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A silhouetted Cyrus walks toward us, hands twined behind his head, gust-tousled hair nearly golden in the glow of sunset. He regards me with a sigh. I regard him with a scowl.
Dante pinches the bridge of his nose. “Is there something you two need to discuss in private first?”
“No,” we both snap at the same time.
His gaze flattens. “I’m going to head down. In the meantime, whatever it is, work it out ormake outor I swear…”
“Youknowabout—”Us?I clamp my lips shut as I realize my mistake.
“Now I do.” A smirk hooks Dante’s mouth. Even in the fading light, I can see Cyrus turn a brilliant red while his friend clutches his chest in mock horror. “Cyrus, you harlot, here I thought you were a man of honor.”
“I don’t want to talk about this at this moment,” Cyrus snarls, shoving Dante forward.
“Or ever, I assume? When I said you should tell her, I meantbefore you got engaged.” There is bite to his accusation.
“Tell me?” I glance between them, curiosity overtaking any embarrassment. “Tell me what?”
Now Dante looks flushed, and Cyrus is the one pinching his regal nose. Badger chitters fill the silence.
“Anyway,” Dante says, as I continue sputtering. “We need to locate Raya before she slips away.”
“Tell me what?”At this moment, more than any other moment today, I hate not knowing things.
“Quiet.” Cyrus frowns. “Do you hear that?”
We all turn toward the forest’s edge below us. Someone is loudly tromping through the underbrush and getting farther away.
The hill is still steep here, but I’ll live even if I tumble. “To hell with it,” I mutter. Getting to my knees, I start scaling the rocky outcropping, grabbing for any foothold.
“Be careful!” Dante clambers after me. With his longer limbs, he reaches the bottom faster than I do. The prince is last, slow in his stiff jacket.
All three of us land on the ground, then we fan out, taking different paths into the forest. The trails are narrow but clear, twisting and winding around large oaks.
Whoever was here has gone quiet. Hiding.
To hell with stealth. Raya must know we’re looking for her. “Come out!” I shout, climbing over tree roots. The canopy overhead knits into solid darkness as I head off path through a trampled thicket. I might be able to flush her out; I remember in my vision, she seemed so worried about her fairies. “We can help you save your fairies!”
“Really?” comes the soft response. Her curls bounce into view beyond a berry bush.
Aha.I lunge at the movement, uncaring of whipping branches, and tackle Raya to the ground.
She yelps. Lights scatter around her, dim and blinking.
We’re of similar build and height, and with the element of surprise, I easily overpower her, straddling her middle and pinning her arms into the dirt with my knees. Hovering over her, my hair frizzes from its braid. I pant with satisfaction. “I’m going to sit on you until you give us answers.”
“S-Seer?” Raya seems to have only just registered who I am. Not every day someone gets thrown down by the kingdom’s premier divine figure.
“Yes, hello. That’s me.” I squint at her face. SheisRaya, right? I almost wonder if I’m remembering her incorrectly. Her jaw isn’t the right shape, and her nose looks flatter, but shesoundslike Raya, and her wide brown eyes are the same and so is her dark hair, tangled with leaves on the forest floor. “I don’t care what magic it is you pulled today. I saw in your memories that you released the beasts, so don’t even think about lying, or you’ll be sent dancing through the Palace District in hot-iron shoes before the night’s over!”
Shockingly, the first words out of her mouth aren’t a denial, but instead, “You can see memories? Can you see a specific one?”
“What?” I hear Dante and Cyrus running toward us. “Usually I—I see the memories people think most often about, or one they’re thinking of at the moment—”
“Let me go!” she gasps.
“No! Why would I—”
“Let me go and look into my memories. You have to look!” Wriggling and thrashing, she manages to get a whole arm free, which I attempt to smack down like an errant spider. She pulls off my glove and grabs my hand. “Please!”
