cunning.

That would explain a lot, them hatching a plan no one knows about. Wouldn’t be the first time my father has done things without telling me. I suppose I should be happy that he shares such intimacy with my new stepmother.

And yet, I’m still not satisfied. The feeling still lingers.

“Come along, Tuonen,” my father calls from the doorway. He glances at me over his shoulder and meets my eye. There’s something there, something like love and familiarity, that his Shadow Self could never have mustered.

Still, I remain on edge as I walk after him and head inside the doors.

“Do you feel up to entertaining our guests?” my father—or someone who looks like him—asks me. “Hanna and I are rather tired and would like to retire to the bedroom.”

“I’m rather tired myself,” I admit, stifling a yawn. Normally, I don’t mind being an entertainer, but not tonight.

“I don’t ask much of you,” he says, disappointment in his eyes.

Well,that’sdefinitely like my father.

“Oh, come on, Tuoni,” Tapio says, putting his hand on my shoulder. “Your son just did an excellent job refereeing the match. I don’t blame the poor boy for being tired. Besides, we’re all tired. We don’t get out of the forest much.”

My father shrugs. “Suit yourselves. I’ll see you all in the morning.”

“We might be off before you wake,” Tapio says. “Need to get a head start, find Nyyrikki, have that talk you proposed.”

My father just nods, his expression blank, as if he has no idea what Tapio is talking about. I look at Hanna, expecting her to at least be smiling since she was so adamant about getting the Forest God’s son to help take over my ferrying duties, but her face is also impassive, like we’re speaking another language.

Another fucking weird thing.

“If I don’t see you, have a good journey,” my father says with a nod.

Then he turns and heads up the grand staircase with Hanna.