“Mother did.” Giles’s hands clenched and unclenched in the shadows. “How are we supposed to fight them if she couldn’t?”

“She didn’t want us to fight.” Cordelia’s throat felt full of pebbles. “She told us to run.”

… Just before she’d sunk to her knees. “I love you all so much.”

Cordelia knew how to be furious at her mother, but she didn’t know how to carry all of the feelings that roiled inside her now. They were too big and complicated. They hurt.

“I’m not running from anyone,” snarled Rosalind. “I’m going to rescue Mother and Alys and Connall, too.”

“Don’t be an idiot!” Giles’s voice rose to a whisper-shout. “This isn’t a ballad, and you’re not a real knight! You’ve only ever fought Mother’s practice shadows. Real people are different! And you ran just as fast as I did through that tunnel to get away.”

“I know I did.” Rosalind looked away, her voice thickening. “I can’t bear to remember it.”

“What tunnel?” Cordelia scowled up at both of them. “Mother never showed me any tunnels under the moat.”

“Well …” Rosalind wiped her nose with the back of her hand and sniffed hard. “Of course she didn’t. She’s not a fool.”

“She showed us because she knew we wouldn’t use it unless we had to,” Giles said impatiently. “She didn’t dare show you because you would’ve used it to sneak out every time you got tired of following the rules. None of us can ever trust you to stay put!”

If he had any idea how hard she’d fought to follow those stupid, suffocating rules—to sit trapped inside the castle’s walls on so many days when the sky rose high and wild above her and that hook tugged piercingly hard inside her chest …

The need to shift was a wail within her bones as Cordelia surged to her feet, glaring at her brother. “I’m trying,” she said, “to follow Mother’s rules right now. She said to stay out of sight until she comes for us.”

“But what if she can’t?” His shoulders sagged as if all the fury had drained out of him, leaving him limp. “Just … think about it, both of you. We’re in the middle of the forest. We don’t even have anything to eat—and those men came to make one of us their king or queen! I know Mother didn’t want it to happen, but … wouldn’t it be the easiest way to make them let her go?”

Rosalind’s shoulders squared, and she set her jaw. “It would be a betrayal of Mother’s honor for us to turn ourselves in without a fight—especially after she fought so valiantly on our behalf!”

“We’re not doing anything that those dukes want,” growled Cordelia.