“I’m sorry,” he says.

“Why? You didn’t burn it down.”

“No. But my father did.”

“Don’t start apologizing for awful parental figures.” I force a smile at him. “Or we’ll be here all day.”

His snort is faint, but he stays with me every step of the way, until we peel off from the Bone Road entirely and onto a smaller path, and I’m secretly grateful for it.

As the Ravenshaunt name implies, one sees the ravens first, circling heavy in the sky. And then one sees the ruined parapets, thirty-year-old bleached banners caught between the holes in the mortar and rippling in the wind. Thunderclouds gather like steel wool over the skeleton of the fortress—castle? Keep? I’m not sure what to call it now. All I know is it was once a home. For Y’shennria, for her family.

Time changes things.

Even an immortal, magical thrall who never ages.

“She just said she’d be waiting here for you?” Fione asks.

“Yeah.”

Her rosebud lips crinkle. “Where?”

“All right, yes,” I start cheerily. “It’s a pile of rocks. But maybe there’s a door on it, somewhere.”

“We should spread out and search,” Lucien agrees. “Mal, take south. I’ll take north. Fione, west, and Zera—”

“East. Got it.”

His voice stops us before we can scatter. “Be careful. I think there’s magic here.”

“What kind?” Malachite quirks a white brow.

“The waiting kind.”

It’s ominous, but we have work to do. We peel off, Malachite and me walking the same direction. There’s a beat, and then I smile.

“First one to find the magic probably perishes.”

“Cheery thought,” Malachite agrees, and I nudge him.

“Look on the bright side. There’s a one in four chance I find it and that’s fine. But, I mean, even if you die, Lucien can just make you a Heartless! With me.”

He shoots me a withering ruby-eyed look. “You seriously don’t know by now?”

I blink. “Know what?”

“Have you ever seen a witch with a nonhuman Heartless?”

“I’ve seen maybe four witches in my life.”

He sighs. “Only humans can become Heartless.”

“Oh.” I blink. “Well. That explains a lot.”

“Does it?” he drawls, pushing me gently away from him. I stumble to a stop in front of the east side, and he turns the corner around half a stone stairwell and is gone.