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Roark kept watch on my back, silent and stoic, the warrior alive in his countenance. Always ready to strike.

I looked over my shoulder when we spilled onto a wider switchback for water and rest. The Unfettered were clever and had fashioned a sort of sleigh from twigs and branches. For the first part of the journey, Roark’s horse and Thane’s dragged Kael’s unmoving body behind them.

Until he stirred.

He’d thrashed against the thick bands on his wrists that were secured to another strap around his middle.

Roark stepped in front of my brother, shadows spilling from his pores. Kael’s eyes had grown milky and distant, and the red glow of Skul Drek had flashed in Roark. I did not know what the deledan threatened him with, but he’d been scowling and silent since.

Now he walked near the back, his hands bound and tied to the bridle of one horse while Gunter and Auki walked on either side, blades at the ready. Brynn kept near Òlmr, a look of discontent on her face every time she stole a glance at my now-twisted brother.

He understands what will become of him should he try to touch anyone, Roark said against my palm.

I accepted the skin of water he held out. “I know you pulled him away to the realm of souls, which I don’t understand. You do not have a bond.”

So certain? He cupped a palm around the back of my neck, drawing my mouth close to his, then spoke against my cheek. You are my wife; he is your brother. Like it or not, fate has shackled him to me as well.

I could not help it; I laughed.

This Kael, surly and bloodthirsty, likely despised Roark Ashwood having any command over his soul. The true Kael would be giddy that a man he’d always admired was now his kin through me.

“What did you say to him?”

Warned him what would happen should he touch a single soul here. Brutal things you’d be furious I dared even speak. A lot of blood and pain, then a bit of proof what I said was true.

“Roark, what did you do?”

Me? Don’t blame me. He turned to offer the water to Thane and the Stav, gesturing over his shoulder. Blame those darker edges that make you scream, wife.

Bastard.

I did not know what Roark had done, but Kael kept rubbing a spot over his ribs, just below his heart, as though the bones ached.

As we rose, the air grew thin and crisp, and a heavy cloud cover encircled the upper ledges like a cold swamp. To wade through the mists slowed our steps. When frigid rains fell, the Unfettered did not stop, but merely tugged their fur cowls lower over their brows and trudged on.

Roark shrugged off his own woolen hood and placed it over my head amid my protests. Until the shade of his palms turned a sickly blue, and I forced him to squeeze beside me so we could walk together, siphoning whatever warmth we had left.

By the time stars broke through the murky storm, our feet dragged and our complaints grew silent. What was the point? It felt as though we all knew we kept pressing forward or we stopped and died of cold on the Night Ledges.

A sob nearly spilled out of me when the path flattened and we reached the high peak. More switchbacks descended to a valley below. Distant lanterns speckled the night from a village, shelter, warmth.

The lead Unfettered woman stepped to my side, tossing back her damp hood. “ ’Tis a simpler journey from the other canyon across the Myrdan border. But you all fared well enough. Even your creature is silent.”

Kael kept a distance from the others. His gold curls stuck to his brow, and he pointed his rage nowhere but at the ground.

“You said you saw us.” I gave a nod of thanks when the woman handed over the water again. “What do you mean?”

“Our clans are talented in ways your folk are not.”

“You do have craft.”

“Every soul is blessed by the gods in some sense,” she said. “Different abilities do not mean lesser, greater, or dangerous. We do not fear your differing powers, and we certainly don’t go boasting about ours. We live simple lives here. Organized in our own ways, but free of power-mad kings and queens.”

I took in the Unfettered village. “If you do not bother with our realms, why are you here, helping us?”

“As I said, we do not fear different craft,” she said. “We find beauty in all of it, even your dark prince there.”

Roark tended to Emi, who could, at last, breathe now that we’d reached wider roads and flat ground. She would need to prepare to descend from the height, but she seemed steadier when Yrsa sat beside her on a boulder.