She didn’t look at the Revinir. Her eyes didn’t weep, and her voice didn’t waver. She just stared at the plant on the table. “How does it make me feel?” she said, hearing the pride swell up, though she felt none of it. “Of course I’m sad my friend doesn’t understand. But his love guarantees he’ll be on my side eventually.” She turned to look at the Revinir with a gleam in her eye. “Our side, that is. So everything is falling into place.”

Regret

Florence, Simber, the two ghost dragons, and all of the humans exploded out of the first portal and landed in the crater lake in Grimere. Simber and the dragons plucked the humans out of the water and brought them to the narrow path on the shore to collect themselves. It was a bittersweet moment for Rohan and Sky—they’d spent a lot of time here with Thisbe. But they were glad they weren’t staying.

The team was much closer to their destination now, but the skies overhead were filled with dragons in flight. Some of the dragons were watching them. “This isn’t good,” Maiven said, wringing the water out of her braid. “The dragons are everywhere. I’m sure they’ve already gone to tell the Revinir about our arrival.”

Rohan’s expression was slack, and his eyes were half-dead. He didn’t care about the dragons. He could hardly muster up a sense of guilt for employing the send spell to Thisbe. He hoped it didn’t cause a problem, but really… Thisbe was the one causing all of the problems right now. So he didn’t feel too bad about it. “We’re doomed anyway,” he said to Maiven. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Stop that,” said Maiven, harsher than she’d intended.

But her tone seemed to penetrate Rohan’s funk, for his eyes focused on her. “If the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, and if what Fifer is saying is true, then Thisbe really has joined the Revinir and we’ve lost her forever… and possibly our future, too. And if Fifer is being manipulated by the Revinir, we’re all heading for a huge amount of trouble. There’s no good side to any of this.”

Carina spoke up. “You’ve left out the possibility that Fifer is lying of her own accord.”

Seth looked up.

Simber growled. “She wouldn’t do that.”

Carina lifted her chin. “I know it’s hard to hear, and I know she’s not known for lying. But I’m just laying out all of the possibilities,” she said. “We would be foolish not to consider everything.”

Simber nodded. “That’s fairrr. I apologize.” He turned away. “I still think she wouldn’t do it,” he mumbled. Carina let it go.

“She would lie for Thisbe,” Seth said quietly.