His scent envelops me--smoke and pine and sweat. I squeeze my eyes shut, wrapping my arms through his hold and around his chest.

"Hey." He holds me so tight it's hard to breathe, but I relish in the familiarity, digging my nails into his skin. "It's okay," he murmurs. "You're safe now."

Even closed, my eyes sting at the softness in his voice. It's been just over a week since I saw him last, but it feels like a lifetime. I never allowed myself to consider the possibility that he may have died in the explosion at the Palace, but the thought continued to plague my subconscious. His presence, voice, and touch in the dark cavern releases the shackles fear secured around my wrists.

I lean back slightly to look up at his face. "I can't believe you're here."

"I can't believe you're here. I thought I'd never see you again," he murmurs. I swallow the lump in my throat as his eyes brush across my face. "Samu?"

"He's alive, still unconscious, but alive."

His gaze darkens. "Did they separate you?"

"I left him there. It's... it's a long story. There's a lot I have to tell you."

"Indeed, we have much to discuss." Trina's voice captures both our attention. I don't miss the way Casimir's expression hardens as he straightens his neck to look at her, but she only stares at me, her eyes flickering to the map crumpled in my hand. "What's that?"

A war wages in my head. I have to go back for Samu, that's always been my plan. But as I think of the Torinnian camp, of Sanaa, Josul, and Lei, my answer dries up on my tongue. If Trina was to get the map leading to their camp, what would she do? They're deserters at heart, hard-wired to despise any shifter, just like I was based on how we grew up, oppressed by King Ereon. I don't know how much Trina knows about where I've been and who I've been with, but even before everything happened, I never trusted her. And Casimir didn't, either. While I may still not be sure where I stand, offering up their position to Trina wouldn't help anybody.

They're not our biggest enemy right now.

"Just a drawing from my brother, that's all," I say, shoving it into the pocket of my cape. "It was with him at the Palace."

Her steely gaze drills into mine. "Come." She nods her head in the direction of a narrow tunnel leading off the main cavern. "We have a lot of questions. As I'm sure you do too."

I nod, glancing at Casimir. He puts a hand on my shoulder and guides me forward, his palm large and warm and comforting as we venture in through the tunnel. Elex walks behind us, the glow from his lantern casting our shadows ahead.

We stop at the end of the passage where a large, flattened boulder has been upholstered into a makeshift table, papers scattered across the top. Trina leans against the wall, her face a grimace.

"Are you healthy?" Casimir asks me as soon as we're in private. "Did they hurt you at all? If that traitorous shifter so much as--"

"Cas." I put my hand on his arm. "He didn't hurt me, I promise. None of them did." He furrows his brows, doubtful. "How did you find out Killian was a shifter?"

He looks to Trina. Casimir was never Killian's biggest fan, but the rest of the deserters, including Trina, respected him greatly.

"When neither of you showed up at the meeting spot, we thought the king had captured you both during the explosion," Elex says. "We believed that for less than a day."

"What changed?"

"The councillors visited every village in Elel with a message from King Ereon. Torinnian soldiers had infiltrated our homeland and kidnapped 'a very important person'," he says, eyes shifting to Elex. "That's when it clicked in. Neither you nor Killian showed up. It wasn't difficult to draw conclusions about what happened."

I take a shaky breath. From the way they all stare at the ground, I sense I'm not the only one betrayed by Killian's deception. Though I'm sure theirs has more to do with their pride than their feelings like mine.

"So if I go to Veymaw--"

"You can't go back to Veymaw," Trina cuts me off.

"What do you mean?"

"There's hefty prize money on your head, Freya," Trina says. "Anybody who delivers you to the king would grain enough riches to last them a lifetime. Enough riches to persuade even your friends to betray you."

My stomach twists into knots. My friends rise to mind--what must they think? It seems the king hasn't specified why there's a bounty on my head, but I don't doubt they've all come to their own conclusions. Jakob would betray me for a mere penny, but Cadence? I can't believe she'd betray me for anything.

"The question is why does the king want you so desperately," Elex asks.

"I need you to tell me what happened at the Palace," Trina says, "every last detail. Right from the moment you parted ways with Elex and Casimir."

