A cry tore from Bella's throat involuntarily. All fear of Wights abandoned, she launched herself from the tent. Bryony was already gone. Bella swooped in a circle, dodging Enigma Wights as she searched frantically for her keeper. There she was—already some distance into the forest, running towards the bog. Bella flew after her.

"Bryony! Bryony!"

The Witch didn't slow down. If anything, she ran faster, appearing and disappearing between the trees like a trick of the mist. The predawn gloom helped cloak her. Bella beat her wings to full power and streaked through the forest in pursuit. She should have caught up easily, but the Wight-mist warped her view, forcing her to pull up and search for the running figure again and again. This was why people feared the bog.

At last, the land cleared ahead of Bryony. Bella sprinted after her again, heart in her throat now for a different reason entirely. Bryony was headed directly towards the bog, her view of it obscured by a final, thick line of shrubs and trees. She'd be on it before she realized she was in danger.

"Stop!" cried Bella. "Bryony!"

Too late. Bryony plunged into the final line of shrubbery, then burst out its other side, straight into the bog.

She kept running.

Bella watched in horror as the figure sprinted over the bog's soggy, mist-choked surface. She didn't fall through. Her steps didn't even slow. No entity the size and weight of a human could run over the peat like that.

"Bryony" looked back over her shoulder. For a moment, a part of her dissolved into the mist, as the Wight maintaining the illusion found itself replicating too many motions at once. Bella's feathers rose as an electric energy crackled through the air. She folded her wings and dove. Lightning blazed through the spot she'd been flying moments before. Two Enigma Wights dropped after her, trying to flank her again. A third wafted up from below. Bella banked hard as electricity snapped between the new arrival and its companions.

Then she was back in the forest, plunging deep into the trees, Animata Wights scattering ahead of her with startled gusts of wind. Lumina Wights flickered with self-defensive illusions: an owl, a cat, a bird. The forest canopy was full of them. Bella dropped down to fly between the trunks instead, until she was far enough to feel safe pulling up on a jutting branch. Her aching wings drooped, feathers rattling against each other as her body trembled. Too close.

How had she fallen for that? She should have known. In that moment, Bella understood on a completely different level why Bryony said Wights were dangerous. How they could take down humans, even those who grew up in the forest and knew what Wight magic looked and felt like. What had Bryony's mother seen in the moments before the bog swallowed her? What had she been chasing? And how did the Wights know?

How did the Wights know?

No Wight could paint an illusion of something they'd never seen. Maybe these ones had come from Hyacinth, but Bryony's illusion had been wearing her coat and boots. It had also been crisp and well-controlled for something so large. The Wights had seen her recently. Which meant they'd almost certainly seen her here.

The fear from yesterday pulsed again. This time, there was nothing stopping Bella from acting on it. She took off on trembling wings. If Bryony's map did indeed lead to Baneberry Bog around Wightnight, she should be here now unless the bog had taken her. She'd left long enough ago to have arrived already. The only thing to do, then, was find her.

Bella made it only a fraction of the way around the bog before her own thoughts caught up to her. The forest here was dense, and the fog was only thickening, even with the sun about the break over the horizon. If she wanted to do this search justice, she would have to conduct it systematically, not fly helter-skelter through the forest in hopes of spotting Bryony. Bella forced herself to land and plot out her search path. Only then did she take flight once more. Her stomach growled, reminding her of the time since last night's dinner. She ignored it.

Searching both stoked and dampened her anxieties. Bella knew she was in the right place this time, lending a feel of productivity to the searching that she'd missed over the last few days. Each hour that passed fuelled her fears that the bog had taken Bryony, but though the Wights clustered in patches where they might be feeding off the energy of drowned creatures, none of those clusters were large enough to represent a human body. At least not a recent one. Then the sun rose, and the Wights on the bog retreated to the forest again, leaving Bella's flight and sightlines clear. She spread her wings wider and relaxed her pace. That too helped.

