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Pain twisted in his face, and he took a deep breath in and exhaled it. “No.”

I let the silence stretch between us as he examined his belly button, searching for the answer to the question I wasn’t going to ask. He would either volunteer the information, or he would change the subject.

I was weighing him. He might know me, or know the me that came into Magh Meall, but I knew barely anything about him, and I had three people who trusted and relied on me to keep them safe. If I had a hint of deception or evasion from him, they could call this place sanctuary all they wanted and my three friends would stay in the reeds still. I wouldn’t risk their lives on a hunch.

My own life? Well. What was that worth, really? Not much, I wagered. I could be cavalier enough about it if I knew that those three would be taken care of.

He finally took a deep breath and looked up as if fighting tears. “Cypress was killed the night after the Night Market, Cricket. We were both purchased by a Fae named Lady Ever Bright. She took us to what she called the Burning Fields. Told us if we could make it to the other side, we were free to keep running and she wouldn’t come after us. We made it halfway before she let loose some sort of dog or demon. I didn’t get a good look at it. I just ran. Cypress was with me the whole time. I had his wrist in my grasp the whole time. But you know . . . you remember. They took his eyes the last time he ran. And we both knew that even if we made it . . . he—he might not survive.”

Grief, familiar and too dull to be a surprise, filled me for the man I barely knew. It could have been me though. It was supposed to be me. Ever Bright had been in a bidding war with The Raven for me that night, and he had won. Just a simple twist of fate, just a simple bid gone awry, and it would have been me.

“I don’t know why he did it, but one minute he was there and the next he was ripping out of my grip. I turned around, and he was just standing there, arms open wide, waiting for that thing that was chasing us.” A sniff was given. The wound might have been old, but it still bled deep crimson. “I should have stopped. I should have turned back for him, but I just kept running. I ran until I couldn’t hear his screams anymore. I kept running until I couldn’t move. Cora found me and brought me here.”

“Could still be alive,” I hazarded. Rook gave me a pained, incredulous look over the tip of his brows. He was right to do so—hope was a too-tight bathing suit on me. On any of us really. It chafed and cut in places that were too sensitive. “I’m sorry, Rook.”

He nodded, accepting my condolences. “Been here ever since. Not really a runaway if the Fae who bought you freed you when she tried to kill you.”

“You haven’t tried to go home? Go back to the normal world?”

He snorted. “Normal world? Looking like I fell out of some fucked-up fantasy movie? C’mon, Cricket.”

I tilted my head and nodded. “Fair. So are all of the humans here runaways?”

His gaze lifted and drifted around the small village with pride. “Some of them. Not many. Like I said, most of them move on soon after they’ve had a chance to rest up. Most of them are either humans who wandered into Magh Meall or are here by their own choice. Some were brought here by their lovers, some were granted passage by the Fae gods.”

“Wait. They are here by their own choice?” My mouth nearly hung open.

“Yeah. A lot of them actually. Can you believe that? Like Róis over there? She crossed over in the 1600s. Said that life as a woman in Ireland was a curse, so she’d found a way to go to a land that was less cursed. She was one of the founders of Havenhome with Cora.” His gaze drifted over to Cora as she pulled carrots from the dark soil. The love that grew between them was just as fertile as the earth she was tilling.

“That’s . . . well I’d say that sounds like bullshit, but I’ve been in Magh Meall long enough to know nothing about this place makes sense.”

He turned back to me and gave me a rueful smirk. “C’mon. Let’s get you a bath. You smell like bog shit.”

“Thanks! New perfume.”

“It smells awful.”

“I aim to please,” I said with a wink before looking back to Goose and nodding to him to go get the others. “There’s three more of us. Will they be welcome too?”

Rook didn’t even lose a step. He had suspected my duplicity. If he hadn’t, I’d have thought less of him. “If they can walk in, they are welcome.”

“And if they can’t?”

“Then they aren’t. Simple as that.”

“And what criteria are they judged by?” I crossed my arms over my chest and watched him.

“Can’t tell you that. That’s between Cora and the rest of us. If you stay long enough to be one of us, we can tell you. Otherwise, it’s not something you get to know.” I appreciated the candid and frank protectiveness. “But if they are like you, then they should be just fine.”

Just like me? No. They were humans. I was not.

Goose padded off and disappeared into the shadow of one of the rough-hewn cabins. Rook watched him go and then turned back to me.

“You kept your kin’tha? Or did he keep you?”

I snorted. “He’s a failinis. That’s what they used to be called. And I guess a little of both? He comes and goes when he wants to, and I do as well. If we meet back up, great. If not, such is life, I guess?”

That was another lie. I would be gutted if Goose decided never to come back one day.