Page 35 of The Mirror of Beasts

She braced her hands behind her, leaning back. “I apologize for the harshness of my words in the moment. My focus may be on hunting Lord Death, but I don’t want you to think I don’t care about helping you find your brother. That I won’t do everything in my power to pull him away from Lord Death’s influence.”

“Oh,” I said, releasing a shaky laugh. “Because I feel the same way—I want to help you in whatever way I can. It was only that—and I know this is stupid—I just worried that you might want to leave. Do your own thing, I mean.”

“Tamsin,” she said, waiting until I looked at her before continuing, “no quarrel will ever be so bad that I’ll turn my back on you. None of us would. If we didn’t fight, it would mean we didn’t care.”

I smoothed my hands over my jeans, letting the crackle and snap of the fire speak for me.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Of course. Why?”

“Your guardian,” she said carefully. “What he told us about the curse. Anyone would be anxious to learn such a thing.”

Up came the memory, and down I shoved it again, with vehemence.

“I’m fine,” I told her. “Nash has always been a liar, and I have no reason to believe he wasn’t trying to manipulate me yet again. Even if there’s the faintest glimmer of truth in what he said, even if I am cursed … talking about it won’t fix anything. It’ll just be a distraction from what really matters.”

“You and I are a lot alike, then,” she said, rising onto her knees as Olwen and Neve came up the stairs, their heads bent together over something. “Not everyone will understand.”

Whatever they were talking about, it seemed a hell of a lot more pleasant than our current topic of conversation. Still, a small measure of relief filled me at knowing that there was at least one person who would never ask me to bare my feelings.

“No,” I agreed. “They won’t.”

Griflet abandoned the string for his two favorite people, nestling between them as they sat down in front of us, forming a circle.

“You may hate this,” Olwen began, her voice hushed.

“Tamsin absolutely will,” Neve added.

“Wow, already selling it,” I said.

Olwen turned her fist over and opened her palm to reveal four bracelets. Four different fabrics had been braided together in a thin band of color—I recognized the blue from the blanket we’d wrapped Viviane’s vessel in, and the faded green from the dress Olwen had been wearing when the worlds merged; the white might have been a bandage, but the red …

“I traded a piece of information about Avalon for a red scarf the Bonecutter had,” Olwen explained. “I wanted the colors of the elements woven in, the way they are when we perform high magic. Braided together, it’s stronger than a single strand.”

Caitriona’s lips flattened.

“I just thought … I know that you all have different things you’re hoping to achieve, but I think it’s important to make a promise to each other that we’ll see it through together,” Olwen said. “To remind us that no death, no man, no darkness can break us.”

Neve held out her wrist, letting Olwen knot the bracelet tightly. She held it up to the light, admiring it, and Olwen beamed.

I went next, watching as Neve carefully tied mine. A warmth spread in my chest at the foreign feeling of it. After a moment, I took the last bracelet from Olwen’s hand and tied it around Caitriona’s waiting wrist, doing the knot the way Nash had taught me, for extra security.

“Together to the end,” Neve said softly.

“Beyond that,” Olwen answered.

The lingering worry in my mind eased. We were fine, all of us. And we would see this through as one.

“I’ll take first watch,” Caitriona said. “The rest of you should try to sleep now.”

“Are you sure?” Neve asked.

Caitriona rubbed at her mouth, saying gruffly, “I slept some earlier.”

“Well … all right,” Neve said. “Wake me up in a few hours and I’ll take over.”

Then we settled in for the night, and our agonizing wait.

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