Faith, Hew, and Vallen left the hotel. Hew drove them to Baylis, where they got another hotel room. This one had only one bed. Faith slept on the floor, with Hew between her and the bed where Vallen slept. They left for Sills in the morning. The town of Sills was an hour to the west of Baylis. At least they were getting further from the sea.

From Sills they headed for Eads, which would take an entire day of driving to reach. Hew kept looking in the rearview mirror, likely at Vallen. So far Vallen gave no sign of being taken over by Aellis again. It was late at night when they reached Eads. They stopped at a hotel, getting two rooms. Vallen would have his own room.

In the morning they all three had breakfast downstairs, then Hew drove them to the edge of the dense forest, where a trail led up among the trees. The three of them started their hike. Faith hadn’t been out there in a long time, but she remembered it had taken a lot of walking to reach Sky and Sea from there. The sky was getting dark and cloudy when they left the path. The path turned north, but they went west, up the mountain.

Not long after that, they reached a stone building. Even more plants had grown through the stones since the last time Faith had seen this place. Some of the wooden shutters had crumbled away into nothing. The door hung open, the wood damp and rotted. The three of them went inside. It was too dark to see anything.

“Any matches?” Vallen asked.

Hew handed him a pack of matches that Faith could barely see in the darkness.

“Can you see in the dark?” Faith asked.

Vallen nodded. He lit dusty candles in the alcoves along the walls.

Stairs curved upward ahead of them. A door stood open to the right. The first time Faith and Riley had been there was when they met Vallen.

“Where was the dagger?” Hew asked.

“Upstairs,” Vallen said. “I’ll go get it. Some of the floor up there is rotted, so it would be best if you stay down here.”

Hew gave Vallen the key and Vallen went up the stairs quickly. Faith and Hew waited in silence near the stairs. It started to rain outside, the sky getting only darker. A cold wind blew in through the open door. Faith wasn’t sure they could close the front door without it falling apart. What if the dagger wasn’t up there? Faith tried not to think about that. At last Vallen came back, holding a sheathed dagger. The leather sheath was in good shape, likely because it had been in a box.

Vallen gave the dagger to Hew, who looked it over before sliding it into a pocket of his coat. Vallen was staring at Faith. The brown of his eyes was getting lighter, until they were the amber Aellis’s eyes had been. He reached for Faith suddenly. Hew pulled Faith behind him, moving so fast Faith barely saw him move. The light from the front door seemed dimmer than before.

Faith risked a glance at the doorway behind her. Riley was standing there. He was still scaly, his hair was still white, and his eyes were distant. Had he followed them, or had he come for the dagger? Vallen glanced at Riley, bringing Hew’s attention to him as well.

“Riley,” Hew said. “Fight Umbris’s will. You’re far from the sea, and I know he isn’t in the rain yet. Fight him.”

Riley blinked. For a moment, Faith thought his eyes were less distant, then the moment was gone. If it had been there at all. The rain came down harder, the wind blowing it into the stone building. Vallen ran at Riley. Hew pulled Faith toward the stairs. She tried to look back. Would Aellis use Vallen to hurt Riley?

“Keep moving,” Hew said. He had a tight grip on her hand.

The floor upstairs had several rotted parts, where the wood was much darker than the rest. The window on the other side of the room had no shutters, and like the other windows, there was no glass.

“To the window,” Hew said, pulling Faith in front of him and letting go of her hand.

Faith jumped over a rotted patch. She heard someone running up the stairs, but didn’t dare look back. She tried to jump over another patch of rotted wood but missed, her left foot landing right on the damp wood. It gave way, sending her leg through the floor in a shower of splinters. She tried desperately to climb onto the dry part in front of her. More of the floor gave way, leaving her hanging by her arms.

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Faith grabbed onto the edge between two planks, but she was slipping. She heard something behind her. Was Hew fighting Riley or Vallen? Riley answered that for her a second later when he grabbed her legs from below, trying to pull her down. Faith kicked at him, trying as hard as she could to pull herself out of the hole. Her left leg throbbed and stung where the wood had cut into it.

Her shoe connected with something. She heard a grunt from below and Riley let go of her. She hoped she hadn’t hurt him. Faith pulled herself up out of the hole and ran for the window. It wasn’t a far drop to the ground outside. She jumped, landing in a crouch and almost falling face first onto the ground. As soon as she stumbled to her feet, she looked back. Hew jumped from the window, landing beside her gracefully. The two of them ran.

