The ground jostles and jolts beneath me. Darkness surrounds me as my senses tune in--the unsteady, jostling of the earth, the thumping of hooves against the ground, the steely scent of blood.

Something digs into the centre of my back, stabbing with each jostled movement. I groan, but no sound comes out as I try to shift my body.

My memories return before my vision. The shifter invasion in Veymaw, the guards, Cadence, the gunshot--the gunshot. The thought wills my eyes open.

A wooden roof peers down at me from merely a few feet away; the ripples on the smooth surface curve in a way that looks like eyes. The jostled movement, low roof, horses hooves--I'm in a carriage.

I shift, trying to sit up. A soft sniffling sound wafts into the air. Turning my head sideways, my eyes take in the rest of the cabin, including the tangled mess of golden hair splayed on the carriage floor.

My heart sinks to my stomach. She shouldn't be here. She should be back in Veymaw.

At least she isn't dead, a voice in my head says.

"Cadence?" I whisper. My voice scratches in my throat.

She sits with her knees pulled to her chest, face in her legs, sideways on the ground, her body quivering. I manage to regain control of my limbs and shift into a sitting position, sliding down from the uncomfortable seat across from Cadence. My head pounds at the movement. I squeeze my eyes shut till the pain somewhat subsides.

"Cadence, are you okay?"

She doesn't move, as if she hasn't even heard me. My anxiety spikes. There'd been two gunshots, or had it been three? The jumbled memories slot together as I try to recollect whether or not Cadence was harmed. I reach out a quivering hand and place it on the side of her arm, squeezing slightly.

At my touch, she lets out a cry, shuffling backwards along the floor so quickly that she bangs her head on the wooden ledge jutting out from the seat.

"Stop! Please!" she cries.

"Cadence!" I grab her shoulders forcefully so she can't move. "Cadence, it's me. It's me. Look at me."

Her eyes frantically dart around the cabin as she resists my hold, cheeks stained with blood and crusted with dried tears. When our eyes meet, her entire body freezes. She blinks at me, her mouth opening and closing.

"Y-you're a-a-alive."

I nod, pulling her closer. "Are you hurt?" She just stares at me. "Cadence."

She shakes her head, eyes searching around my face. The relief that floods my body is so overwhelming it adds weight to my shoulders. I want to pull her closer, wrap my arms around her and wipe the blood from her golden hair. Seeing Cadence this way, frazzled, not put together, afraid, it makes something burn inside of me. But there's something in her gaze that makes me pause. She's never looked at me like this before.

"We're going to get out of here," I tell her. "Don't worry. Casimir will come. We're not going back to Ereon. I won't let them hurt you, okay?"

She doesn't say anything in response, just stares. I release her shoulders, glancing around the cabin. I have no way of knowing how many of the guards are outside, but I know my escape won't be as simple as the somewhat unsuccessful attempt from Killian's carriage. There were only three of them. There were at least 10 guards I saw in Veymaw.

The sheet covering the doorway flaps gently in the wind, letting in a slither of golden light. The actual wooden door has been left open, I assume latched to the side of the carriage. It's either sunrise or sunset. I can't tell.

"Do you know how long we've been travelling?" I ask Cadence, keeping my voice to a murmur as I continue to search the carriage for any sort of makeshift weapon. All my daggers have been taken from me. I turn back to her when she doesn't answer. "Cadence, I know this is scary, but I really need your help."

"Who are you?" Her voice is no more than a whisper.

I pause, our eyes meeting. "It's me. Freya. Your friend."

I reach out a hand to touch her arm. She flinches. "What are you?"

And that's when I realise what the unfamiliar look in her eyes is--fear. She's never looked at me like that before. Ice courses through my veins, causing a skip in my heart. Her warmth, kindness, love--it cannot penetrate through the thick sheet of fear coating her gaze.

"I'm your best friend," I whisper. "It's me. You know me."

She shakes her head, shuffling backwards even more. "They say you're trying to destroy Elel with your... your magic."

"What?"

"I didn't believe it, not at first. I thought they took you on the Red Moon. I thought you'd been killed. I grieved you. And then... then the storm, Jyro didn't survive but you did... why did you do it?"

My body remains deathly still while my heart races at a million miles a second. "Are you hearing yourself, Cadence? I was injured in that storm too. Why would I kill Jyro?"

Her eyes flash with confusion. "You're trying to trick me. They said you would."

"Are you hearing yourself?" I grab her hand, tightening my grip when she tries to pull away. "Cadence, you know me, please. I don't know what they've told you but they're lying. I'm not trying to do anything to Elel. I just wanted to get Samu. I've been trying to get back here, back to Veymaw, back to you and Cas."

"Samu," she whispers. "They say you killed him. That you killed them both last years Red Moon."

Pain stabs at my heart. Her doubt and petrified gaze make my stomach lurch. How can someone so dear to me believe such horrific things?

"Samu is alive. I've seen him. They took him, they killed my father. Please, Cadence, you have to believe me." I squeeze her hand, my eyes watering. "Please. I need you to believe me. You know me."

She stares at me, gaze wavering. "You left," she whispers. "You promised you wouldn't. How can I trust anything you say?"

