Ox is awake when we get back. His eyes follow Rowan as she waves him a quiet hello, collapsing into the hay without bothering to try to dry off. Sethran, thank the skies, doesn’t stir.

“I can keep watch another hour,” Ox says.

“Thanks,” I reply.

We both know that it’s my turn, but it’s not like I got any sleep traipsing around outside. Unfortunately I doubt I’ll be getting any more, after what Rowan said to me out in the rain.

I settle into the hay, heart still racing in a way that gives no promised rest.

I remember the exact moment I realized I loved her. Training had been brutal that day, and I was in a foul mood, but Jai and Exin got me to join them at an evening’s dance with their friendly encouragement and a glass of wine. It was a good vintage, something Exin had haggled over for nearly an hour before getting it down to a reasonable price, and it did its job.

Across the room, Rowan and her friends danced together in a circle. A couple of bolder Leonodai offered their hands and soon everyone was pairing off. The music of the hall bounced raucously in my mind, its eager tempo egging me on.

Skies, I remember thinking. What a perfect winter night.

Rowan loves to dance. I could see it in her movements so plainly—the flow of her dress and sash waving elegantly as she moved with the beat. She grabbed Vera’s hands, and they danced together, energetic as kids. She saw me across the hall and smiled—and that’s when I knew.

No matter what happens, I know our history will bind us forever. What I don’t know is if forever has us flying side by side, or skies apart.

A donkey’s bray interrupts the morning. I flinch at the sharpness of the sound, but my eyes aren’t on the animals below us. They’re on the human.

He’s up early. Dressed in dull brown garb, he walks to the far side of the house to a small box garden and an adjacent chicken coop. Carrying the fragile eggs in his hand, he goes back inside. Every now and then, his shadow passes in front of the warped glass of the window of the house.

Sethran gets up with a small groan as he stretches out his legs and back. He takes a knee beside me. “What do you see?”

“One human. No other movement within the house.” Then, a moment later, “He’s coming this way.”

I scoot back from the wall and look at the bales of hay around us. We’re hidden, but should the human come up to the loft, he’ll see. Sethran rallies the others. Ox raises his bow and nocks an arrow.

“Only if he sees us,” Sethran says. “We don’t want the humans to know we’re here.”