Her tone makes me shift uncomfortably. The memories flash in my mind. They feel like decades ago when in reality it was merely a week. I swallow, trying to clear the dryness in my throat.

"The night before the ball," I say, glancing towards Elex and Casimir, "after you left, Killian and I snuck around the Palace looking for more information on Samu."

Casimir's gaze darkens. "And what happened? What did you find?"

Killian's breath on my neck, his hands at my waist as he pressed me against the wall, shielding me from those Palace guards. The taste of his lips. I shove the memory away and pray they don't comment on the warmth in my cheeks.

"While there, we came across these documents talking about Torinne and how it was destroyed by the cloud. Have you... have you heard about that?"

"The cloud?" Casimir exchanges a glance with Elex, looking equally confused. "What is that?"

I look at Trina. "Killian told me he warned you about it when he joined the deserters."

"He mentioned it briefly. Though since we discovered the truth, I've dismissed anything that came from that traitors mouth."

"Killian said you weren't worried about it at the time, either."

She raises her jaw, her next words filled with venom. "I had more important things to worry about than a bad storm."

"It's much worse than a storm." A chill crawls across my skin. I inch closer to Casimir until our arms brush. "It's a weapon. Ereon created it to use against Torinne during the war." I look to Trina. "Have you ever wondered why our traders don't go to Torinne anymore?"

"Because relations were tense after the war."

"It's worse than that. It's because there's no one in Torinne to trade with," I say. "The country is uninhabitable. It was destroyed by the cloud. That's why Killian came to Elel with his people, to try and stop it."

Trina narrows her eyes. "This sound an awful lot like a defense, Freya. Almost like you're on their side."

"I'm not defending anybody, I'm just trying to explain. Cas, do you remember the day of that storm in Veymaw, the one I got caught in and thought I saw my dad and Samu? The one that killed Jyro?" His jaw tightens, but he nods. "That was the cloud."

Trina's steely gaze hardens. "And why should we be afraid of this cloud? Why should we care about the shifters in Torinne?"

"Because it's spreading to Elel and it's dangerous." I lift the bottom of my trousers, revealing the marred ankle. "When I was in the cloud, I started to hallucinate. I saw my brother and my father being attacked by shifters. And then I started getting attacked." I turn to Casimir. "Do you remember what you said to me? About how they found me?" He nods. "It looked like I'd been hacked at with a knife because I was. I hacked at my own leg, just like Jyro swallowed those rocks and drowned himself."

My words hang in the air, heavy as I meet Trina's gaze. "It doesn't matter what you think of Killian now. You can hate him all you like. You can want to kill him. But you were wrong to ignore his warning, Trina."

Her gaze hardens, lips pressing together.

"What happened the night of the ball?" Casimir asks.

"Everything happened as we planned. They dressed me up, took me to the ball, and paraded me around like some prize. I didn't understand why at the time."

I swallow. It's impossible to think of that night and not remember what happened in the shadows of the alcove. The purse ecstasy of Killian's lips on mine, the devastation at the look of horror in his expression as he pulled away from me.

"Frey?" Casimir urges.

I shake the memory from mind. "When the king arrived, he started talking about how they'd found the cloud piercer. Me. He threw me in front of a shifter infected with the evocion—"

"Evocian?" Elex asks.

"It's a disease that attacks the brain. That's how the cloud affects the shifters," I explain. "It traps them in their animal form, they lose all sense of humanity."

"And he wanted you to fight it?"

"He wanted me to heal it." They all stare at me like I'm mad. "Killian protected me before it could attack, and then the explosion happened. We managed to escape, and then next thing I know I'm waking up in a carriage heading goodness knows where with three Torinnian shifters and an unconscious Samu."

My words settle in the silence as they process everything that I've said. I'm not surprised. It's taken me days for the information to settle in, the implications behind every single detail to sink in. Even now, reciting it to them, it doesn't quite feel real.

"That's why the king wants you. Because he thinks you can cure the shifters from sort of disease?" Trina asks. I nod. "And why does he think that?"

And when I start explaining I can't stop. I tell them about Nala, Kinjri, about what Ereon did to their species and what he did during the war. I tell them all about why the Torinnians took me, what they think I can do for them and I explain to them why they think Samu won't wake up.

