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“Mr. Ambrose, we need constant eyes on Nore.” It was the lead Dragun who spoke.

“I need a word with my sister. Alone.”

Her brother pulled her aside. “What are you doing?”

“Do you trust me?”

“I want to. But you are worrying me.”

Nore tried to hold her face still as stone, but her brother knew her too well.

He sighed. “What have you done?”

“If you want to know, come with me. Help me.”

“Nore, no.” He pulled her to a halt with a rough grip that was unlike him. “This has to stop. You’re the heir. You can’t—” He raked a hand through his long hair. “Tell me the truth, everything.”

“Only if you’ll have my back regardless, like you said.”

“That’s an impossible ask.”

“It didn’t used to be.”

His mouth hardened and he looked past her. She couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t stop her. Or worse, enlist the Draguns to help him stop her.

“Sorry, Ell. I have to do this. For me.”

She ran away from her brother’s shouts, but he didn’t follow her. That was something, at least.

* * *

Daring shook his mane when Nore approached. She ran a hand down the crest of his neck and gave his nose a scratch. His hoof pawed at the hard ground. She dug out a treat and held it out on her palm.

“Today we go on our biggest adventure yet,” she whispered to him as she gathered his tack and grabbed a shovel. Daring’s ears twitched. “I’ll figure out a way to take you with me. You have my word.” She checked her map once more. The coordinates were on the westernmost graveyard on the sunset side of the mountains, miles away. If the Scroll was at those coordinates, she’d be free. Once the girth was tight under his belly, she slipped the reins over his head, put the bit in his mouth, and climbed on. She guided him out the gate and then rocked her hips forward. He took off. The wind whipped through her hair and her heart squeezed. She wasn’t a little girl or Red anymore, but in this moment, she felt as if she could be just as free.

Nore rode Daring hard across the estate, through the trails along the lake’s edge of the property, then down into the valley that rimmed their vast estate. By the time the graveyard came into view, Nore was sore. She sat back in the saddle and Daring slowed. Her nose and fingers were ice.

“Easy,” she said, gripping the reins with one hand and moving tree branches out of the way with the other. A tall fir was planted each time an ancestor was buried; there were firs all over the place. As they rode farther, the snow was cleared off an expanse of headstones, placed closely together. The pungent scent in the air grew sharper. Nore dismounted and led Daring the rest of the way. The forest shook, and then shadows shifted in the light. The ancestors had followed her here. As if they could sense her panic, their presence tightened around her.

“Come on!” She pulled Daring. He refused to move. But when she spun around, she saw what he was looking at.

Ellery appeared from the trees on horseback, light gleaming on the slick hide of his black stallion. He was always much faster than Daring. His gray gloves were dark with blood. Daring reared. Nore let him go.

“You followed me. Why?”

“I’m here to help.” Her brother’s stare deadened. He lifted two sealed pails from his horse’s pack and spilled the steaming liquid onto the icy ground before handing Nore a shovel with jagged teeth. “You’re here to dig up the coordinates. Get started.”

Nore took the spade, her mind full of questions, but when she jabbed the ground with it, and felt the anticipation of freedom thumping in her chest, any concerns faded away. Ellery watched, his arms folded, and Nore almost asked why. But if her suspicions about the magical malfunctions she had read about in the journal were true, he couldn’t help—because he had Anatomer magic.

“How did you know about the coordinates?”

“You’ve always hidden books in your stove. Once I found what you’d been reading, it wasn’t hard to deduce what you’ve been researching. Darragh Marionne was also seen exiting the estate. It wasn’t hard to put the two together. You’re helping her.”

“But that doesn’t explain how you knew where to find this spot.” She stopped digging and met her brother’s eyes. There wasn’t a hint of malice, but there was something she had never seen before in him. She didn’t have words for it, but her clammy hands slipped on the shovel.

“The legend of the Immortality Scroll is known, Nore. You’d know that if you were around this place. People have written about trying to dig up this spot. Keep going.”

She worked furiously until her muscles ached. He knew about the Scroll, but said nothing before. Why? The sun was fully awake when she shoved the spade in the dirt and hit something hard. Her brother watched and didn’t blink. She fell to her knees, her hands and legs numb, digging at the earth, clearing it so she could see what was underneath. Then she did, and her stomach curdled. Bones. Human ones. Beside them, an empty glass box like the one that held her mother’s heart. “The ancestors required Caera’s heart, too…” She stumbled up, an eerie feeling all over her skin. The dead around her hovered over the open grave, then explored inside. Chills raced up her arms as she paced, trying to force down a sick feeling.