“I suggested that when I thought that Ban would wake up within an hour, not nap all day,” Zarev grumbles.
Peering around, I take a guess that we’re on the outskirts of the Red Woods. Our target should be the Butterfly Garden, where Legs is, and I don’t know how far off the mark we are.
Standing takes a great deal of effort, and Neve does her best to support me as I move. I can’t remember the last time I was this tired, and when I try to use my magic, both the ice and shadows are weak. That’s not a good sign in parts like these.
“We have to be careful,” Zarev advises, rolling onto his stomach. He has yet to get up. “A safer spot would be better to camp for the evening. We’re out of rations too, so food is going to be necessary soon.”
I hesitate, wishing we had brought more with us. “This area of the Red Woods shouldn’t be that deep. We might be able to get to Legs’s Garden by morning if we move through the night.”
“You really want to deal with the beasts in Wonderland in the dark?” Zarev asks dryly. “We’d have better luck asking Legs to come find us, but when I tried earlier, she didn’t answer.”
Pursing my lips, I give Zarev a wary look. I don’t think he comes to Wonderland or the Butterfly Garden very often. I circle through every couple of months. Even after getting stuck beneath Swan Lake, I managed to come up here and talk to her.
The only problem with seeing Legs will be Margo. She’s not a fan of mine.
“It could be Davina,” I say, keeping my voice low. “She had all those Flowerborne in the Frostlands for the first time. She might be rallying the butterflies to go and spy for her.”
Zarev grimaces. “Let’s hope not. She’d be killing them by sending them up there.”
Unfortunately, things like that rarely matter to the Mad Queen.
“So the Red Woods are just as dangerous as the Frostlands.” Odette sighs, picking up her coat. “I should have known.”
“Leave that,” I say, and when Neve tucks herself beneath my arm when I begin to tremble, I don’t push her off. Zarev takes the coat and tosses it into the shadows for her, leaving nothing behind to mark our path. I’m too weary to push away Neve’s help right now, and the Shadow Man’s tricks still bang around in my head.
I need to speak to Zarev. Neve’s had dreams about the Shadow Man—the Sandman, Hans—I don’t know who he truly is. But Zarev understands spirits, and we aren’t in the north to deal with the Frostlands anymore.
We need to find a place to camp, and then I need to process whetherf I really saw Tom’s spirit, or if it was another trick from Hans.
Chapter 33 Neve
We don’t go far from the cliffs, largely because the two Reapers are so beat down from crossing the pass that they mostly lie around the fire. Zarev uses a bit of pixie dust to get it going, and I’m amazed this little container is as durable as it is. The fire is too hot for me, and as the two guys talk about things only they understand, I wander to the far edge of the little clearing we’ve found and make myself a patch of ice.
Ban watches me, his blue eyes shining. He must be accustomed to the changing weather, because he doesn’t seem to be melting near the flames like I am.
Odette joins me a few minutes later, minding the patch. “We should meet Legs tomorrow. I’m kind of excited. I didn’t get to meet Legs the last time I traveled.”
Tilting my head, I stop listening to the two Reapers and focus on her. They are grumbling about Davina and beasts in Wonderland, which was only interesting for a few minutes before I was totally lost. “Do you travel a lot?”
“Hmm, more so when I have my swan.” She presses a hand to her chest, and for the first time, I realize she’s wearing a tangle of necklaces. There’s some sort of charm on a gold chain that I can only partially see, and a thicker chain with a timepiece. It reminds me of the one we saw on the frozen girl’s neck, and I file that away to question Ban about before I dig into her. “Now that we aren’t in the frozen north, I’ll be able to shift freely again.It’s going to be so much better than pretending I know how to swordfight.”
“Ray didn’t teach you?” I ask, and I’m proud of myself when she doesn’t correct the name. I honestly wasn’t sure if I would remember it correctly.
“I haven’t known Ray for very long. We only spent a little over a week together before his home burned down, and then some time briefly afterward. It’s… difficult, with his brother.”
Nodding, I try to sympathize. But other than my father, I can’t say I’ve ever lost someone close to me. All my memories of Mother are now skewed in the wake of what I’ve learned.
She was using my magic, sucking it out of me. I don’t entirely understand it, and I worry I never will now that she’s dead.
Sitting straighter, I cut through the next thing Odette begins to say. “Ban?”
The two Reapers stop talking, turning twin gazes on me. Orange and blue; they are the opposite of each other, yet so similar in certain respects. I focus on Ban. “Did you ever find my mother’s ghost?”
He shoots Zarev a look, but eventually shakes his head. “No.”
“So she could have gone off with the Icebound?”
“I seriously doubt the spirits would accept her with what she’s done. We saw the Icebound she left behind.”
