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Stealing from tourists wasn’t doing it for her today.

She needed to be back at nightfall for the final meeting before Monster Con tomorrow, but she still wasn’t fully recharged.

It should have been easy enough to walk around Midtown, considering the size of the crowds, but she’d gotten bored.

And most of the Upper East Side was away at the Hamptons or wherever the ultra-rich jettisoned to escape the summer heat.

Kierse sighed as she sank into a seat on the Mall in Central Park.

Bustling tourists paraded through the avenue lined with park benches.

A saxophonist played across from her. A female mer swirled a soapy, five-foot loop of string on two poles, creating child-size bubbles.

A nymph breakdancer was showing off farther down.

Monsters and humans. As the Treaty had always promised them it would be. And yet it all felt tenuous.

Maybe it was just frustration. Another failed attempt with Graves. Another block in her memory. Another day with no answers.

She tilted her head back and looked up at the summer sky. Here she was in Central Park, and still she felt heartache for a past that was stolen from her and she couldn’t even remember.

Her phone pinged. She pulled it out to see a text from Gen. She still wasn’t exactly used to getting to message her friend whenever she wanted. Technology had been so expensive and difficult to get your hands on after the war, and having money was still new.

Gen: Are you still going to see Ethan?

Kierse groaned. Or maybe she’d been spending all day avoiding this. She had to go back to Brooklyn.

Kierse: Yeah. Do you want me to pick you up?

Gen: I have to work with Walter until I figure this out. Will you tell him I’m sorry? I really wanted to go to see him after graduation…or whatever the Druids are calling it.

Kierse shot back a text agreeing to tell him and then skipped through the park to the nearest subway station at 72nd Street. She descended into the depths, wondering if she should try stealing from the resident troll, when she nearly skidded to a halt.

There was no troll.

In fact, there was nothing standing in the atrium between the stairs and the turnstiles. She re-pocketed the cash she’d already reached for on instinct. She cast her eyes around the whole area as if the troll was going to jump out at her. But there was none.

It was so disorienting she almost missed the symbol spray painted in gold on the floor where the troll typically sat. It was an arrow shot through wings. Kierse’s stomach curdled.

Men of Valor.

She’d already known they weren’t gone, but she didn’t know what it meant that they had put their logo over the place where a troll had sat. She snapped a picture of it and sent a text separately to Graves and to Nate with the caption, Trouble .

Nate: Fuck

She hopped on the B train toward downtown, switching to the M at Washington Square Park before she heard back from Graves.

Graves: I’m on it.

She didn’t know what that meant.

But she’d known the city felt too quiet. The truce too perfect. After what happened this winter, she had been expecting bedlam. Not this cookie-cutter shit. As the heat of the city intensified, she felt the meddling underbelly boiling and ready to burst.

Kierse was well acquainted with the Broadway stop in Brooklyn now. And how her chest started to tighten the closer she got to Druid territory. Except today…Lorcan wasn’t here.

She had never walked into Brooklyn and not immediately known where Lorcan was. It was disconcerting. And considering the Druid acolytes had graduated today, she would have thought he’d be around…congratulating them. Or something.

So she actually felt light—and weirdly empty—as she walked down the street. None of the Druid patrols even blinked at her. She even bypassed Declan giving orders. He glared at her but said nothing. She walked right into headquarters and found Ethan in his room.

“You came,” he said with a laugh.

“Of course.”

He looked behind her. “Where’s Gen?”

“She told me to tell you that she’s sorry, but she got caught up.”

“Oh,” he said, disappointment etched into his features.

She laughed. “Well, at least basic training didn’t remove your heart from your sleeve.”

He wrinkled his nose at her and grabbed a hat, slinging it on backward. “Doesn’t look like you’ve added one to yours.”

“Doesn’t sound useful,” she teased.

“Jerk.”

“Hey, you’re the one who stole all my magic and knocked me out.”

“Well, I didn’t mean to do that.”

“I know you didn’t,” she said, falling into step with him.

He pulled the door closed and tipped his head to the side. “Come with me.”

There was still distance between the two of them.

She wasn’t sure if there always would be from now on.

They weren’t holed up in the attic anymore, completely reliant on one another.

But at least they were trying. It was better than when she’d first come home and they’d argued. She’d do anything to erase that.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” he said with a smirk and barreled down the hallway.

Kierse recognized the same route she had first taken with Lorcan when she’d returned. Down a set of stairs and into the long hallway that bypassed his underground vault. Kierse paused at the sight of the thing.

“Think I can get inside?” Kierse asked, her fingers itching.

Ethan grabbed her hand. “Let’s not find out.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t particularly want all of the Druidic Order coming down on us.”

Kierse mock-gasped. “You think so little of me?”

“No. I think so highly of them.”

She laughed. “The brainwashing is intense.”

“Pot meet kettle,” he said, pulling her away from the vault.

She was still arguing with him about going back when they made it into the bank.

She froze.

Where before the mosaic tiles had once been perfectly aligned, a tree rose out of the ground. As if its roots had sprung up through feet of cement and cracked the floor to burst fifteen feet into the air.

“There is a tree in the middle of the room.”

“That’s what I wanted to tell you and Gen.”

“That somehow a tree is here?”

“Our tree,” Ethan explained. “It’s our magic.”

She glanced at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“When we were connected as a triskel, I took way too much and blasted the magic into the floor. You’d already passed out by the time it happened.

We all left, and when we came back, a tree had appeared where I released the power.

It’s been growing steadily ever since.” Ethan touched the trunk and closed his eyes as if connecting with it. “It’s part of us now.”

