Boom! A thunderous sound reaches us from the woods behind the Lodge. I’m on my feet in a second.

“Speaking of…” She doesn’t even budge from her chair, just rolls her eyes and finishes her glass of water. “You want a refill?”

“What was that?” I gape at her nonchalance, then jolt again when a large crack echoes in the forest, followed by the sound of a flock of nearby birds fleeing into the night sky.

“That”—Sarah raises an unimpressed brow—“is Selwyn, aether-drunk from our Oath,” she says as if that explains everything. “Except he’s been pissed off all week, so it’s worse than normal.” She takes my glass and brings both over to the dishwasher. “I wouldn’t go in the woods tonight, if I were you. He’ll be out there for a while throwing a tantrum. When he cools off, he’ll come back in, slam a bunch of doors, and hole himself up in his tower for the rest of the night. It’s a whole thing.”

Sarah walks me back to the elevator, spilling gossip at a rapid-fire pace. I can barely keep up with her new speed, and right now I’m only half listening. I wait until she takes the elevator to her and Tor’s room on the third floor, then move as quietly as I can to the stairwell and out the back exit.

The sounds of destruction grow louder as soon as I step into the woods.

Using my phone as a flashlight, I take the path Nick guided me down the first night—I know it must be the same because it’s the only one I see. This close to Selwyn’s epicenter, each crash and boom and crack sends reverberations through the ground beneath my feet. Whatever he’s doing, it’s violent. I must be the only living thing in a mile radius that hasn’t taken shelter from his rage.

I don’t quite know why I’m walking into the storm instead of waiting it out like Sarah suggested. I could be upstairs in Nick’s shower, using the much-stronger water pressure in the Lodge to release the tension from my back and arm muscles. Then, rooting around in his drawers for pajamas that smell like him.

But I’m not.

Maybe I’m seeking Sel out tonight because last night he stayed behind to help me. Nick told him to stay away. Sarah told me to stay away. And yet there he was, and here I am. We keep crossing paths in all the wrong ways.

As if compelled by a force out of my control, I follow the sounds of Sel’s anger, through the curve where I first met Lord Davis, down the rocking bridge that Nick guided me over, and past the hint of silver on the forest floor that marks the ceremony site.