Sasha let out a snore so loud she might’ve been faking, but she never would’ve let her sibling call her annoying without jumping up to accusethemof being annoying instead. Maurice’s ears twitched in her direction.
“She’s not annoying,” Arthur said, with nothing but fondness in his voice. “She’s... well, she’s Sasha.”
She mumbled in her sleep. His face relaxed into a smile, a real one.
When Sasha awoke from her nap, Arthur focused on pushing north. The heart of the wood was that way; he felt it. They had to get through, no matter how hard the forest nudged them in another direction. Whenever a clump of trees appeared, he went through rather than around as best he could, following Freya. Jonas clambered over trunks and through brambles, uncomplaining about the scratches sustained. Arthur stopped periodically to dab ointment on their face and arms, and his. Astride Maurice, Sasha barreled through every obstacle—sometimes getting so far ahead that Arthur panicked, afraid that if he lost sight of her she’d vanish in the forest forever.
It quickly became clear, however, that Maurice barreling through was their best chance of getting past whatever obstacles the forest placed in their path. Arthur let Sasha ride ahead but begged her not to go too fast.
“Stay in sight, duckling. We need to stick together.”
“Careful,” Jonas said. “When I said that, she made me ride the horse.”
Maurice snorted into their hair. They grimaced, wiping equine snot from their curls. Arthur gave them a handkerchief.
The temperature plummeted. Leaves crackled with frost.
Sasha shivered. “Why’s it so cold?”
“The eagles you saw, duck. They bring storms, but they come too early.”
“How do you know?”
“The Lord of the Wood told me.”
Sasha’s eyes shone with curiosity, but Arthur hurried onward, unwilling—as Jonas had pointed out—to answer any questions she might ask about the Lord of the Wood. He hadn’t even told the children Ira’s name. It let him pretend he could distance himself from the Lord of the Wood, though he’d worried about Ira almost constantly since they’d parted ways.
He couldn’t shake it. Despite the way things had soured, he couldn’t stop thinking of what had come before.
You have kind eyes like he did, he heard Ira saying, when they’d met. And later:I think you’re lovely.
Ira had transformed for him so many times, though it always meant changing back different. He’d been so afraid to leave the vale, but he’d left anyway because Arthur had asked him to. That had to mean something, despite their falling-out. No one Arthur had ever attempted to befriend had done half so much for him, nor made it so clear they liked him despite his oddities, or perhaps because of them. For the first time, Arthur let himself hope that his parting from Ira didn’t have to mean the end.
Maybe, after the heart of the wood was replanted, Arthur could find him. Maybe, no matter how angry they’d gotten, they could fix things between them.
xxxviii. In which Charlotte meets the Lord of the Wood
Long after their lovemaking had finished, Charlotte was still rumpled in bed, curled into Elspeth’s side. Elspeth, rumpled herself, stroked her arm and kissed her forehead, her nose, her eyes. The corners of her mouth lifted whenever Charlotte caught her gaze, but she’d hardly glanced away once. The sex must have left Charlotte looking positively taken apart.
“What?” she murmured. She was exhausted, but not in a bad way; for one thing, she felt like she might fall asleep and stay asleep.
“I dunno.” Elspeth shifted, leaning over her. “Different, seeing you like this.”
“Denuded of my clothing?”
Elspeth laughed. “You ain’t hardly naked, Lottie, I barely got a thing off you but your drawers. I’ll own I’d like to see you that way next time, if you’re amenable.”
“You really are dreadfully vulgar.”
“You didn’t seem to think it was vulgar when I had my tongue up your—”
Charlotte hit her with a pillow. Elspeth fell back beside her, chuckling. Charlotte kissed her into silence.
When they broke apart, Elspeth touched her cheek.
“Seeing you relaxed, I guess.” She propped herself on her elbow, a hand on Charlotte’s hip. “Feels like your mind’s been going since the moment I met you, with all the things you gotta do and all the people you gotta take care of, even when you’re in pain. And now it’s quiet.”
Charlotte’s eyes prickled. She liked the weight of Elspeth’s hand on her hip. She wanted to like the way Elspeth understood her, too, but she couldn’t yet. It was mortifying, being known this way.
