The glow on the horizon slowly grew larger as Ainsel and Remy walked across the wasteland. The reddish-brown rocks and sand were darker than the purple sky and as a result Ainsel had the dizzying sense of walking on the sky. The second time Remy had to catch her arm to stop her from tripping, he said, “You don’t have any shoes. Are your feet all right?”

Flushing at his fingers around her elbow, Ainsel said, “Yeah. My feet are probably tougher than my shoes were. They were just slip-ons.”

“Good.” He released her as if he had no interest in touching her more than necessary and gave her a cool assessing look. “I could probably carry you but best to save that until we really need it.”

Ainsel’s shoulders stiffened. “You won’t ever need to carry me.”

He didn’t reply and they walked along in silence for a while. The belt of the shattered moon rose higher and the glow on the horizon barely seemed to change. The wasteland was so unchanging that save there were moments when she felt like she was walking in place. But that thought led back to vertigo and she once again stumbled.

Remy once again caught her arm and set her on her feet again, and this time she pulled away. “It’s strange here,” she said by way of an excuse. “The rules are different. It feels like there’s vast spaces beneath my feet and too much in the sky.”

“Hah,” he said. “Given our playmates back there, a vast empire of bugs beneath us, maybe.”

She shuddered. “That’s a horrible thought. Let’s just say it’s me and I’ll adjust.”

Remy shrugged, his broad shoulders rippling. “I suppose you had to adjust to the Middle World, too.”

Ainsel’s steps slowed. “Did I?” She remembered the early days after waking up in the forest like a dream. Everything had been strange from the words people said to the craters on the moon. But she’d always thought that had been part of the injury she’d suffered, the same injury that had stolen her memory. But if she’d fallen between worlds before…

She couldn’t remember. She didn’t want to remember.

“How are you doing with the curse?” she asked instead.

“Well, it isn’t gone.” He stretched his neck, rolling his head from side to side. “I can feel it lurking, nibbling away at my thoughts. But it isn’t a problem. It helps a lot to know that you’re right there if I need you.”

Ainsel’s face grew hot and she looked down quickly. He was so casual about it. The words themselves were almost sweet but the delivery… she was like a bottle of medicine to him. He needs me sounded so sweet in the stories, but to her it was strange: a dress that didn’t quite fit. She hugged herself and tried to figure out what to say.

“This place is almost familiar to me,” he remarked. “Replace the rocks with snow, make it colder, and it’d be like home.”

“Is your moon shattered too?”

Remy lifted his gaze to the glittering belt overhead. The breeze picked up, lifting his hair off his forehead. “Is that what that is? No, our moon is larger than the Middle World’s, and very beautiful.” He regarded the sky for a moment, slowing to a halt. When he finally looked down at her again, his face seemed sharper and his eyes glittered. “I don’t like that at all. Come on, let’s work on getting out of here.”

“I can go faster,” Ainsel suggested, and broke into a run. He hadn’t been able to catch her before. She wondered if he remembered that.

She left him behind, racing ahead, enjoying the feel of moving lightly and fast. She’d run for a while, then slow and let him catch up, and maybe then he wouldn’t speak any more of needing to carry her someday.

But before he’d been running on two legs, or awkwardly on limbs caught between two forms. She left him behind, but only for a moment. Then a black shadow, four-legged but almost as tall as her, appeared in her peripheral vision. She grimaced and lowered her head, throwing her heart into the run, but she couldn’t outdistance him again.

Side by side they ran, and the glow on the horizon grew larger and larger. When Ainsel could finally make out distinct structures, she dropped back down to a walk again. Remy loped past her, then came back around. As she stopped, he sat down, curling his tail around his feet and cocking his head to one side.

“I can see the town,” Ainsel told him. He glanced at the horizon, but at the wrong spot, and back at her. She came to two conclusions: firstly that he couldn’t talk as a wolf, and secondly that his vision was not anywhere as good as hers. It made her feel a little better about how he could keep up with her now. “I think it’s a few miles away. If we run in, we might upset people. So, let’s walk again.”

The black wolf continued to look at her in eerie silence, then rose and began pacing forward. She caught up with him. “You can at least see the light, right?”

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In response, he flicked one ear.

Exasperated, she said, “You could change. Or we could play one flick for yes and two flicks for no?”

He gave an understated whuff, licked her face, then circled behind her and pushed her.

Blinking at the lick, she stumbled forward. All right, he obviously had a reason for not changing back and he’d never seemed much for small talk anyhow. But why had he licked her?

Their destination nestled in the shadow of what was, very clearly from her distance, a giant fossilized beast. Structures were built in among the bones and up the sloping side, and most of them were lit. Ainsel could tell from his body language when Remy finally started seeing the town, about two miles away. At a mile out, they could hear the town clearly: the intermittent roaring of a crowd between clashes and thuds.

