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Gods damn him! He should have just left her! She couldn’t help him now. Not with how far—

Lily shot upright.

She intended to use the graft to get to Kester, the town at the base of the mountains, to regroup. Maybe sneak back in through Kael’s tunnels to help Xavier somehow, someway… But the air was warm, the sun shining as it descended into evening.

And there was so much greenery. Something that didn’t exist in the northern mountains.

What she thought of in the middle of her escape wasn’t Kester—it was somewhere on the peninsula. Hundreds of kilometers from the mountains, crossing the border with—

She gasped. Luka!

She whirled one way, then the other, seeing nothing and no one else. No shudder from his Flare tickled her skin.

The boy was with her when she vanished. He should be here.

Lily faltered, staring down at the long blades of grass blowing in the breeze.

He doesn’t have to be my problem.

Lily chewed on her tongue, weighing the severity of what she’d done. If he ended up here with her, that meant she crossed the Alokyian border with a Hazevale prince. And if he managed to get close to it and was discovered by Reatian patrols, they’d know she was here. Alokya’s neutrality treaty with the empire would be broken. After two hundred and fifty years of living peacefully and keeping to themselves, the Asuras and their people would be drawn into Valen’s focus, and they stood no chance against northern technology.

Not to mention what she did with Luka. Taking him wasn’t what she wanted, but it was superbly idiotic. The empire thought Lily was allied with the Gnaw and the Allay. They’d assume Tyrsia responsible, and Lily would be once again dragged into Amalia’s vision of resetting the Pantheon of Flares.

Soreness spread across Lily’s steadily clenching jaw. I escaped her once. I can do it again.

She had to try. What happened in Reave was bad. Lily couldn’t stay here, and if he was here, neither could the incarnation.

Lily spent the next few hours slowly making her way out of the open field and deep into a dense forest. She found a comfortable spot for her broken wrist, cradling it to her chest with the help of her good hand while she got her bearings.

Now that she thought about it, her mind had flashed to the fields outside of Maivil just before she pressed the graft. Somewhere warmer. Safer. Her mother had taken her hunting as far as the southern hills, and Lily spent a lot of time on her own exploring the areas beyond the river. Her mouth curled into a smile as the familiar humidity seeped back into her skin, the smell of moss and moisture settling warmly into her aching bones.

Between resting and reminiscing, she called for the boy.

How would he fare in the dark? Was he hungry? Cold? Tired? If he found a place to sleep, would what she did to the Stalker haunt his dreams?

As the light of the day disappeared, she found the river. The trail leveled, and she released a hearty exhale at what lay ahead.

The fishing cabin. It was obscured by vines and fallen tree branches, and the roof had collapsed, but it was still here.

Lily approached with little caution until a sudden shiver rippled across her skin. She perked up, waiting, but the feeling didn’t intensify or fade. It stayed right where it was.

You decide.

With the unsettling feeling of another Flare’s assertion at her back, she got to work rummaging through the cabin. But without light, she quickly settled for making sure the site was safe enough for rest. Nestled against a dirt coated wall, surrounded by darkness and the flow of the river, the feeling began to fade, and Lily’s body succumbed to sleep.

It was still pitch black when her eyes popped open. No strange shivers tickled her skin or her heart, but tiny whimpers invaded her hearing from somewhere outside.

“Luka?” She kept her voice low, but the sound stopped altogether. “Is that you?”

There was a long bout of silence. Then a small voice. “My head hurts. Really bad.”

Lily sat up, keeping silent as she wrestled with what was best to do.

Chase him away, her mind screamed.

Let him in, her soul soothed.

Lily got to her feet, fumbling through the cabin and walking back into the forest. “Have you had any water?”