“Your friend, not husband?” Cora said, busying herself with the teapot and two teacups, placing them on a set of saucers and then filling them near the top. She asked the question mildly, as if the answer was of little concern to her.

“Oh gods no. As if he would put up with me as a wife or me with him as a husband. I’d rather be the rat that chewed its own foot off. We’re partners.”

“Partners? In what sense?”

Sinna’s eyes met Cainan’s as if to say, Feel free to jump in anytime! like she’d forgotten her admonition that she do all the talking.

“We are…Guardians of the forest,” Cainan said slowly.

“He speaks!” Cora said, and for some reason the woman’s attention, even in a somewhat mocking manner, made him feel as energized as if he’d just swallowed his weekly vial of godsblood. “Guardians…what does that mean exactly? You are fellow rescuers of poor woodland creatures in distress too?”

Sinna snorted in a most rude way.

Cainan glared at her, but then brightened as he turned his chair to focus on the woman. Once his eyes met hers, it felt like they were tethered by a pair of invisible strings. “It’s difficult to explain, and even if we had the time to do so, we would be breaking a sacred oath if we did. Suffice it to say, we wish for the forest to survive, and thrive, in a world of people wielding axes.”

“That sounds like a noble cause I am willing to support. But what does that have to do with me? Because we’re neighbors, or because—” She stopped herself, eyes opening wider as if with recognition. “You want me to leave, don’t you? I’m trespassing on the forest you’re trying to protect, aren’t I? I assure you, it wasn’t intentional. And I won’t hurt a thing in this forest. I only forage for nuts and roots and berries and the like. I only take what I need. Nothing more.”

“Leaving the forest is only one option,” Cainan said.

Cora’s eyes swept back and forth between the two of them. “And the other option? What are you not telling me?”

Cainan glanced at Sinna, who nodded to him as if to say, You’re the one whose instincts we’re trusting here, not mine.

Cainan swallowed the lump in his throat and then asked, “How did you sense I was watching you in the woods before? I am certain you didn’t spot me, and I know I didn’t make a sound.”

Cora offered a breathy laugh in response. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“We might surprise you,” Sinna said.

“Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like I can see the world around me as though looking down upon it—upon myself—from above. Like I’m a bird sitting on a branch. I know it sounds absurd, but that’s the only way I can describe it.”