The rain was coming down harder, making the ground muddy and slick. Faith almost lost her footing several times, grabbing onto nearby trees to stop the downward slide. She glanced back only once. It was enough to see Riley and Vallen hadn’t followed, or she and Hew had lost them among the trees. Again she worried Riley or Vallen had been hurt.

By the time they reached the parking lot at the foot of the mountain, Faith’s entire body was shaking from being so tense. Her left pant leg had splotches of blood up to her hip. She could feel bits of wood in her leg. Hew locked the doors as soon as the two of them were in the car. He pulled out of the parking lot quickly. Neither of them said anything until they reached Sills late at night and stopped at a hotel.

There was only one double bed in the room. Faith sat in a chair at the table. Hew went straight into the bathroom, coming back with a first aid kit and a wet washcloth. He stared at Faith expectantly.

“I’m not taking my pants off,” Faith said.

He sighed.

Faith knew it was either that or leave the wood in. She was exhausted and beyond caring if he saw her in her underwear. Faith carefully took her pants off, collapsing back into the chair. She tried not to cry out when Hew pulled the splinters and chunks of wood out of her leg. He covered the bigger wounds with bandages and cleaned all of them.

“Thank you,” Faith said.

Hew nodded, not looking up from what he was doing. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning. We have to keep the dagger away from Umbris. I suspect he knows why we went to Sky and Sea. If he does, then he knows what we’re up to.”

That night was less awkward than Faith had thought it would be. Hew stayed far to his side of the bed. As Faith lay there, feeling the weight of someone else on the bed, she missed Riley even more than before. She missed him so much it was all she could do not to cry.

Faith and Hew left early in the morning, after a quick breakfast. Three hours later they were back in Billen, but they didn’t go back to Hew’s house. Vallen and Umbris knew where the house was. The two of them went to a hotel as far from the sea as they could get. They sat at the table in the room. It was a gloomy day, and as Faith watched, it started to rain.

“We’ll have to go to the island,” Hew said, bringing her attention away from the window. “Hopefully it won’t be stormy tomorrow. Tell me about the house on the island.”

Faith told him every detail about the house she could remember.

“That’s the most likely place to find the stone,” Hew said. “Somewhere hidden, but close to Umbris. He wouldn’t want it to be easy to find if anyone knew how to use it against him.”

Faith nodded. “But without Vallen, we won’t have the blood of a wyvern.”

Hew frowned. “He knows we need him. He’ll find us as soon as he’s free of Aellis’s will again. Hopefully it will last long enough for him to help us.”

Faith couldn’t tell if Hew truly believed Vallen would find them in time. For now she would try to believe it.

“Why wouldn’t Umbris have searched for the dagger before if it could be used against him?” Faith asked.

“I doubt he would want to keep it close to him,” Hew said. “It could even be that he can’t touch it. This dagger is his one bane that we know of, even if it can’t destroy him directly.” He hesitated. “Have you decided?”

Faith knew he meant his offer to make her what he was. “I haven’t had time to think about it.” She wasn’t sure if that was true or not, or if she just didn’t want to think about it.

“You don’t have long to decide,” Hew said. He didn’t say anything more about it.

The next day wasn’t stormy. The sky was clear and blue, and it would have been a nice day if they weren’t going to the island. It would have been a nice day if Riley and Suzie were there, if Aellis didn’t have control of Vallen, and if Umbris wasn’t plotting to spread across the world. Hew got them a small rowboat. Faith and Hew rowed in silence. Faith hadn’t slept much the night before, thinking about everything, and worrying about Suzie, Bradley, and Hannah. And worrying about Riley and Vallen.

By the time they reached the island, the sky was full of dark clouds. The sea was getting stormy, but the worst of the waves held off until they tied the boat to the dock. That was when the rain started. Maybe Umbris had let them get close. She didn’t like the thought of that. Faith and Hew started along the path among the trees, but they didn’t go to the front door of the house.

They went around to the side that faced the boathouse. Hew climbed the drainpipe first, to the window Faith had escaped from the last time. It wasn’t locked. Faith followed Hew into the dusty room as the rain came down harder.