"What do you think you're doing?" a male voice demanded. It sounded as though it came from a faraway place, not quite right, and I knew that it was not the voice of one of Tam's kin, or of a shift-shirt maker. None of them were.

"Where is she?" I asked softly.

"Who?"

"The one who lived here before. The one who made the shirts."

The man stared blankly. "How should I know? They were taken away months ago—we only just moved here."

Struggling to contain the fury that raged within me, I asked a final question. "Where did they take them?"

"Away. I don't know. You'd need to ask one of the Ironborn—they organized this."

Ironborn. Those who were chosen by the Iron Gods, those who wielded iron against the fae—they had taken Summer away. I nodded once, slowly, tested the anger inside me once more, surprised that it continued to grow, and then put my hand upon the wooden counter and called upon the magic of patience.

Patience was not very fae, but magic was an inextricable part of our being. To be born with patience was odd; to be born without magic was to die of the stone-sickness. I reminded the wood of what it had been, how patiently it had grown, how obedient to the seasons it had been, and then I gave it my fury, to direct at those who had killed its memories and made its work for naught. And as the branches shot out from all the wooden objects in the house, twisting and twining around limbs, necks, stabbing soft flesh, I smiled.

Perhaps there was some good to patience.

So it was with patience that I crafted a spell of silence, to keep any others from coming to their aid, and with patience that I watched them die. It was with patience that I found the few iron objects in the house and, using a ladle to protect myself, dumped them into a chamber pot. It was with patience that I eased myself out and contemplated the homes around me.

None of the others had taken Summer's home, forced me to come and search. But they might know who had.

I smiled once more, sharp and fae and wild, and set out once more.

Patiently.