But whatever was going on didn’t occupy everybody. A half mile away from the town, as Ainsel was wondering what exactly they were going to do once they arrived, a group of residents met them. Six figures, mostly men, and all of them were holding long rifle-like weapons low and ready. Two of them had bright orange light sources attached to long poles rising from their backs, both directed ahead of them.

They didn’t move like Ainsel expected soldiers to move, though. There didn’t seem to be any kind of formation or uniforms. It was just a gang of armed residents.

Ainsel glanced at Remy. His ears were perked forward and he seemed relaxed. He looked back at her, then sat down once more. Ainsel was happy to follow suit. She’d been wary about running into town exactly because of this. Best to let the armed welcoming party come to them.

“Hello,” she called, before the edges of the orange light fell on them. Remy stretched out so that his hindquarters curled behind her. He panted, looking for all the world like a giant terrifying puppy.

The welcoming party stopped as soon as they could see her clearly. When they muttered to each other, Ainsel could hear them clearly, but she didn’t understand what they were saying.

“My name is Ainsel,” she went on, keeping an eye on those weapons. While they were all different, it was variations on a theme: a long barrel inside a cage, with a heavy looking grip. Many of them were decorated with greasy metal coils.

Ainsel shifted uncomfortably. It turned out she didn’t like people holding weapons near her. It made her feel nervous. “I don’t really know where I am. Maybe you can help?”

There was some discussion, then one of them said in barely recognizable English, “You come with us,” and waved his rifle.

Ainsel’s nervousness blossomed into a curl of fear. That wasn’t an invitation, it was a command. She was being taken into custody and it probably wasn’t protective.

Remy stood up, stretching. He seemed supremely unconcerned by the situation. The gang of soldiers either hadn’t noticed him or hadn’t realized quite how big he was, because they jerked backwards, guns coming to bear on him.

“Control your wolf,” said the same speaker, a lean middle-aged man with a short, scruffy beard, a floppy hat and red and white paint daubed on one side of his face. “Make safe choice.” He pointed his gun out into the darkness and pulled the trigger. With a hair-raising crackle, lightning leapt from the gun to distant ground. It seemed to go on and on until abruptly it stopped, leaving behind the smell of melted stone.

Ainsel felt like the breath had been knocked out of her. Her hands were cold and she clasped them tightly together. She couldn’t seem to make her head stop spinning, though, or banish the after-image of the lightning splitting the night.

She tried to get herself together. “Where… where are we going?”

The leader nodded approvingly. “Bone Outpost. Await the Judge.”

At his nod, the rest of the soldiers shuffled around Ainsel, hemming her in and encouraging her forward by waving their horrid weapons. She forced herself to take a few steps. She felt like she was in two places at once, in two bodies at once.

She was being taken away from everything she loved, and once she was gone what remained would be destroyed. Weapons surrounded her, ready to pierce her flesh if she moved the wrong way. She stumbled into pain.

Ainsel couldn’t move, her breath coming shallowly, her eyes darting from side to side. Her surroundings didn’t make sense. Where was the meadowland? Where was her mother?

Furry warmth pressed against her side, and the weapons around her wavered. The man in charge said something incoherent, but the tone was clear: move, or pay the price. Pain…

She curled her arms around herself and rocked back and forth. She could feel the light of the shattered moon beating against her skin. She wanted to run away, but the weapons were all around her, pricking her skin. Her blood leaked out and the moon bled in. The ground trembled.

The warmth against her leg changed, a tingling that ran up her body. Then long, strong arms enclosed her and Remy’s low voice rumbled in her ear. “It’s all right. I said I’d protect you and I will. Shh. Take your time. I won’t let them hurt you.”

His body shielded her from the weapons and from the moonlight. She curled against his chest. She remembered how he’d killed the spider wolf. The memory was a distraction from the terror that had taken hold of her body. She remembered the kiss, too: full of its own emotion, but different enough that it was another distraction.

She dragged in a breath, inhaling Remy’s scent of snow and oak moss. It was real. He was real, and right there with her. The men around her were scary but they weren’t… whatever was buried in her memories. She had to hang onto that.

Remy kept murmuring into her hair as she slowly came back to herself. His body was hard against hers, every muscle taut, and he was slowly shifting his weight as if ready to scoop her into his arms at a heartbeat’s notice.

The men around them were murmuring. They’d fallen back a few steps, their eyes wide. Remy had changed from a wolf to a boy in front of them and apparently that had been a worrying surprise.

Then the leader stepped forward again. “You are twoshifters! How did you escape guardians?”

“Sarge…” said one of the soldiers urgently. “Earthshake.”

Still holding Ainsel close, Remy raised his head. “There were monsters before. Are those your guardians? I killed them.”

The soldiers didn’t try to be subtle as they scrambled back a few more steps, then glanced at each other. Only Sarge held his position, his mouth set in a grim line. He said something rapidly to his men, then added. “No change. You come with us. Be good or it will hurt.”

“Sarge, earthshake,” repeated the same soldier.

“One change,” conceded Sarge. “Unless you want to fight again, we run.”