“The note?” Carys cocked her head at the locket the man lifted into his shackled hands. “You keep a note in there?”

The silver metal locket was scuffed to the point that she could barely make out the gold etched onto the front. It didn’t open like a regular locket; instead he twirled the center like a dial. He rotated the scuffed blotches of gold all the way around and pushed down, and the locket divided into two. He bent to the opened necklace and sniffed deeply as if smelling a flower.

“Stop!” Bri shouted, realizing too late what was happening.

His eyes rolled back in his head, a guttural choking sounding in his throat. Black blood dripped from his ears and the corners of his mouth. Bri reached for him as he fell backward, his head cracking against the edge of the cot. She touched his neck, feeling for a pulse but there was none.

“He’s dead.”

“No!” Lina growled.

“He inhaled it. . . .” Carys took a step backward. “So it’s different than what killed the others?”

“Go find Cole,” Bri commanded. “He’ll want to investigate this poison.”

Carys nodded and left, leaving Bri staring down into the lifeless eyes of the poisoned man.

Lina clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. With a bellowing shout, she punched the stone wall. She raged as she wailed her fists into the hard stone. Bri rushed over to her, putting herself between Lina and the wall. Cupping Lina’s cheeks, she forced Lina’s eyes to meet her own.

“We will find who did this,” she promised, slowly, carefully. The contact of Bri’s palms on Lina’s cheeks seemed to pull her back into her body. “We will find them.”

“You were right,” Lina panted, biting back the venom in her voice as she looked down to her bloodied knuckles. “We need to go find these witch hunters, see what they know.” She let out a shuddering sigh, her anger seeming to ease with each breath. “I thought I had a handle on this.”

“No one does,” Bri whispered. “The world is changing faster than any of us can keep up with. Magic that wasn’t meant to exist is being used against us now. New enemies we never even suspected have sprung up. We will figure this out, Lina.”

Lina’s eyes guttered as Bri whispered her name. “We?”

Bri searched her gaze, trying to parse apart every emotion that seemed to flicker like constellations in the night sky. “Yes.”

*   *   *

They rode on horseback out of Swifthill with a retinue of twenty guards. Carys and Bri positioned themselves on either side of Lina, on high alert, suspicious even of the guards who journeyed with them. Each hour through the forest felt more and more like they were being led into a trap. Every cracking branch and rustle of leaves made Bri’s hand drop to her dagger.