Dusk had fallen by the time Seraiah had cleaned up the mess of ink and redone her last pages. The snow had stopped, but the air still held onto its bitter bite. Around her, people rushed home to their warm hearths and families. She would have liked to do the same, but instead, she pointed herself in a different direction.

The market would be closed by the time she arrived, but if she was fast enough, she might catch some of the vendors before they left for the night. There had to be someone who knew something or had seen someone. She’d even ask Freya about the faeries if it meant finding a clue as to what had happened to her sister. 

Seraiah was so lost in her thoughts, she didn’t notice the oncoming cart until it was almost upon her. The driver was distracted by someone sitting behind him and hadn’t seen her in his path. She knew she should at least try to scramble out of the way before they ran her down, but her body froze in place, refusing to do anything but watch.

She blinked.

One moment she was standing in the street, and the next she was flat on her back in the freshly fallen snow. Instead of being crushed under hooves, Seraiah found herself under a human body with the breath knocked out of her lungs.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Then the man pushed himself off her and held out a gloved hand to help her up.

She accepted, and he tugged her back to her feet. Her backside was numb from its short time in the snow. Embarrassed, she ducked her head and brushed the ice off her cloak and dress.

“Are you all right?” the man asked, an unfamiliar lilt to his words.

“I-I think so.” Seraiah’s voice wobbled as it slowly hit her how close she had come to death. A lot of good she would have done Sterling then. “I should have been paying more attention. Thank you . . .” she trailed off, waiting for him to supply his name.

When he didn’t say anything, she glanced up. The hood of his cloak was pulled forward, so she couldn’t see his face, but she caught a glimpse of gray hair. He hadn’t sounded like an older gentleman though, and he certainly didn’t move like one.

Then she noticed another slighter figure standing a few steps behind him. Both of them seemed to be watching her.

When the silence dragged on, Seraiah offered a small, uncomfortable smile and moved to step past them.

“Wait.” The man reached out to stop her. “Are you Seraiah, perchance?”

“Do I know you?” As soon as the question was out, she realized where she had seen the two of them before. It was the strangers from the Grumbling Bear Inn.

“No, but I know what happened to your sister.”

Seraiah’s eyes widened, and she took a step back, almost tripping over her own feet and ending up in the snowbank again. “How do you know what happened to my sister?”

Her thoughts raced. What if they were the ones who had taken Sterling? Did they think to extort her for money?

“We came from a visit with Lady Zahara where we met—” he paused like he was searching for a name.

“Ariya,” the woman said, stepping up next to him.

“Yes, your friend Ariya told us what happened, and we volunteered to help.”

Seraiah’s heart lept. Ariya had kept her promise, but why would these strangers offer such a thing? If Ariya had spoken to them, they had to know she didn’t have the means to pay them.

“We’re leaving the city tomorrow,” he continued. “If you would like to join us, meet us on the edge of the forest at sunrise.”

Seraiah felt herself nod. “I’ll be there.”

Later that night, Seraiah pretended to go to bed. She waited until she could hear Papa’s snores coming from his room before she tossed the covers aside. She still couldn’t quite believe she had agreed to go with strangers whose names she didn’t know to find her sister.

Getting down on her hands and knees, she dug around beneath her bed and pulled out a satchel. She could have waited until morning to pack, but her body was such a mess of nerves she doubted she would get much sleep tonight anyway.

Seraiah stuffed her spare dress into her bag and then looked around the room for anything else she might need. She didn’t know the first thing about packing for travel.

Her gaze landed on Sterling’s favorite book. It was a book of faery tales Mama had given to Sterling. It was her sister’s most prized possession.

Seraiah stared at it a second longer before pulling the book off the nightstand and stuffing it into her satchel. It was one of the few things she had of Sterling’s, and she couldn’t bring herself to leave it behind.

She crept out to the kitchen, careful not to wake Papa as she slipped a leftover heel of bread and a bit of dried meat into her bag. It was all that was left of the food Papa had brought home tonight. He will get more tomorrow, she reassured herself as she hurried back to her room.

With nothing left to pack, Seraiah crawled back into bed and attempted to sleep.

After hours of tossing and turning, it was finally time. To the east, the sky had turned from black to midnight blue. Seraiah estimated she had about half an hour left until sunrise.

She bit her lip as she stared out the window at the sky. Should she really join the strangers, or should she wait and make a go of it on her own as she’d originally planned?

You waited once before, she reminded herself, and look at what happened. 

She had ignored the nightmare’s warning, and now Sterling was missing. Seraiah owed it to her sister to do this—to go after her. If meeting with these strangers was going to help her get Sterling back and prevent her younger sister from becoming that thing of her nightmares, she would do it.

