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“Don’t move,” Beric said, his hand gripping my shoulder to still me.

I felt Anise huddle against me, heard both our breaths heavy and quick. We waited, my muscles tight from anticipation. I couldn’t begin to know what Beric had somehow seen or heard, but when another lightning strike illuminated The Dark, my blood ran cold.

It was only an instant. Perhaps I was only seeing things, mistaking the ruins of a building for something more. But I could have sworn that there was something up ahead, distant, but there. Large, and on all fours. I’d only seen it for a second, but its head looked like a deer skull, antlers climbing up into the sky, with two red glints for eyes. Immediately I thought of the king, of the headdress he wore to hide the beast beneath.

Beric directed us away from the creature with his grip on our shoulders, and I was thankful that for once Ann didn’t protest other than with a quiet “ow.” I felt his warmth as he leaned close between us.

“Stop. Shouting,” he said, his voice a low growl. “Last warning before I let the demons have you.” Only then did he release us.

“Barbarian,” Anise muttered, rubbing her shoulder.

“Shut up, Ann,” I said. It took everything in me not to slap her—this time on purpose. But I didn’t want to make another sound, not even to breathe. I didn’t want to do anything that would draw the creature to us. A creature she must not have seen, if she could continue to behave this way.

I’d offended her, I knew, because she no longer deemed me as a worthy option to cling to.

We’re safe on the perimeter, I told myself. The enemy doesn’t come close to the perimeter.…

Except maybe it would, with my cousin making such a fuss. Beric was right. She didn’t belong here. My life would be so much simpler without her.

You could have your fairy-tale life, if only your cousin didn’t exist.

For a moment I stood in shock. Surely it could have only been my own thought. And yet it was spoken low and deep, the voice male and wholly unlike Beric’s.

A flash of white light allowed me to see Beric watching me, blinding me to him again when he took my shoulders and shook me gently.

“What did it say to you?” he asked, quickly.

I was suddenly frightened, but also ashamed to admit it to him. Because whatever had spoken to me, its words had been nothing but a reflection of my own desire. It hadn’t said anything I hadn’t thought myself, although I would have chosen a different phrasing.

“I-I hardly remember. Truly,” I said, forcing myself to speak quietly since I could barely hear myself. “I didn’t mean to break the rule.”

He removed his hands, and I could practically sense his concerned frown when he said, “Let’s take a break.”

I heard a distant scream—one that was most definitely not in my head—and Beric’s hand was over my mouth before I could even think to respond, the force pressing me against him. We stood in silence, my breaths shallow as I gripped his clothes, as I fought to stay quiet. The next moment the scream came again, and I was almost certain it was my name, and absolutely certain it was Ann’s voice.

“We have to go,” Beric said, half leading, half dragging me away.

“Ann must be lost and panicking. She wouldn’t be yelling otherwise.” I struggled, breaking his grip and backing away. “We have to get her, before she attracts that demon.”

“I’ll come back for her after I’ve taken you to the coach.”

“She could be dead by then.”

You could have your fairy-tale life, if only your cousin didn’t exist.

The words swam in my head, repeating like an anthem, but I shook them from my consciousness. I scrambled away from Beric before he could throw me over his shoulder.

“We can protect her,” I said. “Together. It’s what we’ll be doing for the king anyway, isn’t it?”

“You are my priority.”

Your cousin is not, his words implied, and it was the cruelest thing I could think of. To let someone die, no matter how admittedly selfish they were, my flesh and blood at that.

“I’m not leaving here without my cousin.”

I ran in the direction of Ann’s shouting, but hadn’t gone more than five steps when Beric’s arm went around my waist, dragging me back against him.

“We can’t leave her here,” I said—I was shouting, but what did that matter now? When my cousin could be killed at any moment by a prowling demon, like Vi had been, and Gabriel before her.