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Ropes whipped and went taut. Hinges on the thick doors protested and cracked, but slowly the wooden barrier split.

“Follow me,” Keela said.

My pulse quickened and my stomach felt as though stacked stones filled the bottom. I did not let on to anyone that my nerves were raging except to squeeze Roark’s hand. No doubt he would not be able to feel his fingers come dawn.

We followed closely, the feel of eyes from the Unfettered guards boiling over my scalp. Then, on my next step, I slammed into something solid, the force of it cracked against my skull.

“Gods.” I pressed a palm to my brow, mortified I’d walked into one of the damn walls.

But I hadn’t.

Roark reeled around, confused. Nothing was before me. No gate, no wall, no tree. Nothing. I blinked and took a step forward. Again, my body slammed into something solid, something unseen.

What is it? Roark would not release my hand.

“I don’t know. I can’t go forward.”

Brynn strode past with her brother but paused two paces ahead of me. Next, Thane, Emi, and Yrsa.

Even Kael strode past, less like he despised us and more with amused concern on his features. “Trouble, Lyra? We can always return to Stonegate.”

Roark glared at Kael. My brother jolted and shook his head, cursing under his breath. Clearly he was battling the viciousness of the soul bones.

The whole of our travel party gathered around me but could continue walking through the gates.

Roark gently pulled on my hand and spoke low between us. Try again.

Disquiet rippled over my arms. One step, two—my forehead struck a shield.

I scrambled back. “Roark. I can’t go through. What’s happening?”

He stepped by my side, pulling me against him, unwilling to move forward without me.

“What is the problem?” Keela materialized through the crowd.

I shook my head. “Something is keeping me out.”

The woman returned a narrow look. “You cannot cross our wards? The only soul we’ve warded from our gates is the destroyer of realms. The one you fight, the one who seeks all folk to bend the knee.”

“I-I-I know. Fadey, he cannot step through. That’s why he sent my brother to use against me. He believes a bone shard is here, and he desires me to get it for him, but I plan to destroy it.”

Keela snorted. “Bone shards. That’s what you are after?”

“The Wanderer’s.” I dragged my fingers through my hair, panic rising. “I can see the souls of bones with my craft. We have reason to believe the power of one of the Wanderer’s bones is buried here. Is that why I can’t enter? Because I have the same craft as Fadey?”

Another voice, gentler, more aged, broke through the crowd. “The wardings are against his blood, not the power within it, elskan.”

I froze.

Roark’s arm around my shoulders held me firmer against his side. Another woman, hunched and clad in a long, black silken gown, stepped forward. Unfettered Folk dipped their chins, greeting her as “Seemódir” and stepping aside for her to come to me.

Her knobby fingers were inked in the lovely coils I’d traced so many times, her eyes as kind as I recalled. She beamed down at me, the chip in her front tooth still there. I’d forgotten it.

I blinked through tears. “Gammal. You’re alive.”

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Roark