A gentle nudging roused Seraiah the next morning. She blinked up at the trees, confused, before it all came rushing back to her.

Sterling.

The dream of her terrified face.

Something was after Sterling, and it was undoubtedly the same thing that had left the mangled arm. Alarm flooded through Seraiah’s body, and she scrambled to her feet, tangling in the bedroll.

“Whoa.” Strong hands grabbed her arms before her face could meet the ground. “Careful now,” Kai said. “Not going to be much use if you break your neck tripping over a bedroll.”

“But we have to find her. We have to find Sterling now,” Seraiah said frantically. “Before that thing does.” She tried to pull away, but Kai didn’t relinquish his hold.

He didn’t ask what she meant, either. Instead, he said, “No one is going anywhere yet. I think it’s time we talked, don’t you?”

She froze, meeting his eyes for the first time. They were as cold as a stormy winter sky. He didn’t look like he wanted to be speaking to her, but his voice held none of the animosity from the day before.

“Then talk,” she said, the words coming out harsher than she’d meant. As much as she wanted to know what he had to say, she’d rather be going after Sterling. By the amount of light filtering through the trees, they’d already let her sleep in. They wouldn’t have done so if they knew what she had seen. Every second they dallied was another opportunity for the beast in her dreams to find her sister before she did.

Kai let go of her arms and moved away to dig in his saddlebag.

Seraiah crossed her arms over her chest, waiting. She could still feel the places where his fingers had touched, like he’d branded her. He wasn’t wearing gloves.

The horses nibbled on the underbrush nearby, while Kestrel watched the forest, taking Kai’s place from last night. If she was interested in their conversation, she didn’t show it.

Finally, Kai turned back to her.

“Here.” He held out another apple. “Don’t waste it this time. It’s my last one.”

She accepted it, her eyes never leaving his face.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. Yesterday he’d worn it half tied up, but now the silver strands hung loose around his shoulders. “I’m not sure where to start.”

“At the beginning,” she suggested helpfully.

“Then make yourself comfortable.” He indicated the tangled bedroll on which she stood.

Seraiah took a seat, holding onto the apple. After a moment of hesitation, Kai sat down across from her. Out of the corner of her eye, Seraiah saw Kestrel move closer to them, while still watching the trees for any sign of danger. It seemed she had been paying attention to them, after all.

“I was eight years old when my sister was declared dead,” Kai started, drawing Seraiah’s attention back to him.

She did a quick calculation in her head. If Sterling was indeed his younger sister, that would make him twenty-three now.

“I found out, along with the rest of Nyrene, when my mother announced it. Fifteen years ago, the kingdom lost its heir, but I lost my sister. She was only a week old, and I hadn’t had a chance to get to know her. My heart was broken.”

Seraiah’s own heart jumped in her chest. His words confirmed her suspicion that he was Sterling’s older brother.

“It wasn’t until years later,” he continued, “that my nurse let it slip. My sister hadn’t died that day like my mother had said. She was still alive somewhere. The Queen’s Protector, Jensira, had spirited her away.”

“My step-mother?” Seraiah’s brows knit in confusion. She’d known her step-mother was involved thanks to Kestrel’s questions, but she’d always thought Sterling was her true daughter. Now it turned out they weren’t any more related than she and Sterling.

“So, it would seem,” he said. “Once I learned she may still be out there somewhere—alive—I knew I had to find her. Not only did I need to find her for myself, but for our kingdom, because without her, we would be weakened.”

“My adopted sister is your lost princess,” Seraiah said slowly. It was hard to reconcile what she knew of royalty with Sterling. To learn Sterling had a long-lost brother and another family was shocking enough, but to find out her younger sister was also the heir to an entire kingdom? It was difficult to wrap her mind around.

The apple had slipped from Seraiah’s fingers while Kai had been speaking. She reached for it now, gripping it so hard her fingers dug into its flesh while she tried to process everything.

“Queen,” Kai said quietly, his eyes flicking down to where she held the piece of fruit like it was a lifeline. “She is our lost queen. My mother passed about six months ago. I don’t think she ever recovered from losing Sterling. It was like she faded away, day by day until she was gone.”

“I-I’m sorry. First, to lose your sister and then your mother. It’s a hard thing.” She would know, having lost both as well—but there was still a chance they could get Sterling back if only they found her in time.

“Some might say it was her own fault. She was the one who sent Sterling away in the first place,” Kai said, a touch of bitterness entering his voice.

“I don’t understand why she would do that.”

“I don’t know either. I was never able to find a reason.” His fingers curled into a fist against his knee. “And I was so close to getting her back. A day sooner and whoever took her would have never gotten their hands on her.”

