Page 47

“Is this you?” Tin asks, gesturing at the inferno.

I’m ten feet away, but the heat is so intense, it feels like my skin is turning red.

“I … don’t … know.” Air trickles into my lungs and relief is needling down my extremities, the rush of energy fading out.

Tin stares at the burning tree, his axe hanging along his side.

The fire burns hot and fast, destroying the pine in record time.

“I thought … we were … under attack.”

“There are a lot of beasts in this forest. Can you stop it from burning? Summon your water?”

Tears well in my eyes from the harshness of the light. After stumbling around in the dark for an hour, the fire is almost too much to bear.

“I don’t know how to do any of that.”

He nods, as if he expected this.

With the back of his axe, he digs a small trench in the soft earth around the pine. “Doesn’t look like it’ll spread, but better to be safe. Wet earth will keep it from migrating across the ground once the pine collapses.”

Another branch snaps off and hits the forest floor, sending up sparks.

“Maybe it was Rook playing games again,” I offer, even though I know it wasn’t.

There was a physical reaction in my body and it manifested right before my eyes.

I know this was me, and yet I don’t want to believe it. Still.

“This isn’t the Wizard’s style.”

That begs the question of what is, but I don’t have enough air in my lungs to get all the words out yet. And even if I did, I’m not sure I’m ready to face what his style is. What if it’s terrifying innocent children? Or stealing porridge from old women?

I’m transfixed by the snapping flames. To light an entire tree on fire in the span of a breath seems … impossible.

And yet everything that seems impossible has proven to be possible here.

With the trench formed in a loose circle, Tin cleans his axe on his pants. “You need to get that under control.”

I can’t argue with him. What if I’d accidentally set him on fire?

“I don’t know how it happened.”

“You were afraid. The magic lashed out.”

“I mean … sure. But … the mechanics, the how. I don’t…” I suck in another deep breath and feel relief at the full expansion of my lungs. “I don’t know how it happened from point A to point B.”

“Which is exactly why you need to get it under control.”

“Okay. How?”

“Not how. Who. We need someone who knows what the fuck is going on. It’s not me.” He returns the axe to the sheath on his back. “First, the Hollow. We find your fortune teller—maybe she’ll know someone—and I refill my Oil. Then…” He looks out at the dark forest, thinking. “Then we go from there.”

The rest of the hike through the woods is uneventful, fire- and stag-free. We make it to the Yellow Brick Road, but Tin makes us cross it and keep going through the woods.

“Too dangerous,” he tells me, and I can’t argue that.

We finally return to the spot in the woods where he and Faos and the rest of the winged monkeys ambushed us. There is barely any evidence remaining that the attack even happened. The read have been retrieved, and one dead scarecrow resurrected. But there’s no sign of the girl who Tin left behind.