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“I loveyou, Thief.”

At long last, I raised my head and kissed the tip of her nose. “And I you, Wildling. Always.”

“Where do we go, Kage?”Adira’s head was against my chest, our legs and arms curled around each other on the grass.

We could not remain here. No mistake, Destin would soon be scouring the Greenwood. “I don’t know.”

“Do you think someone told him lies of you? Is that why he’s done this?”

Her words were laced in false hope. I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I think you know as well as I do. Whatever is happening here, whoever he is, I suspect he knows we’ve uncovered some of the truth. He is trying to protect his crown.”

Adira let out a heavy sigh and traced the lines of dark veins along my middle. “It’s getting too close to Nóttbrull.”

In the rising dawn, the fading moons were still visible in the distance, both nearly aligned. I hugged her closer to my side. “We keep fighting until we cannot.”

For a moment we were silent, as though neither of us wanted to admit the fears taking hold.

“I think we should go to Gaina,” Adira whispered.

“Gaina? Why?”

“She told us if ever we find ourselves without hope, to seek her out.” Adira lifted her head to meet my gaze. “I don’t know why, but I feel as though she might be the only safe place left for us.”

“If ever there was a safe person to seek in this moment, it would be Gaina,” I agreed. “She is a servant of the land, not a palace.”

Adira offered me a wane smile. “I hope I’m right, for we have nowhere else to go.”

CHAPTER 38

Adira

Gaina did not livewithout shelter in the Greenwood.

Tucked back in a thick grove of evergreens and tall, waist high ferns was a quaint hovel built into a small knoll, no larger than a woodshed. Moss clotted the cracks and crevices of the stones of the doorway, and grass from the knoll crafted the rooftop in sprawling stems with sleeping wildflowers preparing for Frostfell.

When we arrived at the first glimmer of dusk, the old woman was outside, sprinkling a patch of barbed flower that looked a great deal like their petals were the pincers on a dung beetle. Gaina was dressed simply, a gray dress with a smudged apron wrapped around her waist, silver hair tied and knotted on the top of her head.

Simple, but the way she commanded her place—be it in the mushroom grove or her own knoll—she moved as though she were the queen. Tall, confident, unphased.

“Golden boy,” she said without turning. “Ah, and our sweet iron, fire rose, gentle soul, and my little imp.”

Gaina spun around, beaming. Cy barged through us all and wrapped the woman in his thick arms.

“My true love, we’ve come to grace you again.”

“Cy is the imp,” Gwyn whispered, grinning. “What? Did youthink you were the only one with a unique name from our Lady of the Trees?”

“How does she do the things she does? It’s like she sees things others can’t.” I slid my bag strap off my shoulder.

“I don’t know. It’s as though she has an additional sense or ten. We think before the curse took hold she might’ve been a seer mage. Then again, she has a Soturi brand.”

Unexpected, but true enough—now that I was looking—when Gaina bent to gather one of the packs from our meager supplies, the dark ink of a brand across her back peaked up from the neckline of her dress.

“Well get a move on.” Gaina swatted at Asger’s shoulder. “In you go. Get some bulbbush tea on, and we’ll have us a little chat.”

“Gaina,” Kage said softly. “You heard the crown prince, yes?”

“Voices in my head never held much stock with me, boy.” She patted his cheek. “Best prepare, you’ll be set to work though. Broken cupboard, missing windowpane, and a bit of the sod fell in on my wash basin.”