Dizzy from the rush and slightly discombobulated, Claire brushed her finger against the pencil still woven fast in her hair and felt the soft bump of the leaf. It must have been a lucky sprout. Only sheer luck could have stopped her from splattering into anything. And only sheer luck could have set her down in a corner of an isolated orchard and not in the center of a busy village square, or worse—smack-dab in the middle of a Royalist meeting. But how long would the luck hold? Her next step could send her to the bottom of a lake. She needed to think. She needed to plan. She needed to know what had happened to the Love Knot Tine … Did Estelle already have it?

Being sure to keep her boots’ soles firmly planted in place, Claire let herself topple back into the grass … except the grass didn’t feel like grass. Grass was soft and ticklish, but what she’d sat on was something both hard and squishy.

Something that yelped, “Ow!”

Hands pushed at Claire, and she rolled off into a harvesting cart’s dirt path. Scooting on her backside and hands, Claire scrambled from the soft mound as it slowly pulled itself into a seated position. Suddenly, she realized it wasn’t just the wind that had been pulling on her cloak earlier: Thorn Barley had followed her.

Claire leaped to her feet, boots still on.

“Wait! ” Thorn said, struggling to stand up, his long blue coat getting in the way. “Don’t move! You’ll hurt yourself without me guiding the Seven League Boots!”

So. It hadn’t been a lucky leaf that had saved her. It had been one lying, traitorous, fake prince. Anger simmered in her chest. Thorn had claimed a lot of things before. He’d claimed he would show them a shortcut through a mountain. He’d claimed that Mira Fray wanted to help. He’d claimed he was Claire and Sophie’s friend.

But he’d tried to lock them up anyway.

“Sorry if I don’t believe you,” Claire said and lifted her foot.

“Please,” Thorn cried. “I need to talk to you! It’s about the queen—and the unicorn!”

Claire froze, foot still in the air. She couldn’t move forward or backward. She was stuck yet unbalanced, like a dandelion seed teetering on the edge of the stalk. She’d needed to find out what had happened to the real Love Knot Tine and collect the three other tines, all before Starfell—but.

What did Thorn know about the unicorn?

What did he know about Sophie?

Claire swayed, and Thorn moved toward her.

“Stay back,” Claire ordered. “If you get any closer, I will put my foot down. What about unicorns?”

Thorn nodded quickly. “I will, only, just … please sit down. I’m not kidding about the boots.”