She would do whatever it took.

But first, she needed to ask them some questions.

Seraiah looked around the little house where she had grown up one more time, saying a silent goodbye before putting on her cloak and slipping out the door into the night.

Kestrel shifted restlessly next to him. “Maybe we scared her away.”

“If she doesn’t come, then she doesn’t come,” Kai said. “Does it matter?”

He’d been ready to leave the city immediately after hearing Ariya’s story, but Kestrel had insisted they should find the other girl. Based on a description from Ariya, they’d located her outside the castle and extended an invitation to join them against his better judgment.

“I think it does,” Kestrel said. “I meant to tell you this earlier when I first saw her—”

“You mean when I saved her from being run over,” Kai interrupted.

Kestrel shook her head. “No, the first time I saw her was the morning after we arrived. She was near the crowd outside the inn. I thought I had sensed something from her then, but I hadn’t been sure, and you didn’t seem to notice anything.”

He gave her a blank stare. “What was I supposed to notice?”

“She’s a seer.”

“You’re sure?” Kai thought back to his encounter with her. He hadn’t sensed anything, but then he hadn’t been paying attention. He’d been too distracted by the news of his sister.

“Almost positive. I’m not sure she’s had any training, but that must be why Jensira picked that family to raise your sister. She was protecting her from something.”

“From what?”

What could Jensira have had to fear other than one day they might come looking for her?

“I don’t know,” Kestrel said, “but Seraiah might. I think we’re going to need her if we want to have any hope of getting to your sister.”

They fell silent again, watching the line of houses. A few more minutes passed with no sign of Seraiah.

The sun was poking its first fiery rays over the horizon, setting the clouds aglow, when they saw movement. A small figure darted in the shadows between the houses before stepping out into the snowy field between the tree line and the buildings.

She had decided to come after all.

“Why don’t you let me do the talking this time?” Kestrel whispered. “I’ll introduce myself first and maybe hold off on introducing you, so she doesn’t run away.”

In response, Kai melted back into the shadows of the trees, leaving the hood of his cloak up. He watched as Seraiah approached them, slowing when she caught sight of Kestrel. She came to a stop, leaving a good twenty paces between her and his Commander.

Kestrel stepped forward, and the girl tensed, ready to flee at the first sign of danger. Not that she would get far if Kestrel wanted to catch her. Slowly, Kestrel reached up and lowered her hood, and Kai heard the small hitch in the girl’s breathing. He knew exactly what had caused it, too. Kestrel had pulled the top half of her inky black hair up to reveal her pointed elf ears, and it was those ears that the seer was now focused on.

“Hello, Seraiah. I meant to introduce myself yesterday. My name is Kestrel.”

The girl didn’t respond.

Kestrel reached out her hand, taking another small step toward Seraiah, as if trying to soothe a frightened animal. Seraiah took one step back, and Kestrel dropped her hand back to her side, staying where she was.

“Don’t worry, we mean you no harm. You made the right choice in meeting us. We can help you find your sister.”

“How?” Seraiah asked. “And why? What is your interest in helping me and my sister? If it’s money you want, I don’t have any. I can’t pay you.”

“We don’t want money. As for the other questions, we can answer them later. Right now, we need to get moving if we are to track her. The longer we delay, the harder it will be,” Kestrel told the lie smoothly. They didn’t have a way to track where his sister had been taken—they could only guess. “We can explain everything along the way.”

Kai watched Seraiah’s face pinch with worry before quickly smoothing out again. She was uncertain, but he could read the lines of guilt weighing down her shoulders. Kestrel must have been right that she was supposed to have protected his sister from something.

“Where is the other one?” Seraiah asked. “The one who spoke to me yesterday.” Her eyes roamed over the trees, but she couldn’t find him—he was too well hidden.

Kestrel half turned to where she knew Kai was hiding in the shadows and beckoned.

He stepped forward, keeping the hood of his cloak up, so that Seraiah couldn’t see his face. He wasn’t sure she was quite ready for that yet.

 Her eyes swept over him, probing into the shadows that kept his features hidden from her.

Kestrel turned away from the girl, motioning for them to follow, and headed into the trees where their horses waited.

Kai moved to follow Kestrel when the girl’s voice stopped him. She was still rooted in place.

“I want to see your face,” Seraiah demanded, the slight tremble in her voice giving away her fear. “I want to know who I am following.”

He hoped this wasn’t a mistake. Pivoting slowly to face her, Kai reached up and lowered his hood.

This time, there was no mistaking her gasp. He knew what she was seeing, who his features reminded her of: her adopted sister, his blood sister—the lost queen.