“Thanks.” I bit into one as we left the cave. A half-moon lit the sky, giving off just enough light for us to see the trail, but not enough to see well. We traveled slower than normal to avoid tripping. Plus we kept searching for Kerrick. He might have collapsed on his way to the Lilys. I touched the greenery from time to time, seeking his magic. My heart, though, wanted action and it raced regardless of our pace.

“I’d rather you had a hot meal before we left, but I rarely get my way,” Loren said.

“You stopped Flea from coming along.”

“Only because Odd threatened to sit on him. Flea said he wasn’t going to speak to me ever again.” Loren shook his head. “I’ve been waiting for Quain to say that for years.”

“Hey!”

I cut in before they could launch into a verbal battle. “You did the right thing, Loren. He needs to rest after yesterday.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t like to miss out. And I’m with him on this one. I wouldn’t want to be left behind, either.”

“Why is he so tired?” Quain asked in concern. “Is it because of...me?”

“I don’t remember him saving anyone else’s life yesterday,” Loren said.

“I know I owe him one. But what did he do to break the spell? I wasn’t dead. I was just...” Quain glanced at me. “What was I? I didn’t feel anything.”

“You were paused. Neither living nor dead, just suspended. Sepp once explained it as a fake death.”

“And now Tohon’s trapped in this fake death?” Quain asked.

“Yes. And according to Sepp, Belen is, as well. He used that information to try to stop Kerrick from killing him,” I said. Tohon had told me he’d turned Belen into one of his dead soldiers. I didn’t know who to believe, but I knew who I desperately wanted to believe. Either way, Belen had been missing for over a month.

“Estrid and her top staff are also frozen,” Loren added.

“Yeah, but it didn’t matter. No offense, Quain, but Tohon had to be stopped,” I said. “By taking out Sepp, no one would have been able to awaken him, or so we thought at the time. Cellina can’t create more dead soldiers. In the end, by killing Sepp we’d have saved thousands of lives.”

Except Wynn had hit Kerrick with her knife before he could finish Sepp off. Eventually Sepp, Wynn, and Cellina had escaped and Flea had awoken Quain.

“If it makes you feel any better, it was a very painful decision,” I said.

Loren put his hand on his stomach. “Like a bad bout of indigestion.”

“Thanks, I feel all warm inside.” He bumped Loren with his shoulder. “So now that Sepp’s still alive, what does that mean?”

Loren met my gaze. What indeed?

“It depends on Cellina,” I said. “If she likes being in charge, she’ll leave Tohon frozen. If she truly loves him...”

“She’ll come after Avry,” Loren said. “She’s the only one who can heal Tohon.”