Emi’s hands stalled. She blinked to my touch, then grinned. “Keep doing that. Maybe talk to him.”

I looked down at his face. Beneath the blood and sweat, Roark was there. I combed my fingers through his hair.

“I don’t know what to say. Wake up, Roark Ashwood.” I let my brow fall to his chest. Blood on his tunic heated my skin. I didn’t pull back. “Wake up, so I can see your eyes when I kill you for all this.”

At least then I will know you’re alive.

Roark’s body stopped thrashing, and he looked more like he was sleeping. Emi leaned over him, checking his pastes. I finished securing torn bits of my dress around branches. We’d fashioned a makeshift bower to keep us concealed from nearby roads.

Emi placed her cloak over Roark’s shoulders, then came to sit by my side. I hugged my knees against my chest and looked to the few glimmers of stars overhead.

“Lyra.”

“Don’t.” I closed my eyes.

“Be angry if you wish, but at least allow me to explain something.”

I didn’t encourage her to speak, but neither did I tell her to stop. Emi’s eyes glistened. She used the back of her hand to wipe away tears. “First, we will find a way to get back to Darkwin.”

I pressed a fist against my mouth. With the threats Fadey and Ingir leveled at him, I could not stomach to think of what they would do.

“We love people in those gates too,” Emi said, voice soft. “People who will feel utterly betrayed—”

“Because you did betray them.” I tilted my head so my cheek rested on top of my knees. “You have kept this from everyone, from me. I told him I was being tormented by Skul Drek and all this time it was him.”

“Tormented.” Emi scoffed and looked to the sky. “You would know if you were tormented by Roark’s soul.”

“His…soul?” Soul craft.

“He should tell you his tale, for it is his. Not mine.” Emi hesitated. “You are angry, and I am sorry if you feel betrayed, but what you do not know is Roark has had very little control over his existence.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning Skul Drek—even as a piece of my cousin’s soul—has not answered to him. Beyond his control, blood has spilled for a duty he could never escape.”

“He seemed to command it fine enough against the Stav.”

“Because of you.” Emi shook her head, calming her tone. “Roark is a split soul. Divided between his darkest desires and the man he is in his heart. Skul Drek is a glimpse of his most brutal, cruelest, most inhumane attributes. A damn weapon to be summoned by the one who split his soul. And he was, for years. Until you.”

“I don’t understand.”