Olani groans in the dirt beside me. She rolled as she fell, and I’ll be amazed if she hasn’t broken something. She must have hit her head, because she’s rubbing it in her hands, squinting at me as if through a heavy fog.

“Olani?” I try tentatively. “Please be you again.”

She lets out a quiet, pained curse, which I take as a sign that she is. The faerie riders behind us are calling out to each other in dismay, and something like the smell of rain tingles in the air.

I want to ask if she’s okay, if she remembers anything, but there’s no time. “Can you walk?”

Olani pulls a face, stretching. “I think so.”

“Good.” I push myself to my feet and offer her a hand. “We can talk about you trying to kill my sister later. Now, get up.”

Her dark skin goes a little gray. “Isolde?”

“I said get up!”

“I’m sorry,” Olani says. “I don’t know what came over me. I... I wanted to...”

She isn’t usually the type for tearful confessions, and now really isn’t the time to start. “Olani,” I say, anger and urgency battling in my tone, “you were glamoured. We all were. We just need to make it out of here.”

We can’t squeeze into the brambles with Isolde. The thorns are as long as my fingers and probably poisoned or something, but the hounds are closing in, and more spears are sure to follow.

The horn bellows behind us again, making my skin crawl. The hunt isn’t over yet.

I can hear the trees, humming so low with magic it’s more a feeling than a sound. I can hear the lanterns still adorning the branches, all the way out here, crackling with cheerful little flames. I can hear Olani’s labored breath layered over my own. I can hear—

Meowing.

A tangle of leaves parts, and a familiar, glossy black shape slinks out, ears back. The relief I feel at seeing Birch is so powerful that I have to hold back the tears that spring into my eyes, but it only lasts a second. He has something green and glimmering in his mouth, which Olani reaches for, urging him closer.

A faerie hound’s howl splits the air, followed by a chorus of barking. Birch startles, leaping straight up into the air. His fur puffs up with terror as he scrambles mid-jump, and then he takes off like an arrow back into the forest before Olani can grab him.

“No!” I shout uselessly, knowing I can’t do anything but watch the forest close in around his path. We have more immediate problems.

Raze circles overhead again, and then he drops, human before he hits the ground.

“Please tell me you have a plan,” Olani says, scowling at the spot where Birch was a second ago.

“I have a plan,” he says, scanning the trees around us.

“Say it without lying.”

He doesn’t respond.

I crouch and reach my arm as far into the brambles as I can, pushing the tangle up to free the fox. Isolde doesn’t run this time. Her round eyes lock on mine. “Come on,” I say softly. “I’m sorry we fought.”