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Annelise turned back in the opposite direction, towards the cottage. I watched as her lone figure disappeared into the mist. With how exhausted I was, it wouldn’t be difficult for her to catch up with us.

Zion led the way as we got a head start and traveled the main path in Prins towards The Shadow. Halfway through the center of the city, we turned left, away from the Prins Dockyards. We passed through the area where homes andshops were built right into the mountainside, and it wasn’t long before the buildings became sparser. The tall grass of the Prins plains and forest beyond greeted us. The mountains enclosed us on the left and right as we made our way into the thicket of evergreens, a long, flat plane visible before us.

I felt comfort in the safety of the blanket of trees the forest provided us, and dreaded the inevitable exposure we would experience once we had to cross the planes. If I remembered correctly from my studies of Istmere in the grand library, there were two large rivers we would need to cross to make it to the western coastline of Istmere. Towards the Island of Myrene.

If we were traveling that far, that is. Despite my fatigue and the gripping thought that I couldn’t possibly go on, I hoped that we were. I wanted to put as much distance between Donika and myself as humanly possible, and I dreaded the thought of Nik hunting us down and finding us.

I wasn’t sure I would be able to fight him if it came down to that. Back in Siraleth my numbness had quickly turned to rage, but the longer we walked, the emptier and more hollow I felt. The war against Donika was not in our favor, and every time we made a step forward, it was always two steps back. If not more.

Donika had storm magic now.

She wouldn’t be as powerful as I was—having been born to the magic, and hers having been stolen—but she would be a force to be reckoned with all the same. She had set out to steal my magic with her serpent staff, but I guess stealing Nik’s and drawing him to her side was the next best thing for her.

She would never stop trying to break me, and she wasn’t entirely unsuccessful this time. Deep down, I did feel broken. I couldn’t see a way to save Nik. To defeat Donika and save Istmere.

I was so very tired.Bone deeptired.

Defeat weighed heavily on me as we walked, and our eyes were on the sky as we passed through the open plains towards the dense forest beyond. Donika’s spies could be anywhere.

A black crow appeared overhead, squawking and beating its wings furiously as it sailed ahead of us. Puck gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

“Kenna,” he breathed. “She will fly ahead and scope things out for us. That means Saanvi and Annelise can’t be too far behind.”

His words brought me little reassurance as we entered the thicket once more, the sounds of the river beyond drawing us forward. We stopped to rest and hydrate momentarily, and I wished desperately that we had a canteen to fill. We would need to cross the water to continue on anyway, so I waded into the fresh stream until I was knee deep. I cupped the water to drink deeply at first, but as I noticed the blood and dirt staining my hands, my stomach roiled. I scrubbed and scrubbed my fingers until my nails were raw and my skin was cracked. I moved onto my face next and fully submerged my skin until I could scrub the flesh there as well.

I wanted to wash away the events of today, to forget that everything had happened and return to the bed in Siralethwith Nikolai. To remember our limbs twined together, his skin against mine.

But the only thing I felt was empty.

Tess watched soundlessly from the bank as I scrubbed my skin clean. When I was finished, we met on the other side. Everyone else was only soaked to their knees, but I had soaked through my tunic in my attempt to clean my skin of all reminders of today. A shiver ran down my spine as a coldness settled in my bones, one I feared would never leave. Tess wrapped her arm around me and held me close, rubbing vigorous circles into my arms to warm me. My teeth chattered as my eyes met hers.

“I think you’re going into shock.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“I don’t think anything can shock me at this point,” I muttered, casting my eyes downward.

“We need to get her moving,” Annelise’s voice cut in as she moved to my side. I hadn’t realized she had even returned to our group, the grimoire tucked safely under her arm against her side. She shook her head back and forth with worry. “Her magic will likely return in the morning, and I hope to reach our destination before nightfall.”

Tess nodded as she looped her arm through mine. Puck moved to my other side, but I raised my hand to ward him off.

“I can walk on my own for a while,” I told him through chattering teeth.

“Are you sure?” he asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

“I’m sure,” I told him resolutely.

Tess walked by my side, but her arm threaded through mine did little to warm me. We took the shortest possible route from one woodland to the next, trying to minimize the amount of time we were out in the open. The resounding caw from above would intermittently keep us on track—wherever it was we were going.

It wasn’t until we reached the second river that my weakness won out, and my knees buckled, giving way beneath me entirely. I caught myself on the heel of my palms, skidding into the dirt of the forest floor. Puck wasted no time scooping me up and pressing my cold body to his chest.

“She’s burning up,” he said, his worried gaze meeting Tess’s.

Words were silently exchanged between them with only a glance, and we picked up our pace as we approached the coastline and traveled towards the mountains of Prins. The peaks were still visible from here, covered in snow and reaching into the clouds far beyond.

My skin was hot to the touch—as if I were being burned from the inside out—and the snowy caps beyond brought a chuckle to my lips. How could I be hot, my skin burning hot, when there was snow covering the mountain range still within sight? The air was still cool against my skin.

My eyes suddenly heavy, the last thing I remembered was Tess grasping my hand and squeezing it tightly. My hair blowing in the soft breeze from the Myrene Sea. Then I was swallowed by the darkness once more.

When I woke, the smell of salt and brine filled my nostrils, a soft breeze passing over my skin. The sound of waves crashing against rocks roused me softly and for a moment I could pretend that everything was ok. That I could stay here—by the sea—forever. Forget about the war I had waged against my sister. Forget about the suffering of the people of Istmere.