When I've finished talking, my throat aches. Nobody interrupted as I spoke, and I kept my gaze level to Trina's. Finally, as my words settle like falling dust, she clears her throat, pushing off the cave wall.

"What I find difficult is that all this information has been sourced from shifters," Trina says.

"Torinnian shifters," I correct. "Think what you want about them, but they hate Ereon just as much as we do."

"So you really believe it? Everything they've told you?"

"No, I don't," I say honestly. "Even if what they say about who my mother is is true, their faith in me is misplaced. I can't help them. I don't have any special abilities or skills."

"And what about the cloud?"

"I believe that it's real and that it's a threat."

She clicks her tongue. "This is why you're not like us, Freya, why I never should've let you join in the first place."

"Why? Because Killian tricked me?" My anger flares at her nod. "Don't forget I'm not the only person Killian fooled."

"Careful."

"Or what?" I snap. "Are you going to kick me out? Give me to Ereon?"

"No," Casimir responds when Trina doesn't. "You're not going anywhere."

She doesn't break my gaze. "The difference between you and I is that I won't be fooled again by those bastard shifters."

"If you're too blinded by your own hatred and need for vengeance to believe me, then you're right, I'm not like you. I'm smarter than that."

Casimir grabs my arm, pulling me back an inch so I'm half-shielded by his body. Trina once terrified me. I remember the first time I faced her and how small she could make me feel with just one look. But as I hold her gaze from across the room, the glow from the lantern shadowing half her face, I'm not afraid. The daggers in her eyes can't hurt me.

When she speaks, her voice is dangerously low. "What do you want from the deserters?"

Her question stumps me. "What?"

"Why are you here if only to insult our ways?"

My thoughts battle in my head. I don't know what I expected her to say to my revelation; I'm not sure that I had any expectation at all. And though I'm not afraid of her, I force myself to take a breath. I don't need to make anymore enemies, especially not with Casimir's mother.

"I don't mean to insult you. I just want you to understand that whatever is going on is so much bigger than we ever thought."

"I suppose you have a plan, then?"

"A plan?"

"That's what one typically does when encountered with a problem."

She says 'problem' as if the cloud is nothing more than an annoying gnat. I open my mouth and then close it again. She's found my weakness, shoved her fingers in and twisted. Up until now, my plan was to find Casimir. Somehow get back to my brother. I didn't have the time to think any further ahead than that. From there, I have nothing.

"I'm going to get Samu back."

"And then what? Go into hiding forever?" she taunts.

"No. No, I--"

"The entire Kingdom is searching for you, as well as those Torinnian bastards. You'll never live a free day in your life."

Each words cuts like a knife. I find myself taking a step back unconsciously, further behind Casimir.

"You may dislike me, Freya, you may even disagree with how I choose to run things, but one thing is certain, I have more experience in my pinky finger than you do in your entire body. I do not act on something as fickle as emotion. I don't believe the first thing that I hear from somebody that I no longer trust. And I certainly don't do anything without a plan." She inspects her fingernails, as if this conversation is boring her, before raising her gaze to look at Casimir, no warmth in her eyes. "You're expected at the meeting before breakfast. Don't be late."

Without another word, she exits the small cave.

Elex is the one to break the tension, letting out an exaggerated breath of air and widening his eyes. "Well," he says, "I haven't seen her that pissed since we got back. You sure got under her skin."

"Don't make a habit of it," Casimir says under his breath, settling on the edge of the boulder like the conversation robbed him of energy. "I'm serious, Frey. I know you don't like her but--"

"But she's your mother, I know."

"That's not what I was going to say. I just want you to be careful, okay?"

I let out a long sigh and lean against the wall, glancing back towards Elex. His brows are furrowed as he stares at the ground. "She does have a point though," he says, looking up to me. "What now?"

"All I know is that I'm going back for Samu. After that... I don't know."

"Why did you leave him there in the first place?" he asks. "Not to mention, where were you even going?"

"I'm surprised Trina didn't ask that, actually."

"If it doesn't affect the deserters, Trina doesn't care," Casimir says. "But I do."

I take a deep breath before explaining everything that led me to that fire pit in the forest. Because if there's one thing Trina's right about, it's that I don't have a plan.

And Casimir's my only hope of constructing one fast.