Midmorning eventually forced Bella to stop and find food. Her skill at this had rusted over the years, but thankfully not abandoned her altogether. Bugs and berries tasted no worse than they did when she snacked on them while out with Bryony, though finding enough to make a meal took several hours. By then, the exhaustion of lost sleep was catching up with her. Bella shook it off and returned to the sky. This time, halfway around the bog's expanse, she spotted something.

There was a person in the bog. Far out into it, picking their way over the peat, probing ahead with a stick and placing each foot carefully. Their other hand waved about as though sowing seeds. Bella flew closer. Her heart lifted, liquid relief nearly turning her wings to jelly. She would recognize that coat anywhere.

"Bryony!"

The Witch was too far away to hear her. Bella beat her wings against the morning's thermals and flew towards her keeper as fast as she could. It really was Bryony this time. The fog parted around her, leaving her outline sharp and solid in the sun. When Bella called again, her keeper's head snapped up. Bryony froze for a moment, then jammed her walking stick into the peat and lifted an arm for Bella to land on. Not her usual landing-arm—that hand was in her pocket now—but Bella was too relieved to care. She landed heavily and hopped up to Bryony's shoulder, rubbing her head into her keeper's hair.

"What are you doing here?" said Bryony.

"I came to find you in Solanum, but you weren't there. We've been looking all over for you. You scared me."

Bryony's expression darkened momentarily. "'We'?"

Bella faltered. Bryony had not wanted her to follow her here. Announcing that she'd done so with a whole party might be one step too far. "Me and Titus. But he didn't come the whole way." She headbutted Bryony again, wishing for a head-stroking. "You know him."

Bryony gathered up her stick again. "I wouldn't expect him to understand."

"Are you looking for your mother?"

Bryony wiped her eyes roughly and said nothing.

"Sorry," said Bella. "I trust you."

"Why are you here?"

Bella stopped. Bryony wasn't smiling. If anything, she looked annoyed at Bella's presence, though she made at least an attempt to mask it.

"Would you rather I left?" said Bella. "I just wanted to know you were okay. But you are, so I can go home if you want me to. If you're... if what you're doing is private, and you want to be alone."

Bryony sighed. "No, it's fine. You're here now. Thank you for worrying about me."

"You didn't want me to worry."

Bryony stayed silent for a long moment.

"So Titus didn't come with you?" she said at last.

"He kept trying to imply you were lying to me. Or up to something sinister. He tried to get Daphne on board to look for you, too. They were searching your house together."

Bryony's eyes flashed in alarm. "Did they take anything?"

She should never have let Daphne bring Bryony's notebook along.

"Please tell me they didn't take anything," said Bryony. "Bella, that kid is trying to revive her parents' investigation. We can't trust her."

"I kept her out of your private rooms," said Bella. "Titus, too."

"Are they back in Hyacinth?"

"They might have followed me."

"Did they know you were coming here to look for me?"

Lying to Bryony was hard. Bella yearned to tell the entire story, but something else possessed her tongue and forced it to keep spilling half-truths. She didn't want Bryony to worry, either. Though worry was not the emotion she could feel flowing off her keeper at the moment.

"They found a coded notebook," she said, and felt Bryony's whole body stiffen. "They couldn't interpret it, but Daphne thought it might lead to the bog. I noticed your boots were missing and flew on ahead to beat them here. They might be following."

Bryony cursed softly, looking back over her shoulder. "Thank you," she said. "I really don't want to run into them right now."

"Do you want me to go keep watch for them?"

"Would you? I'd really appreciate that, Bella. Thank you."

A familiar, fuzzy warmth softened the nerves beating like a second heartbeat just under Bella's skin. This was something she could do for Bryony. Her keeper still hadn't greeted her like she normally would, but if Bryony was stressed about being investigated, that would explain her response. Bella would do anything to help alleviate that stress.

Now she just needed that notebook back from Daphne's hands.

A/N: Hi friends! Given recent changes Wattpad has been making, this will be one of the last books I post on this site. If you want to keep in touch, learn when I move to other platforms, or get insider updates on my publishing journey, sign up for my newsletter—link in the comments, or in my Wattpad bio if you can't click it here.