“This is what it does to us. This is what it will do to you. This is what you will become.”
I tried to shout back, to swear I wouldn’t, but something seized my chest. A pulse. A tether. A bond.
Not my father’s—Hanna’s.
It dragged me forward, a burning line from her heart to mine—a pull I couldn’t sever and a promise I hadn’t made but still bound me.
“You will lose her, and then you will follow. As I did.”
“No,” I gasped. “No!”
But the fire swallowed everything.
I jolted upright from where I’d fallen asleep on the workbench, drenched in cold sweat. My breath came in sharp, broken pulls and my heart throbbed beneath my skin.The bond pulsed—distant but alive, like a heartbeat thrumming somewhere in the dark.
Hanna.
I pressed my palms to my eyes, trying to steady myself, but the dream clung to me like ash, tightening around my lungs.For a long time, I didn’t move. I just sat there in the half-light of dawn, listening to my breath, telling myself the lie I’d perfected.
“I won’t let it happen. I won’t become him. She won’t be bound to a curse.”
The bond pulsed again but I ignored it.After long moments, I stood, needing something to do—anything—to ground myself. I headed toward the worktable at the back, where I kept the carving.
If I could just look at it—just remind myself why I couldn’t let this bond win—maybe the panic would settle. But when I reached the shelf—it was empty.
“I put it right here,” I muttered, checking behind the jars of resin.
A softslorpanswered from somewhere behind me. When I turned,Ribbon sat in the middle of the room…with something unmistakably wooden in his mouth.
Oh no.
“Ribbon,” I said slowly, “whatisthat?”
He chirruped proudly.
Oh, no, no, no,no—
I lunged toward him, and he panicked—or decided it was a game—and hopped away with the carving clenched between his jaws.
“Ribbon,drop it,” I barked.
He hopped even faster.
“No—No—Stop—Ribbon—!”
He attempted to leap over a bucket, missed, whacked his head on the workbench, and the carving went flying—spinning—glinting—and landed in the forge ashes. Buried in them.
I dove for it like the floor was falling out from under me, coughing as soot puffed upward. I prayed that there weren’t any lit embers left in the forge.
I yanked the carving free, my heart hammering. It was covered in ash, but intact. I exhaled shakily, clutching it to my chest.
Ribbon croaked apologetically and nudged my elbow. I tried to glare at him but I failed.
“You’re lucky you’re so damn cute,” I muttered.
He blinked at me, unrepentant.I looked down at the carving—Hanna and me, back-to-back—her carved silhouette dusted in gray, my own half-buried beneath. It hit me, sharp and brutal. I’d almost lost this—apiece of her. A piece of us that shouldn’t exist.
And instead of being relieved, I felt like I’d nearly lost something I couldn’t replace. That terrified me more than the nightmare.I brushed the ash from her carved cheek with trembling fingers.
