Finn and Mia already had a houseful, and I didn’t really think they could squeeze the four of us in. I’d considered staying with them, but I knew that both Eliana and Hanna would be hurt if I stayed and Eliana couldn’t. So it was better this way.

“Do you think she’ll remember me?” Eliana asked softly.

“Yeah, of course. You weren’t apart that long. And you’ve talked to her on the phone.”

“Well, both you and I forgot a lot of things, and it happened all at once. One day we knew things, the next we didn’t.”

“That’s different. Hanna didn’t have the Älvolk playing with her memories.” I’d been lying on my side with my back to her, but I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling.

The curtains were lacy and let in more of the glowing yard lights than I would’ve liked. The branches of the large weeping willow made dancing shadows across the room that looked like arms reaching out for us.

Eliana had finally fallen silent, and the enn morgana fjeurn on ennsommora orn playing in my head reached a fever pitch. Since we’d left Merellä, the song had been on its usual loop, dully playing in the back of my skull no matter what else I heard or did. And now that I was finally trying to sleep, it grew louder and the baritone went screechy. It was like an audible headache.

So now I was the one that wanted to talk. Not just to drown out the song, although that was a key motivation, but there were a few things—a lot of things, actually—that I wanted to talk to Eliana about, but it hadn’t felt like the right time. It wasn’t the right time now, probably, but neither of us could sleep, so why not now?

“Do you remember our mom at all?” I asked.

“No. When I think of the mumuh, I feel warm and safe,” she answered carefully. “But I have no memory of her. I tried to talk to Illaria about her, but she refused to tell me anything. She liked that it hurt me, not knowing.”

“I’m sorry she’s so awful.”

“It’s okay. She’s your sister too,” Eliana reminded me.

I grimaced. I’d been so relieved that Noomi wasn’t my sister that I hadn’t really thought about how I’d traded one evil half-sister for another. At least with Illaria I understood she hated me because she hated literally everyone.

“We should go to sleep,” I said finally. “It’ll make time go faster.”

“I’ll do my best,” she said wearily.

It felt like I’d only just closed my eyes when Eliana bounced on my bed, waking me up, but the sunlight streaming through the curtains let me know that she had at least let me sleep through the night.