“No!” Ottoh cried again.
I grimaced at Vero’s grip when a sob broke through her brother’s scream.
“The bond,” Ottoh continued, panicked. “I don’t feel it anymore.”
“I’m here! I’m right here, Ottoh!” Vero screamed into the thick shadows. “I’m all right!”
“She’s—” Ottoh’s voice cracked. “She’s gone!”
“It’s the forest.” Darcke tried to calm him. “I feel my heir. They’re out there.”
“Do you feel your bond?” I asked, lowering my tone even though they couldn’t hear us.
“No,” Vero admitted, a tremor sneaking into her words. “No, I don’t.”
I drew a breath, feeling Darcke searching for me and trying to show him I was doing the same.
“Come on,” I said as I tugged at Vero’s hand. “Maybe you need a physical connection somehow.”
“Fuck,” Vero cursed.
My heart flew into my throat. “What?”
“I stepped in a puddle or something,” she replied. “I’m drenched.”
I took a seeking step forward to where I thought I’d heard Darcke last. My free hand flew to my pounding chest when I also stepped into something deep, and wetness crawled up my trousers.
A question whispered over my skin until my shoulders jerked upward.
“She’s all right,” I whispered into the void. “We’re both all right. It was just water.”
“They’re okay,” Darcke said. “She just told me they’re okay.”
That was new. I hadn’t exactly heard him in my mind, rather felt what he wondered.
“Are you sure?” Ottoh snarled. “Vero is the only thing I have. I need you to be sure that she’s all right!”
“Yes,” Darcke replied. “But if you don’t release me, you might not be.”
Keep talking.
“Come on,” I said as Vero and I inched forward. “Say something again.”
Darcke. Say something.
“We’re over here.” His voice came from the left, and I pulled the limping Vero with me.
They were so close. I could smell driftwood and sun—could feel Darcke’s body heat.
It’s a test.His voice echoed in my mind, and I took a short breath.
“Yes,” I whispered.
Like the huldra and the tree, this was also a test. But none of us had figured out what for yet.
Vero sniffed loudly as feet digging into dirt reached our ears. I forced my mind to collaborate instead of spinning. I wasn’t sure what the huldra had tested Darcke for, but for me, she had fed off my fear of losing control. The tree had tapped into Darcke’s refusal to be caged—I’d been able to taste his hatred for something else controlling what he did—as well as my unwillingness to tell the truth. So what would this be?
“Do you know why the forest would sever your bond?” I asked Vero.