"I had to find Samu," I whisper. "Just like I had to find you." She doesn't say anything, tears leaking from her eyes. "I don't know what they've told you about me. But I didn't kill anyone. They're lying. That's what they do. Our whole lives, Cadence, they've lied."

She shudders. "You sound like a deserter."

"They almost killed you."

"Because they thought I was protecting you."

"They would've killed you either way." I don't bother wiping tears as they spill onto my cheeks, my eyes blurry. "There's so much I need to tell you. King Ereon is evil. He created that storm that killed Jyro, and he used it to destroy Torinne. Now it's starting to hurt us here in Elel."

"Why does he want you?"

"He thinks I can stop the destruction. He wants to use me to do it. And he doesn't care who goes down in the process. Whatever he's told you about me are lies."

"Why would he lie?"

"So you hate me, so you turn me in, so you look at me like this." My voice cracks as tears blur my vision.

As I stare at her, and listen to her words, the cold truth settles into my heart. I knew I couldn't safely go back to Veymaw. I thought it was because the King would find me, or I'd put my friends at risk. I never considered that I wouldn't be welcomed. That I'm hated in the place I grew up.

I never thought I'd become the villain in the only home I've ever known.

All my desperation to escape, my determination to scope out the area seeps from my body as we stare at one another. Because her fear is more terrifying than any shifter in Ereon's palace could be.

"I need you to believe me. Please tell me you believe me."

"I-I'm..." she swallows. "I don't know what to believe anymore."

I bite the inside of my cheek so hard I taste blood. "I'm going to get us out of here, okay?" I promise. "It's not safe for either of us where we're going. Can you at least trust that?" She nods tentatively. "Can you tell me how long we've been travelling?"

"Um, I... I think maybe a day."

I calculate in my head. It was the early hours of the morning when the shifters invaded Veymaw. If Cadence is right, the golden rays are an indication of the sunset. We can't be too far from the palace. The thought sends jolts of fear down my spine.

"Do you remember how many guards there are?"

She wraps her arms around her knees, tugging them to her chest. The hem of her dress is dirtied with blood and grime. "I... I don't know. They threw me in here with you and they have Raven in the other one."

"They took Raven too?" I ask. She nods. "Is she okay?"

"She wasn't awake when we left." Her lips quiver. "I thought you were both dead."

I fight the urge to grab her hand and turn to look back at the sheet, leaning forward slightly to peer through the gap as it flaps in the wind. Green and brown fill my vision through the slit. No shifters in sight, but I know they're there. At least two carriages. At least ten guards. The temptation to jump and bolt is not lost to me. But there's the unpredictability of Cadence, who I'm not entirely sure trusts me, and Raven, who may very well be unconscious.

I shove the doubts in my mind and comb through solutions as I gaze around the carriage. On the roof, the wood is uneven and jagged.

I stare at it, wondering how much force it would take to snap a section off. It's my only option.

Cadence merely watches as I rise to my feet, wobbly as the carriage lurches and jolts. I lean against the wall and put all my weight against the wood. It budges, splintering when I pull it down, wedging a gap in between the junction where the beams meet.

"What's your plan?"

"Casimir will come," I say quietly. "He'll help. He won't be far behind."

Attempting escape without help would be foolish, and risk both Cadence and Raven. I know the King won't let anyone kill me, but there's no guarantee for their lives. And there's only one reason the shifter would've taken the both of them alive--leverage over me. If they have something I care about, they can control me. Like they did in Veymaw.

"Casimir is a deserter. He disappeared at the same time you did."

I turn to look at her over my shoulder. In my desperation to escape, it's tempting not to desert my gentle approach. "I know, Cadence."

"For how long?"

"Only until recently. I was just as confused as you were."

"Killian disappeared too," she says. "Jakob said he went back to Portson, but most people think he died the night of the Red Moon."

I stare at the indents in the wood, following the curves and ripples with my pointer finger. Killian fills my mind, making me pause as I wiggle the wood further. His smile, warm eyes, calloused fingertips, his betrayal. I've tried hard not to think about how we parted. That he let me go. Because following those thoughts comes thoughts of longing. As much as I hate myself for it, I miss him.

"Killian is alive," is all I say, keeping my voice even.

"Is he a deserter as well?"

"Something like that."

She watches as I finally manage to free the piece of wood, falling back against the bench and holding it up, satisfied. Its jagged edges, while no match for a dagger, is better than nothing.

"And you're okay with it?"

"Like I said, Ereon has lied to us our entire lives."

"Are you a deserter now, too?"

Trina rises to my mind. She won't care that I've been captured; she may even be glad. "No."

"Then what are you?"

"Can't I just be Freya?"

"Just Freya wasn't being hunted by the entire Kingdom."

I meet her gaze. The fear still lingers, but there's something else, too, something more familiar--intrigue. "I promise I'll explain everything to you once we get out of here."

"What if we don't get out of here?" she whispers, tugging her knees closer.

"We will." Even I can't keep the doubt from seeping into my voice.

"What if--"

A shout from outside cuts her off. We both freeze, our gazes darting to the sheet in the doorway as the carriage rolls to a stop. "Why are we stopping?" she whispers.

I creep to the edge of the carriage, nudging my finger against the sheet to push it slightly to the side. As my eyes land on the forest edge just off the path, fear drags its claws down my spine.

A low, thick cloud wafts through the pine towards us.