“Seelie!” Isolde calls my name again, but I don’t turn to her, don’t lower my hands. I can’t stop now. There’s too much of it—too much emotion, too much magic, too much confusion.

“I know how you must be feeling right now!” my twin continues, undeterred.

No. She doesn’t.

“I’m so sorry about everything that happened. I—Please.” I don’t know what she’s asking for. “I missed you so much. I thought I’d never see you again. And then you just appeared, and whatever you did, it made the egg hatch, and—”

“It was two days!” I shout. We both have to shout now, to be heard over the wind.

“It was two months!” Isolde’s voice finally breaks, splintering my heart. I hear her start to cry. “Raze told me what happened to you, but for me—here in the Mortal Realm—it was weeks, Seelie. I thought you were dead. Leira wouldn’t let us go, just in case you came back. And when she realized you weren’t going to, she offered us work. But it wasn’t an offer, Seelie. We’re still prisoners. We’re just not in chains anymore.”

Months? That...that can’t be true. I all but counted the hours in the Unseelie Realm. I got back as quickly as I could. All that time, Isolde was hurting, but she never doubted me. She never even considered that I wouldn’t—or couldn’t—come back for her. A tear rolls down my face, the twin to hers. “I did everything for you. I was going to save you. To save us.”

“I know.” Isolde takes the last step forward, closing a hand around my wrist. “It’s going to be okay.”

The wind wraps around me indifferently, stings my eyes and draws fresh tears, and the sky starts to darken with thick clouds. Maybe she’s right—or maybe it doesn’t matter what we do. We’re still trapped, running from one prison to the next. One cold raindrop falls next to my foot, and the next lands on my nose.

Magic still burns through me, more and more and more, no matter how much I pour into the storm. There never seems to be less of it. It’s overwhelming, but it’s the kind of overwhelming that awakens my senses and makes every second draw out longer before me.

“Seelie, I want to know everything that happened. But I need you to come inside now, okay? The dragon won’t let anyone else even approach it. They think...they think it needs you. That it wants you. I tried to tell them to let you rest, but they wouldn’t listen. I don’t know what they’ll do to you if you don’t—”

“No!”

The veil of clouds opens, and rain pours down, cold and sweet. It feels like relief, like each drop is a little bit of myself I don’t have to stuff away into a too-small box. I’m tired of being needed, of being told what to do and pushed around by random whims of Fate.

Isolde looks up, like she’s just noticing the rain, and then she looks at me. I shouldn’t be able to do this, and she knows it. But I’m not going to let the magic snap out of me, unintentional and cruel, and hurt her. Not again.