But I’m too tired. Without permission from the part of me still raging like a hurricane, my energy runs out. My tears slow, and I’m left shaking and hollow.

I finally regain enough control over myself to sit up. Isolde rubs my back lightly, just like our mother used to as my fits blew themselves out. Just like she has ever since we left home, and we had no one to take care of us except each other.

“I’m scared, Sol.” My voice is trembling, weak, high. I hate it. I hate how I sound like a helpless child. I hate the way the magic ripped recklessly through me.

She takes her time before responding. “Me, too.”

I can’t bring myself to ask what scares her. I can’t bear the possibility that the answer might be me.

I sleep even worse than usual that night.

It’s disappointing, because I need the rest more than ever. All night, I linger in that strange, slow place halfway between sleeping and awake, tossing and turning in the bed I share with Isolde—who, of course, passes out the second her head hits the pillow.

Olani claims the other bed, and when Raze finally wanders in long after the rest of us have gone to bed, he pulls a bedroll out of his bag. He unrolls it in the narrow space between the two beds and settles into the slow, steady breathing of sleep almost immediately.

My eyes open against my will before dawn, and I stare wide-eyed into the perfect darkness of the far wall. I’d hoped I could sleep it off, but my head is still buzzing. The persistent ache all over hasn’t gone away, either.

I wait, alone with my thoughts. They churn restlessly in my head, turning back again and again to Raze and Olani. There’s so much we don’t know about those two.

As the black shadows start to gray in the faint light of sunrise, Olani stirs. She stretches slowly, taking her time before sitting up. When she stands and walks to the basin silently, I turn over and pretend to be asleep. I listen to the faint rustle of her dressing, preparing herself for the day. The door eases open, then clicks shut.

I’m alone again.

For several heartbeats, it’s like that. The syrupy, sleepy predawn closes in around me as I listen to my sister’s and Raze’s steady breathing.

Just as I’ve started to relax and doze again, the door bangs open. Olani bounds in, considerably less calm than she had been just moments ago.

I give up my act instantly, sitting up. “What’s wrong?”

She’s already reaching for her staff and her bag. “Um—” She looks afraid but not sure what to say. “Nothing. We just need to leave.” She pokes Raze roughly with the butt of her staff. “Now!”

Though I’d prefer to know what exactly the threat is, I believe her. I shake Isolde, gently at first. She groans, smashing her face deeper into the pillow.