A deep ache rocks my muscles.

I keep my arms wrapped securely around Cadence's petite form; she's stopped struggling now, her screams nothing but a mere murmur as she twitches in her restless slumber. But still, I don't release my grip.

All around us, shapes dance between the trees. A low fog hangs by our feet, half our bodies hidden. I can't tell if it's from the night chill or the ever-lingering cloud. Whatever it is, I'm grateful.

It shrouds the body lying only feet away.

The voices in my head stopped when Cadence's cries did. But despite the ache in my muscles and cramping in my legs, I'm too terrified to move.

I don't know much about the evocian disease that plagues the shifters. I've seen what it can do first-hand, but I don't know how immediate the reaction to the cloud is. All I know is Cadence and I were escorted by at least five royal shifter guards, and none of them are anywhere to be seen.

There are only low howls haunting the trees in the distance. And normal shifters can't transform without the Red Moon.

I gaze around the space, body quivering as I avoid looking down. Down at Cadence. Down at my body. Down at Raven. And then, in the distance amongst the trees, light blurs the edges of darkness. I narrow my gaze, wondering if it's part of my imagination. It only grows brighter.

Firelight.

My heart picks up but my body won't move. I scramble up the tree I'm leaning against, separately trying to cling Cadence's dead-weight body with me. She's so small but impossibly heavy. As the firelight grows closer, so do the figures behind it. I can't make out more than the shadows--but there's more than one.

"Stay back!" I shout.

The fire flickers as they stop moving closer, hesitating for a second. "Frey! Freya? Are you there?"

My stomach drops at the sound of Casimir's voice. But even as my mouth opens, no response comes out as I dart my eyes around. A fog still lingers. Panic settles deep in my stomach.

It's a trick.

"Freya!"

I squeeze my eyes shut as they call again. It's not real.

Hands on my shoulders shake rigorously, forcing my eyes open. Bright blue eyes glare into mine, so frantic and alive they can't possibly be a trick.

"Cas?" I breathe. "Cas, is that really you?"

He nods. Elex beside him holds the firelight up to his face, illuminating his sweat-soaked brow, the cut on his cheek. "Come on, we have to get you out of here. We have a carriage."

"Cadence--" My knees buckle under her weight with relief. Casimir catches me by the elbows. "She's not conscious. Please, take her."

He hesitates, looking down at her, before offering a curt nod and taking her weight from me. I watch, dazed, as he lifts her frail body into his arms, shifting her slightly so her head falls into her chest. I lean against the tree, finally focusing on the figures standing in the shadows of the fire.

Lei is the first one I notice, her hair slicked back and eyes sharp, but she's not the one who draws my attention. Killian stands a mere fraction ahead of her.

At first, I wonder if they're a figment of my imagination until Elex mumbles something as he passes Lei. Neither of them says a word as they stare at the scene before them. Lei examines the low fog, eyes narrowed at the body I know lies at my feet. Killian doesn't break my gaze.

It feels like somebody has knocked the air from my stomach. I didn't know if I'd ever see him again.

"How..." The words choke in my throat. "You're with Casimir."

I can't imagine a scenario of the two of them reuniting that didn't involve Casimir attempting to slit Killian's throat.

He takes cautious steps forward, mouth in a straight line when he reaches me. "Are you hurt?" I shake my head numbly, blinking up at him, mesmerized. His arms twitch at his sides. "Can you walk?" I nod. "Let's go."

"Raven." The word chokes in my throat.

He glances over my shoulder. "Where is she?"

"She's here." It's Elex who speaks, standing beside a kneeling Lei. She waves her hands around the fog, attempting to clear it. The body lying beneath her is mangled and twisted. A pale pink nightgown stained with a mixture of blood and dirt. But as my eyes reach her neck, bruised and bloodied, stained with dirtied fingerprints that lead up to the side of her, bile rises in my throat. Her forehead concaves, as if she's been pounded by a stone.

I slap my hand over my mouth.

"Hey," Killian steps in front of me so I can't see her anymore. "Don't look."

"Cadence had a stone in her hand when I found her."

The words make the bile rise all over again. The cloud makes you do crazy things. Jyro swallowed rocks, I hacked at my own leg, and Cadence... I turn away, staring into the dark forest behind me. I didn't smell it before, but the steely stench of blood taints the air.

"Freya." Killian's voice is more gentle than I've ever heard it. "Your back."

A cold hand presses against the centre of my back, igniting a sharp pain shooting down my spine. I flinch forward at the pain, my knees buckling. Killian catches me. He wraps one arm around my lower back, the other supporting my head as he directs my gaze to his. I'm too weak to push him away, too comforted by the gentleness of his touch to want to try.

"Cadence..." I murmur. "Cadence had a stone."

"You're okay," he murmurs. "I've got you."

He blurs above me. I try to blink to keep my vision clear, but my eyes are heavy as I stare up at him, the adrenaline giving way to exhaustion. It doesn't take long before I can't see anything at all.

***

I wake up to a scratchy blanket and the navy sky of early dawn.

The trees tower overhead, like guards to the sky as it gazes down at me. My body aches, and when I shift, my back stings.

"Frey?"

Casimir hovers over me, his brows stitched together. I blink up at him, trying to sit. With a hand to my elbow, he guides me up. The scratchy material I'd mistaken for a blanket, falls to my knees. A thick, wool coat. I shudder in its absence as I gaze around.

