“Yeah,” Saxony said. “Because Wesley convinced her to, not me. Right now I don’t think she’d listen to me telling her to run from a fire.”

Tavia was great at holding grudges, and ever since the battle on the Kingpin’s island, she’d been clutching on to this one tighter than ever. Yes, Saxony had sent messenger bats that nearly got them killed. And, yes, she had even planned on killing Wesley way back when, but that was before he saved her life and before she knew her sister was Ashwood’s puppet.

It wasn’t Saxony’s fault that Zekia had taken him.

Despite what Tavia believed, Saxony didn’t want Wesley in Ashwood’s clutches any more than she did. He was dangerous at the best of times, let alone when he was in the Kingpin’s pocket.

Besides, she owed him a life debt.

“You will have to talk to Tavia eventually,” Karam said. “Preferably before you are on the battlefield together.”

Saxony slumped down onto a nearby log, kicking at the dirt. “It’s not like I haven’t tried,” she said. “But I’ve developed a magical new ability to walk into a room and somehow make Tavia walk straight out of it.”

Karam sat beside her and sighed in that way she always did when she thought Saxony was feeling sorry for herself. “Yes,” Karam said. “She is so stubborn. It is strange how you were ever friends with someone who could hold such a grudge.”

She looked at Saxony with her eyebrows raised.

“Subtle,” Saxony said. “I get it. We both need to sort out our issues, but can’t I just indulge in my misery for a while? You could comfort me. I’ll take anything you can give.”

She waggled her eyebrows suggestively and Karam gave her a stern look, which only made Saxony smile more.

It felt like these days the only comfort Saxony had was Karam. Their relationship was unyielding, a part of herself that she knew would never waver or change, even in the face of war. Everything else seemed to have shifted irreparably, from Saxony’s leadership to Tavia’s friendship to the Uncharted Forest itself.

Saxony had grown up among these trees, and yet they seemed the strangest of all to her now. It was still beautiful and Saxony still felt a certain peace when she looked into the skies and saw the leaves curling into the clouds, shielding them just enough to let the warm orange sun through but to act as a barrier to most of the rain.

Yet it felt like a place from her past rather than her future.