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“But it’s okay for you to be at risk?” he asks. “You and Raven and the girls, you travel to the holding facilities. That isn’t safe at all.”

Before I can reply, the front door is thrown open. “Oh, Violet, you’re back!”

Indi wrenches me away and engulfs me in a hug. She is so tall, my head only comes up to her shoulders.

“How was it? Did you find the girls you were looking for?”

“We did,” I say, patting her back. “It went fine. I’ll tell you all about it, but first I need food or I’m going to fall over.”

“Of course, you must be starving. Let me fix you a plate.” Her face turns a little pink as she looks at Ash. “Do you want a plate, too?”

Even though Indi’s known Ash for months now, she still blushes around him. To Ash’s credit, he always acts as though he hasn’t noticed.

“I’ll be in in a little bit,” he says. “Got to take Turnip back to the barn first.”

He gives my hand a squeeze, so I know the argument is over for now. Turnip is munching on some grass, still hooked up to the wagon. He leads her off to the barn that sits at the edge of the ring of trees, and I watch and wish there was something I could do for him.

But I won’t let him go back to the Bank. That’s a death sentence for certain.

“Well, come on, Violet,” Indi says, her eyes, like mine, focused on Ash’s retreating figure. “I want to hear about last night, and you know the way Raven will tell it, she’ll leave out all the good details and just be gruff when I ask questions.”

“Indi!” Sil’s voices booms from behind the screen door. “Your damned muffins are burning.”

Indi gasps and whirls around, vanishing into the house.

I stand for a second on the porch, letting the sun warm my face. I want to hold on to this morning tightly, to imprint it in my brain, a talisman against whatever darkness the future holds.

In this moment, I am safe and alive, and surrounded by friends.

Four

I END UP SLEEPING THROUGH MOST OF THE DAY.

Dinner that night is the noisy affair it usually is.

“Olive, can you pass the salad, please?” I ask.

Where Indi is tall and fair and almost unnervingly optimistic, Olive is dark and small with perpetually red-rimmed eyes from crying so much. Even now I see them start to fill with tears.

“My mistress loved salad,” Olive says, passing me the bowl. “One time at the palace of the Stream, we had a salad with candied pecans and fresh goat cheese and there was a lotus blossom on top and when you opened it there was a miniature golden bird inside.” She sighs dramatically, glancing to the little pile of lettuce, tomato, and cucumber on her plate.

Sienna tosses a few sleek braids over her shoulder.

“Your mistress loved putting you on a leash, too,” she says, flicking open the lighter that Sil bought her as a present. A tiny flame sparks. “Should we start tying you up outside at night like a dog?”

“Put that away,” Sil warns her.

Olive slams her fork down on the table and stands. “Don’t talk to me like that.”

“You know you’d be dead now if Violet hadn’t saved you, right?” Sienna says, pocketing her lighter.

“Knock it off,” Raven says.

The few candles in the center of the table flare up. Olive’s eyebrows knit together, and with a puff, the flames are extinguished.

“Hey,” Sil says.

Sienna holds her hands up. “It was an accident, I swear.”