"I'm glad to know you feel like that," Killian said wryly. "I've thought about you. Thought about you a lot. Yet the girl I've been thinking about doesn't care about me."

Ella's breath caught at Killian's words. She'd slotted back so easily into the familiar feeling of companionship that she hadn't taken note of the way he was looking at her. Was he toying with her? It wouldn't be the first time.

She pushed in a little too hard at one of the wounds on Killian's ankles, making him gasp. "Let me see. We were in Petrya, if I recall correctly. You looked out the window, and then you told me you were going out for a short while. I never saw you again."

"Might that be because High Enchantress Evora Guinestor would have carved me into little pieces?"

"You could have told me."

"What would I have said? Ella, I'm going to Stonewater to recover the Halrana Lexicon I stole. Don't let your boss see me on the way out."

"Something like that."

"I did what I had to do," Killian said. "I had to go back. Something told me the answers I was looking for were in Stonewater. You have a brother, Ella, and a people. You have a last name, and a home. Maybe I have family out there, somewhere. Or maybe I'm just some orphan thief. I have to know."

"You're more than that," Ella said softly, "and blood doesn't make anyone who they are."

"You don't know what it's like. And, Ella, I was right. When I got to Stonewater, I met someone who knew about me. He knew about how some lore doesn't harm me, and how essence doesn't kill me. He asked me to help him destroy the Primate's relics, and in return he would tell me who I was. What I am."

"Did he tell you?" Ella asked, fascinated despite her belief that people make their own destiny, family or not. Maybe he was right. Maybe she didn't know what it felt like to have no home, no relatives, and to be different.

She looked at Killian again. The red hair, the piercing blue eyes; Ella had never seen anyone with his features. His strong jaw and athletic build made him handsome, but there was some other quality to him as well. There was something almost fey about the way Killian looked.

"I destroyed the relics," Killian said. "I did my part to end the Primate's evil. In return Evrin Evenstar promised to tell me what I wanted to know. But he never made it to our meeting. I waited, but he never came."

"Evrin Evenstar?" Ella started. "Did you say Evrin Evenstar?" She took a breath. "At the beginning of the Alturan Lexicon there's some writing. I've seen the same writing in the Hazaran Lexicon."