From somewhere up the path, Claire could hear far-off cheers, as all of Arden looked up. She didn’t know how long she sat there, in a vegetable patch with her friends, the Love Knot Tine in her hands. It could have been seconds. It could have been hours.

At some point, though, a breeze full of winter’s promise brushed Claire, pulling her back to the earth. Only then did she realize that Nett and Sena were staring down at Francis, whose eyes remained fixed upon the stars he could no longer see.

Nett bowed his head, and Sena began to weep.

Chapter Twenty-Three

CHAPTER

23

The wind picked up. Claire’s hair blew into her eyes, but she didn’t bother to brush it or her tears away. Her arms felt too heavy to move, and her entire body ached, as though she had the flu. She wanted Mom. She wanted Dad. She wanted—

“Claire,” Sophie said quietly. “Do you hear that?”

Claire dragged her eyes away from Sena and Nett, who’d remained huddled close to Francis. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but the stars were still falling, and she sensed dawn was still an hour or two away.

“Hear what?” she asked, voice thick. But before Sophie could answer, Claire heard it, too.

Claiiire? Soooophie?

Someone was calling their names. Claire had the sudden memory of another time she and Sophie had been off alone. Sophie had just climbed a few rungs on the ladder, her turquoise sneakers disappearing the moment before Dad poked his head into the gallery. Claire’s heartbeat sped up. Could it be—?

“Claire! Sophie! Where are you?”

It wasn’t Dad after all. Claire’s heart returned to its normal rate as disappointment seeped in, even though she knew she was being foolish. After all, how would Dad find them in Arden with the old stone well destroyed? And what had happened on the other end, to the fireplace? Did it still exist at all?

“We’re over here!” Sophie cut through the ever-darkening turn of Claire’s thoughts. “Here!” She waved her arms in the direction of the fields, and a few seconds later, Lieutenant Ravel and his chimera, Serpio, came into view. Ravel was Nadia’s second-in-command, and though he was a Spinner, he was a talented chimera keeper. Gryphin poked his head up, intrigued by the larger chimera, but he stayed where he was, wrapped around Sena’s neck, as the rider lurched to a stop.

“You’re all right!” Ravel said, his many loops and braids bouncing as he leaped off Serpio and ran over to them. “And Sena and Nett, too! Nadia’s been so worried.”

“Where is Aunt Nadia?” Sophie asked, wiping a bit of dirt from her palm onto her purple dress and standing up. “Is she all right?”