Aeduan had paused at the pools, and his back was within easy reach. Iseult arced out her blade. He looked back. His ice-blue eyes met hers, so familiar, so foreign. Then her sword hit his arm. It dug deep. It sliced, but did not sever.

And later, when Iseult cursed her instincts, she would also find herself grateful for this. He was Aeduan, somewhere in there. Possessed, usurped, and controlled, but Aeduan all the same—and she wouldn’t have wanted to maim him.

Not entirely.

Aeduan attacked with Bloodwitch speed, yet when he grabbed for Iseult, she ducked and moved outside him. When he lifted a knee, she dropped her elbow into his thigh. And when he tried to shift to a hook kick, she caught the leg and yanked it skyward. She knew his body better than whatever controlled him did.

He grappled for her as he toppled back, but it was wild. Useless. He hit the ground.

“I’m sorry,” Iseult told the Aeduan she hoped was still in there. Then she raised her sword and stabbed him. Through flesh, through organs, and out the other side, she shoved her sword as deeply as it would go.

And once again, just as it had done to the Hell-Bard from whom she’d claimed it, the sword pinned him to the soft earth below.

Iseult released the hilt. Aeduan gasped and snarled at her. He was stuck—though not forever. Already, she could see the wound trying to heal, instantaneous and unpreventable.

She resumed her sprint. Nothing looked familiar from this angle, and the sun blinded her, shooting into her eyes and glaring on wind-dappled waters. But she couldn’t slow. Better to go in the wrong direction and gain distance than lose time searching for the right way.

There. That little sapling. Beyond must be the largest pool, which meant cutting right would bring her to the stepping-stones and camp.

She looked backward. Already, Aeduan was rising—too fast, too fast. She reached the edge of the largest pool and there was the stretch of soggy land that would lead to the river. She could hear its moving waters, and the sun’s sharp rays would soon be shaded by mountain. She would reach the river in seconds …

But so would not-Aeduan. How had he moved so fast? How had he already circled most of the largest pool?

Iseult launched herself off the shore and onto the first stepping-stone. Then another. Another. The splash of the river and her booming heartbeats could not block Aeduan’s approach. He was to the river’s shore before she was even halfway across the water.

She readied her legs for the next leap. She sprang up and out—

And jerked straight backward.

A scream split her lips. Her neck yanked, her balance collapsed, and cold crashed over her. Water shoved up her nose.