One half of the Crown of Arden.

Before Claire could fully register what she was seeing, she felt a draft against her arm, and she was suddenly aware of Sophie taking off, streaking across the hall. Thorn stood frozen, seemingly stunned, as Sophie charged him.

“HOW DARE YOU, THORN BARLEY!” Sophie was shouting. “OF ALL THE RECKLESS, ASH-BRAINED, GRAVEL-HEADED THINGS TO DO!”

Oh, no.

“Sophie, don’t!” Claire called and broke into a run herself, chasing after her sister. Thorn was definitely going to need help managing Sophie in this temperament. Sophie wasn’t slowing down, even as she got nearer to Thorn. Was she going to run him over?

But Thorn didn’t move. He stood his ground, though Sophie was going to slam into him in three strides. He held out his unbroken arm with the tines in his hand and then—

Claire stumbled to a halt.

Sophie had flung her arms around Thorn and was kissing him. On the lips. Right there, in front of everyone!

And Thorn—he was kissing her back!

Claire, standing behind her sister, didn’t know where to look.

“Purr-ka!” A soft weight landed on Claire’s shoulder and Gryphin nestled next to her neck.

“I thought she hated him?” Claire whispered to Gryphin. The chimera just purred. And then, rising up onto his lion hindquarters, he stood on Claire’s shoulder and let out a piercing screech.

Claire’s ear rang, but Sophie and Thorn had broken apart at last. And Sophie—her cheeks pink but not nearly as pink as Thorn’s ears—casually brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and turned to face Claire and Gryphin. “Yes?”

Gryphin launched himself into the air, along with a series of chimes and whistles. While Sophie listened, Thorn held the tines out to Claire. “They’re real, aren’t they?” he asked, sounding surprisingly shy. “The tines?”

With trembling fingers, Claire accepted the two crown pieces. The tines looked as they had in the pencil’s memory—the Gemmers’ stone on one peak and the Tillers’ oak leaf on the other. But more than looking right, they sounded right. Though the song was not as clear as it had been in the pencil’s memory, it was still there, alive beneath her fingertips.

“Yes,” Claire breathed. “Oh, Thorn—you did it!” Now all they needed was to convince the Forgers to give them the Hammer Tine, and, of course, find the Love Knot Tine, but they were so much closer than before! “Sophie,” Claire said, “look, it’s— Sophie? What’s wrong?”

The happiness that had lit Sophie’s face only moments before had vanished, and Gryphin was already soaring out of the Hearing Hall.