“How?”

“Niamh thinks our triskel magic created a new sacred tree.”

Kierse’s eyebrows shot up. “Is that possible?”

“It hasn’t been done before, but they said that a triskel can do great magic.”

Kierse stepped hesitantly forward and put her hand on the tree.

It reacted to her magic with a sigh. No, it wasn’t reacting to her magic; it was her magic.

Primarily hers, at least. There was a tiny thread of Ethan and Gen in there, too.

Just like when they were linked and she was the torrent of power that suffused them.

She could hardly believe that this great thing had come out of their joining. She knew that a triskel had saved her life. But this somehow felt so different to that. So precious.

Her mind recalled another sacred tree she’d seen—Sansara. Had Cillian Ryan channeled his own magic to recreate the tree he’d destroyed? Was that how Sansara still stood? Was that even possible without a triskel?

And then another question—could Cillian Ryan be part of a triskel?

“Thinking deep thoughts,” Ethan said.

“It’s been one of those days.”

“Are you going to tell me about it?”

She sighed. She should confide in Ethan. She always had before. “I have a block in my memory.”

Ethan’s brows furrowed. “Gen said that you were starting to remember things from before. I can’t believe the spell took your memories.”

“Yeah,” Kierse said on a sigh. “How much did she tell you?”

“That you went into the market to get a memory potion and you remembered that they’d had the spell put on you. I didn’t know you’d done more than that.”

Kierse shrugged. “Well, with Graves’s help.”

Ethan sighed. “Do I even want to know?”

“Maybe not,” she said with a laugh. “But it’s been fine.

He’s just helped me recall the rest of my memories.

And there’s a block when I try to remember the moment when the spell was cast, like a skip in my mind.

I can’t get through it to see it happening.

No matter how Graves or I push, it’s not there. ”

Ethan looked uncomfortable. He’d come around a little on Graves, but Kierse didn’t know if he would ever be fully convinced.

“You know what, forget about it,” Kierse said with a shake of her head. “This is why I didn’t tell you to begin with.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Ethan said quickly. “I want to know more. What does that mean? That the memory isn’t there?”

“That he erased it, or the spell did. I’m not sure.”

“But you’re going to find out.”

“That’s the plan,” she conceded. “When we get to that point in my memory, it always jumps forward. And that’s when I hit a second block. Graves took me to the hospital to see a psychiatrist.”

Ethan’s jaw dropped. “Really?”

“Yes. Contrary to Druid training, Graves cares about me. The psychiatrist said that my brain was shielding me from a traumatic incident. And I think it’s how my parents died.”

Ethan’s face dropped. “Oh, Kierse.”

“I know,” she said, sinking to the floor and putting her back to the tree. Ethan dropped down next to her. “Going through memories is never great, but I just…don’t know if I want to even see that.”

“Maybe you forgot them for a reason. Maybe it’s for the better.”

“Maybe, but the psychiatrist said that I needed to face what happened to me.” She shrugged. “All of it’s fucked up.”

“I’m sorry I haven’t been there for any of this,” Ethan told her.

“I’m glad you’re here now.”

Ethan wrapped her up in a hug, and something seemed to fit back together inside her.

They were silent a few minutes before Kierse nudged him and asked, “So, are you going to see Corey tonight?”

Ethan ducked his head. “We might have made plans.”

“And you’re coming to the wedding?”

“I’ll be there.” He removed his hat and ran a hand over his hair. “Going to need to get a new fade first.”

Kierse laughed. “Ah, there’s my vain boy.”

Ethan pushed her shoulder. “Remind me why you’re my friend.”

“Because you love me.”

“I do,” he confirmed.

Kierse sighed with relief. Maybe finally the thing between them was getting back on track.

“Oh,” she gasped. Her hand went to her chest.

“Are you okay?”

She rubbed the spot reflexively. “Lorcan’s back.”

Ethan’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know he was gone.”

She shot him a look. “You think we would have done all of this without interruption otherwise?”

“I guess I didn’t think about it.” He frowned. “You really hate that you’re connected, don’t you?”

Kierse rose to her feet and dusted her hands off on her shorts. “It’s complicated.”

“Is it because it’s Lorcan? Would you be fine if it was Graves?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“I don’t hate Lorcan,” she said automatically and was surprised to find it was true. “Maybe he isn’t as bad as I’ve made him out to be. He took care of my best friend, after all.”

Ethan grinned. “That he did.”

“But I don’t want anyone or anything to tell me what to do.”

“What else is new?” he said with a laugh.

Kierse shoved him. “Shut up.”

“You’re just so predictable. You get the best thing in the entire world with one of the best people in it and you’re like, ‘Oh man, I’d rather make the worst decision I can instead.’”

She snorted. “Wow. Thanks for the show of support.”

“What would it hurt to give Lorcan a chance?”

“If I ever need a wingman, I’ll tag you in,” she promised. “Until then, stay out of my love life. Deal with yours first.”

Ethan laughed and held his hands up. “Fair. Fair. But…you are going to see him, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” she admitted, heading across the bank floor. “I guess I am.”

She left Ethan at their tree and followed the invisible string that drew taut between her and Lorcan. Back through the tunnel to the large wooden double doors that he had brought her to the first time she’d shown up in Brooklyn. Behind these doors was the Oak Throne.

Which could be hers.

She put her hand against the door. She could feel him on the other side, though she was uncertain what he was doing in there. Ethan’s words about giving him a chance rang in her ears.

“Fuck,” she muttered.

Then she pushed the door open.