“Someone—” she started to say and then stopped, remembering how Papa had scoffed when she had mentioned what Freya had said.

“Someone what? Do you know something?”

“Well, I don’t know if this is important or just silly, but someone told me it might be faeries that took her,” she blurted before she could lose her nerve. “I was also told they have been taking other people too, and sometimes, they will replace them with one of their own.”

A strange look flitted across Kai’s face. “Faeries? Oh no,” he said, shaking his head. “No, it wasn’t faeries that took her.”

 She ducked her head. “I told you it might be silly,” she mumbled. Her cheeks had grown warm, and she once again felt ridiculous now that she’d said it. Of course, it wasn’t faeries. Those were children’s stories. 

“The person who told you this might be thinking of my people,” Kai said, as though she hadn’t spoken. “We have taken humans in the past.”

“You what? You kidnapped people?” Seraiah hastened to stand, every warning going off in her head while he watched, unmoving.

“We paid them. They were given a home and food, and they were happy.”

“I don’t understand. You kidnapped people, and you think they were happy you ripped them away from their home—from their families?” She searched his face, looking for some sign that he was teasing, but found nothing.

Then another thought occurred to her. “Is that why I’m here?”

She couldn’t believe she’d been feeling sorry for him only moments ago. She’d fallen right into their trap, wooed by the possibility of finding Sterling.

She’d been worried they might be the ones Mama had warned her about taking Sterling when she should have been more concerned about herself.

“I have done many things, but kidnapping is not one of them,” Kai said, his voice sharpening as though she had insulted him with the suggestion. “My mother outlawed the practice.”

“As you said, your mother is no longer living,” she responded. She knew it was an awful thing to say, and she regretted it as soon as the words left her mouth.

Before she could apologize, however, Kai spoke. “May I remind you that you volunteered to come with us to find your sister of your own free will? None of my people would kidnap you or Sterling. Whoever took your sister has to be related to the reason my mother faked her death in the first place.”

Seraiah stared down at him. “Then why invite me? You were planning to take Sterling anyway, so why not go off on your own and find her? Why involve me?” She fired off the questions, one after another.

The look he gave her was anything but friendly. “It was not my—”

“We invited you because you’re a seer,” Kestrel said, making her jump.

There it was again.

Seer.

A name for what she was—why her dreams came true.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said stiffly, refusing to meet Kestrel’s eyes.

“Yes, you do. You dreamed about Sterling last night, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” she said. She wanted to lie, but they both already knew the truth. 

“And like I told you then, those dreams are visions, and they may hold the key to getting Sterling back.”

Seraiah thought of the nightmare. They would want to know about it, but she wasn’t ready to tell them—not when she couldn’t trust them. Instead, all she said was, “So you do want to use me then.”

“No.” Kai pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked like he was deeply regretting this conversation. “You have a choice. Do you want to help Sterling or not?”

He very well knew she wanted to help her sister, or she never would have come with them.

“It doesn’t matter what I want. It doesn’t change the fact that I can’t control my dreams. Up until last night, I had been having the same one for years. I don’t know that I would consider that useful.”

“But you could learn,” Kestrel said. “With training and practice—”

“With time, you mean. We don’t have time.” Seraiah caught Kai giving Kestrel an ‘I told you so’ look.

“You can’t give up without even trying. Do you have anything of Sterling’s with you?” Kestrel asked. “I think sometimes it can be used as a focus.”

Her eyes went to her satchel laying on the ground nearby. She could say no, and they’d never know the difference, but Kestrel had a point. She wouldn’t know if she could control the dreams if she didn’t try.

“I do have something,” she said finally. She tossed the heavily bruised apple back to Kai and fetched the book she’d brought with her. “Would this work?” she asked, holding it up.

“It should if it belonged to Sterling,” Kestrel said.

“May I see it?” Kai asked, extending a hand.

She hesitated.

“I’m not going to steal it from you. I merely wanted to see what it was.”

Seraiah placed the book spine down across his palm. “It’s a book of faery tales Jensira gifted to Sterling. It’s her favorite possession.”

She watched as he flipped through a few pages before closing it and reading the title stamped on the spine.

“This isn’t a book of faery tales,” he said, passing it back to her.

“What would you call it, then?”

“A history book.”

“How can this,” she shook the leather bound volume at him, “be a history book? It’s full of stories about dragons, and faeries, and—”

While she was talking, he had turned his head to the side and pushed his silver hair back behind his ear to reveal that familiar pointed tip.

Suddenly, all the pieces clicked into place.

“—elves,” she finished. “Oh.”

He just smiled and took a bite of the bruised apple.