“Oh,” said Crier.

Ayla cracked up. There was a war on their doorstep and she was laughing, doubling over, forehead thunking onto Crier’s shoulder. “Oh,” she echoed, still laughing, and nuzzled her face into the crook of Crier’s neck. Crier’s hand was still resting on her back, warm even through the thick wool armor. “Oh indeed.”

“Shut up,” Crier said, sounding flustered. “I don’t think I’ll be able to form full sentences for a week.”

“That was a sentence.”

“Shut up!”

“I don’t know if I’ll be good at this,” Ayla whispered. She straightened up, gesturing between them, so there was no confusion. This. This this this. “But,” she continued shakily. “If we survive today. If we make it out alive. I want to—try. With you.” She cleared her throat. “If you—if you want that, I mean. With me.”

“I want that,” said Crier, and leaned in, pressing their foreheads together. Her eyes were closed, brows furrowed as if in concentration. Her mouth was still wet, kiss-bruised, and something about that made Ayla want to—have her, just have her. “Ayla. I’ve wanted that for a long time.”

“Okay,” Ayla breathed. “Then—”

Somewhere outside the palace walls, a war horn sounded.

They pulled away from each other, equally wide-eyed. “Damn,” said Ayla, twisting around to look out the windows of the music room, though of course she couldn’t see anything but sky and orchard. “I thought they wouldn’t be arriving till nightfall.”

“Kinok lives to defy expectation,” Crier said tightly. “The idea you mentioned. What was it?”

Ayla ran a hand through her hair, trying to clear her head. Focus, she had to focus. “Kinok’s followers,” she started. “They’re with him because he convinced them he can find an alternative to heartstone, right? They don’t know heartstone is harvested from human blood, but they always knew the Iron Heart was vulnerable. They knew it was your Kind’s biggest weak spot, and if it were ever overrun by humans, or the caravans sabotaged, anything like that, you’d all starve. That’s how he’s been selling them on Tourmaline, that’s how he tricked them into poisoning themselves with Nightshade. And now Kinok has destroyed the Heart. His followers have to stay with him, because he’s the only one who can save them. The only one who can save your entire Kind. The only one who has the answers, who’s searching for Tourmaline. Or so they think. Right?”

“Right,” Crier said.

“So . . . so what do you think would happen if someone showed them Kinok doesn’t have the answers?” Ayla said. “If someone showed them we already found Tourmaline, and we’re the only ones who know how to use it?”

Crier frowned. “But we don’t know how to use it.”

“This is the part where it gets dangerous,” Ayla told her. She reached out for Crier’s hand, interlacing their fingers. “I do know how to use it. How to activate it. I can prove it works, that your Kind can use it as a new life source. I know I can. It’s dangerous, but if you go out there right now you won’t heal. You’re already weak; you could die, Crier. Please, if you won’t take heartstone, let me save you with this. I swear to you I will not hurt you. I swear you’ll be okay. Do you trust me?”