In her face, I see every time I’ve run away from emotions too big to hold within myself, every time she’s lost me and had to track me down again. She’s scared I’m going to run. She’s trying to protect me.

Well, maybe it’s time to protect myself.

It’s a treacherous thought, too cold and slick with anger to untangle whether it’s truly mine. But Isolde’s half-right. I have magic.

I have power.

Just the thought is enough to make it spark up without permission, and a shock jumps across my skin. A burst of lightning pushes against Isolde’s grip on my shoulder, and she jumps away with a cry.

“Seelie!” There’s pain in her voice, an arrow straight to my heart. It’s not enough. Not enough to calm me down, to settle my magic. I can feel the sparks dancing up and down my fists, and I don’t want to hurt her—but I don’t want to stop.

The thought scares me enough to make me tumble a step back, away from her. I shake with the effort it takes to breathe, to try to rein myself in. It’s just the enchantment, just the presence at the edges of my consciousness. Thoughts like that aren’t mine.

They can’t be.

Isolde retaliates, her hands reaching desperately for some way to keep me from running. She grabs the only thing she can—my necklace—and pulls hard before she realizes what she’s got.

The cord snaps, leaving her clutching the vial in white knuckles. We both stare at each other with wide eyes, breathing hard.

“Seelie,” she tries again, but I don’t want to hear it.

“Why don’t you hold onto that?” I say, pain raw in my voice, because that vial represents our family—everything she’s decided she’s ready to let go of. “For safekeeping.”

Everyone is still staring in silence when I turn and walk straight into the tunnel opening, disappearing into the mountain. This time, she doesn’t try to stop me.

chapter twenty-six

I hear my name, called in three different voices, echo behind me, and I don’t stop walking until the sound fades away. I don’t make it much farther before I can’t hold up the weight of my emotions another second. My chest aches. I stumble and catch myself on one rough stone wall before sliding to the floor. I can’t make myself get up. I can’t keep going.

Isolde and I never fight like that. When I remember the anger that simmered in her eyes, the fear not far behind, I feel dizzy and unsteady. What if that’s secretly how she’s always felt about me and she’s just now saying it? No wonder she wants to leave our shared life behind, if I’ve really always been such a burden to her.

I thought we were a team. I thought that, together, we could make it through anything.

But we’re not together anymore.

Eventually, I hear footsteps, tapping on the stone faster than I thought Isolde could walk with her broken ankle. I feel like I should be crying, but instead I’m a dull, frozen lump.