There were no human words in Cordelia anymore. She wheeled away from her family’s castle and the soldiers flooding into it with no rational thoughts left in her mind. Only flight.

She opened her beak and screamed a wordless swift-scream as she dived into the shadows between the trees, ready to lose herself within them.

But the trees pressed much too close together. Their sweeping, tangling branches slowed her down. She couldn’t fly nearly fast enough to take away the pain. So she dropped to the ground and turned fox instead. Then she ran. She needed the burn in her muscles. She needed the lunge, and the pounce, and the bite.

So she caught, again and again—but then she couldn’t eat her prey. Her stomach burned and twisted each time she sensed their panic. Again and again, she let them go with high, sharp barks of frustration.

Her world was scent. It was rage. It was fear. It was …

Scent! She knew those scents. Two of them, so familiar and so hers that they pulled her toward them through the trees before she could even remember what they meant. Until …

“It’s her! I told you she’d be running wild.” It was a girl’s voice. Family. Sister.

Irritating. But Cordelia didn’t flinch or back away when the girl’s strong fingers closed in the thick fur at her nape, anchoring her in place. The boy fell to his knees beside her a moment later and wrapped his arms tightly around her back and chest. His face tipped, wetness trickling through her coat.

“Come on!” said the girl. “Turn human already!”

“Not yet,” said the boy. “Just one more minute.” He hugged her even closer.

She should have twisted to free herself, like any sensible fox. Instead, she found herself leaning into him for no reason she could understand. A low whimper escaped her throat, although her body felt no pain.

“Oh—!” The girl let go of Cordelia and swung around, bashing the closest branch hard with the long stick that she carried.

“Quiet!” The boy jerked upright. “We can’t make any noise!”

Giles was complaining about noise?

It was no good. With her triplets bickering around her, there was no way for Cordelia to hide from reality any longer. An inescapable wave of memories and awful, helpless human-ness broke through her wild fox-ness like a dam shattering.

She shifted. Giles’s arm fell away as she straightened, kneeling on the bumpy forest floor and breathing hard. “How long has it been?” Her voice sounded hoarse.

She’d screamed in swift form, hadn’t she? That would explain why her throat hurt now. She couldn’t remember much that had happened since that moment when …

When …