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Ess frowned and folded her arms across her chest.

“She hasn’t been acting herself lately,” she said. “At first I thought it was just the move and, well—” she gestured at all of me, “but now I’m not so sure.”

“Hell if I know,” I said on a sigh. “I try not to be an ass, but it’s done nothing to improve her opinion of me.”

Ess didn’t respond. Her gaze caught on something beside me, and she seemed to forget we were having a conversation. I turned to see what had her attention so rapt… and my stomach dropped.

“Is that—?” She stepped under the eave and grabbed hold of the door. Dropping to her knees, she came face to face with what I’d been able tosee right away. There—etched into the blue-green paint I’d covered the wood with months before—was a single flame the size of a hand. Its tip licked upward, an unmistakable image with an unmistakable meaning attached.

Esska swore.

“Who would do this?” I said, my voice betraying my anger.

Ess only shook her head, rising to her feet and staring at the mark.

She swore again. Snapping out of her haze, she wheeled around.

“Did she see it?”

“I don’t know.”

Each time Ess swore, the words grew more colorful and more offensive. This was not the kid sister I’d left behind on the shore those ten years ago, not even close. I could see it in the way she held herself, the way she interacted with the world around her. And I could sure as hell hear it in the way she spoke.

“These woods are more dangerous than what you two were used to. I told her that, but she doesn’t listen to me.”

That earned me a scowl. “Weknowthey’re more dangerous, and your wife is not stupid.” She turned her back to me and started to pace the room. “She’s cocky, though, and rebellious.”

Damn, she was mad at me. I supposed I deserved it. I was trying not to be an ass, but it seemed I’d been one anyway. Maybe there was more of Baer in me than I cared to admit.

She gestured back to the door. “At least one person is harassing her. It could be more. Maybe she’s seen this, maybe she hasn’t. But this might not be the first incident either. She’s been distant lately. I’ve barely been getting a few words out of her each time I see her, and that’s when I canfind her. At the Wool Moon celebrations, she was,” she hesitated, shaking her head, “she was somewhere else.”

Esska’s face showed her worry, lines etched in between her brows, shifting over the room, never staying in one place for long. After a sharp sigh, she said the words I could tell she hadn’t wanted to utter.

“Maybe there’s been more. Maybe she’s been putting up with this shit alone for longer than we’ve realized. If Fenli is getting abuse from the clan, it could—it could cause her to be more reckless. She already struggles to feel like she belongs here. If she’s being harassed on top of that? She might take risks she wouldn’t have otherwise.”

I nodded, grim. “I’m going to find out who it is, and then I’m going to kill them.”

“We’regoing to kill them,” she added. “You got any paint for that?” I looked back at the door and nodded. “Good, cover it up, and then let’s go find her.”

We shirked our responsibilities for the entire rest of the day and still did not find Fenli. I worried she was dead, pulled apart by wolves somewhere, but Esska only grew angrier, worried she was going to kill her herself when we found her. She swore up and down that Fenli would be fine; she wouldn’t get lost, would stay safe, would keep her blood inside of her body. But I knew what could happen out in those woods.

Sometimes, the forest came for a person, and no amount of skill or care could keep you from it.

Esska knew it, even though she wasn’t saying it. I watched her as we went, staying a few paces behind, and it was as clear as a cloudless sky. She had a way about her as she moved through the forest. She was not brutish, blundering through, just as she was not meek or mild. She moved with purpose and understanding. I could see she was no stranger to wild places, and it struck me that she shouldn’t be.

“Tomorrow morning,” I said. We’d turned back for home, and I could tell she was worrying about Fenli.

“Huh?”

“Early. Just before sunup. Meet me in the bit of woods behind my hut, and we’ll start training.”

“Training to hunt?”

I nodded. Then I stumbled as she crashed into my side, wrapping her arms around my neck and squeezing me tight.

“You’re the best brother. You won’t regret it. I’ll make you proud, I promise.”

“We’re both going to regret it when Baer finds out,” I said, but I smiled. “And I’m already proud of you.”