Page 42

He shrugged, still looking at the piece of earth where the faery had been. “I know the difference between iron and steel.”

He grabbed the dagger from her automatically, and then his eyes snapped up to hers as if registering what she was offering him.

“If you promise not to slit my throat in the middle of the night, you can keep it. It might be helpful to have a weapon against the other creatures lurking out here.”

His voice was raspy as he replied, “You think there are more…thingsout here?”

“Didn’t you ever wonder why your ancestors built the wall and refused to go out into the rainforest more than a few miles from the town?”

“Jaguars? Feral Dragonborn bent on killing us all?”

She winced at his phrasing, but chose to ignore it. Now that the adrenaline of fighting off the creature was draining from her, she remembered how exhausted she was and that it was still the middle of the night.

“Perhaps,” she said, instead, “but they also fear the monsters and faeries that lived here that they couldn’t control or understand.”

“You talk of faeries and shifters and monsters as if they’re fact.”

She turned to start back toward the clearing. It was only a few minutes’ walk, but her body grew heavier with every step. Ocon followed, his own steps stumbling.

“It’s because theyarefacts,” she said. “You can’t pretend you just dreamed that creature up.”

He gave a soft snort of laughter. “The women in my dreams usually have fewer fangs.”

“Fewer, but not zero?” She saw the whites of his eyes as he rolled them.

“Exactly.”

They fell into silence as they came back into the clearing, their small haven still hard and cold. Neither spoke, but Ocon followed her lead, gathering up whatever twigs and dry kindling he could find as she worked to relight the fire. Only after the wood was crackling did Sofia feel the tension in her shoulders loosening as she allowed the heat to suffuse her.

“Thank you,” he said.

Her head snapped up at his voice. Ocon watched her from across the fire, eyes serious.

“I need you alive,” she said, looking away from him, uncomfortable with the gaze.

“And it seems, if I want to make it out of here, I need you alive, too.”

“Look at that, we have something in common,” she said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I know you don’t like it, and I don’t like it much either,” he said. “But I think we can admit that we need each other, at least until we’re in familiar territory.”

“Where you’ll tie me up and march me back to your people?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t have the same plan.”

“I know my plan. I just need you to know, you won’t get a chance to implement yours.”

He wrapped his cloak around him as he laid down on the ground next to the fire, but she could still hear his muffled words. “You talk big for someone who tried to shoot a faery with an arrow.”

Too tired to come up with a comeback, she chose to follow his example, lying down on the ground as close to the fire as she could without fear of being burned.

For a few minutes, the only sound in the clearing was the crackling of the fire.

“How did you know about the iron?” She watched him shuffle slightly at the sound of her question.

“Iron is darker and heavier than steel.”

“No, how did you know iron kills faeries?”