We've settled against a trickling stream slithering through the forest. At my feet, a fire crackles, a swirling of smoke dancing into the air. Elex sits on the edge of the fire holding a hare over the flames. His posture is rigid and tense, almost hostile as he keeps his eyes trained on the stream. I follow his gaze.

Killian kneels by the water, his back to us. I can't help but wash him as he dips his hands in and out of the water, washing away with red. As if feeling my gaze, he turns over his shoulder, eyes meeting mine.

My stomach flips as I dart my gaze back to Casimir.

"Cadence?" I ask.

"She's okay. She's in the carriage on the path."

"Alone? Is that safe?"

"Lei's watching over her. She's unconscious," Killian calls out without turning back around.

"So perhaps not safe," Elex remarks. Killian ignores him.

I focus on Casimir, still leaning over me as his eyes scan me from head to toe. The cut on his face has been cleaned, no longer filled with blood or dirt. It's not as deep as I'd originally feared.

"How's your back?" he asks. Instinctively, I reach back. "Don't touch it, you'll hurt yourself."

Against his advice, I push the cape aside and press a palm to the middle of my back where the clothing has torn away, flinching away almost immediately at the sting that follows.

"I told you not to touch it," Casimir hisses.

I twist my neck, as if I can see the wound. "What is it?"

"Scratches. They're all over your arms too, though not as deep." He swallows as I pull my sleeves up, noting the scratches and torn skin littering all the way from my shoulder to my wrist. Exposed to the air, they sting.

My stomach tightens at the image. The last time I'd been trapped in the cloud, I gave myself a gnarly scar on my ankle. Memories flash in my mind--holding Cadence so tightly my muscles ached, her nails digging into my skin as she struggled to get away.

This time, I was not the cause of these wounds.

A shudder crawls down my back as I remember what else Cadence caused. What could've happened to me if I'd not been able to fight back, if I'd been as affected by the cloud as Raven. And I can't help but wonder, what did Cadence see in that cloud?

"How did you find us?"

Casimir's jaw tenses.

"They didn't," Lei says, emerging from the trees. "We found them crashing recklessly through the trees about to get their heads chopped off by Ereon's guards."

Elex grits his teeth. "We were doing just fine--"

"You had a dagger to your throat."

"I was waiting for the right time to--"

"Leave it, Elex," Casimir says quietly, turning back to me.

Casimir has always hidden his emotions well. He's one of the most level-headed people I've ever known in my entire life, but I can read him almost as well as I read myself. I don't miss the tension in his shoulders. He hates Killian for his betrayal. He doesn't know what to make of them being here. But the fact that they're not at each other's neck right now makes me wonder if what Lei's saying isn't so far from the truth.

Killian and Lei saved their lives.

"Are you hungry?" Cas hands me some of the hare. I take it with shaky hands as he wraps the makeshift blanket-coat around my shoulders, fighting off the chill of the air.

"Thanks."

"I'll check on Cadence."

I nod in thanks, leaning back so I'm resting against the tree. I can't help but let my eyes stray towards Killian. He's risen to his feet, back still facing me, as he fiddles with the now-cleaned weapons sheathed at his belt.

"Did you see Myers?" I ask Lei.

She offers me a cold glance, filled with more ice than I can ever remember facing. "No. Since you escaped, there wasn't much point."

I cast a glance to Killian, but he doesn't look at me. "You didn't go back to camp?"

"And what? Tell Sanaa we lost the Cloud Piercer and doomed what's left of Torinne?" she scoffs. "I'd rather go back dead. We've been looking for you. Figured you'd head straight back to your village when you heard about the raid. And we were right."

I swallow the lump in the back of my throat as I stare at the fire, Killian settling next to Lei on a fallen log. "And you followed us?"

"I followed you when they took you," she says. "Killian stuck around to save your friends."

Elex frowns. "Like I said, we were doing just fine--"

"Yeah yeah." She waves a hand. "Point is, all four of you are lucky. We saved your ass."

I glance at Killian from the corner of my eye. He's already looking my way, his expression neutral. I'm so used to seeing that arrogant smirk on his face, that dimpled cheek, that it almost seems unnatural for him to be without for such a long duration of time.

A few days ago, I would've bit back with a smart remark. But the lingering weight of the cloud hangs heavy over me, and I can't find anywhere to muster the energy.

"Thank you." I think of his gentle voice, soft hands, the way he caught me when I fell. "For everything."

"You don't owe me any thanks," is all he says before pushing to his feet and turning to Lei. "I'll go on watch."

She catches his wrist, concern lining her face. "Killian--"

"It's fine, Lei."

I watch as he walks away, unease filling my stomach as the way Lei bites her lip at his retreating figure. "Is he okay?" I ask.

She glances back at me, the ice back in her gaze. "Don't act like you care now, Freya."

I bite back my response, casting my gaze to the ground.

He saved Casimir's life. He saved mine. The thoughts muddle my emotions even further. His face has plagued my dreams since he let me escape in the middle of the night.

Ever since he betrayed my trust, I've wanted so deeply to hate him. But as his figure becomes another shadow amongst the trees, nothing about the muddled mix of emotions has anything to do with hate.

Mistrust. Concern. Hurt. But there's also a warmth.

And when it comes to Killian, that's far more dangerous than any kind of hatred.