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“Because unlike Mihal, I have so much more to live for.” I straighten. “I will kill him.”

She toys with her lip, eyes on the pearl-shaped mark jutting from my wrist. “If I release you and your mate,” she says slowly, the uncertainty in her eyes taking on a familiar glint of ambition, “when the time comes for me to Challenge Tallis for her seat, you will back me.”

I glance at Carver, who nods imperceptibly.

It’d be so much easier if I snapped her neck right here and now to free us of this projection, but now is not the time to be rash. With all my trust in Carver’s intimate knowledge of Avaline, I prick the tip of my finger with my dagger and let my blood fall to the forest floor. The ground rumbles beneath us like a stomach long-waiting to be filled. My vow feeds it, satiates it in one delicious swallow. “So it shall be.”

The darkness lifts as Avaline vanishes from the forest in a swirl of leaves and woodsmoke, and in her wake, Rory lays on a bed of clover as if she’s a lost princess, donning a braided crown bejeweled with seashells.

Carver nudges me forward. “Kiss her and she’ll wake.”

I arch a brow.

“Ava doesn’t harm females.” He shrugs. “It is an oath she made when she was a child. Whenever a female ventures into the Mocking Woods, she simply sends them on their way or she puts the ones with mates in an enchanted sleep where they can be easily found after their mates prove their worthiness to her.”

“And if the mate never comes along to kiss them awake?” I ask, kneeling beside Rory.

“Somehow they always do,” he says wryly. He runs his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize sooner. Eivor’s mist sent Ava’s scent north, and when I finally picked up on it, I realized what must have been taking you so long.” He gestures south. “Nightfell is this way. Wake Rory, and I’ll guide you there.”

With only the moonlight to illuminate her pale skin, her lips are as red as rose petals. I kiss her softly, a gentle brush of my mouth against hers. She is my mate, by choice or fate or whatever entity binds our immortal hearts together.

She is mine, and I am hers.

When she finally, finally stirs, I nearly weep in relief.

Her eyes are twin pools of honey as she smiles lazily at me. “I had the strangest dream.”

“It wasn’t a dream, Rorycakes,” says Carver.

She jolts upright with a start, whipping her head around, brow furrowing at my brother.

“Carver! What are you doing here?” she asks him, then to me, “Wait. There was someone else here. A female. Did you see her?”

“That was Avaline,” I say, helping her to her booted feet.

“My ex,” Carver says sheepishly. “It’s a long story.”

She wipes dirt from her pants and frowns. “I heard Cress crying. She said Lowella had been hurt. I tried to find her, but I got lost in the woods. The female, er, Avaline found me. She dried my tears, and then… I woke up.”

As Carver leads us toward Nightfell, he cuts me a stern glare. “You didn’t tell her about the Mocking Woods?”

“What are the Mocking Woods?” Rory asks.

“It’s a grove of trees in the Wyldelands known to torment unwelcome visitors with their worst fears,” explains Carver.

“Nerissa gave no inclination there would be a test to secure Alyvia and Eliphas’s favor,” I say, lacing my fingers through Rory’s. I will not lose her again. “It didn’t seem necessary to tell Rory about the Mocking Woods as I planned our travel around them.”

“The test was Eliphas’s idea,” says Carver. “You know how warlocks are. Studious and analytical, needing everything to be proven before finally committing to anything.”

Rory ducks under a low-hanging bough and asks Carver, “Will your involvement risk his support?”

“It shouldn’t,” Carver answers carefully. We cross under a wooden arch engraved with all sorts of glyphs–protection runes to alert the wolves of enemies crossing onto their territory. “Because I only meddled to undo Ava’s meddling, he should be fine.”

The town spreads out before us, much bigger than I anticipated, with paths cutting toward several large buildings, their names written boldly across the front of each one—Neme’s Apothecary, the Howling Moon, Paw’s General Store, and Nightfell’s Hall.

On all the maps, Nightfell is nothing more than a speck. A small outcropping known to be home to a handful of wolf packs. But this…

This is a city on the rise.