Baromund was as empty as it had been the first time they had passed through the city. It still made Seraiah’s skin crawl to see. Unlike Ratha, where she was used to seeing everything blanketed in a layer of white, this felt different somehow—sinister.

They decided to split up and search the buildings for supplies before the sun set for the night. While they still had plenty of food from Ratha, they didn’t know what might lie ahead of them on their journey to the capital.

Kestrel and Sterling were to take the northern half of the city, while Seraiah and Kai took the southern half. They would meet back at the inn—the one they’d stayed at all those months ago before the snow came to Baromund—by nightfall.

Seraiah touched the line on her throat where a mage’s blade had sliced her on her one and only night at the inn. There was hardly any mark left now, but she still knew exactly where it was. The spark of pain and terror remained fresh in her mind, as though it had happened yesterday.

She felt someone’s gaze on her and found Kai watching her with a knowing glint in his eyes, like he too, had been thinking of that night. He’d saved her from the mage, and it was the first time she’d thought he might not hate her as much as she’d thought.

Seraiah let her hand drop back to her side and watched Kestrel and Sterling ride off down the empty road. Sterling had taken Seraiah’s horse and, for someone who had never ridden by herself before, she appeared remarkably confident. Seraiah couldn’t help envying how fast she learned new things.

“Shall we go?” Kai asked, interrupting her thoughts. He used his reins to gesture to the horse waiting patiently behind him.

A single horse.

That they would have to share.

They hadn’t shared a horse since the first time she’d crossed through the portal between worlds.

Seraiah blinked. “I, uh, was thinking we could visit the nearby market. It’s only a short walk from here.”

“You’ve been before?”

She nodded. “With Kestrel. When we were here last time.”

Kai’s eyes dropped to her neck again, and he lifted his hand like he wanted to touch her, but at the last second dragged his fingers through his hair instead. “Then lead the way.”

The two of them picked their way carefully through the snow to the market. When they arrived, they found it in a similar state as the one in Ratha. All the stalls still had their wares on display, as though the sellers had merely stepped away for a moment and were planning to return soon. If not for the snow that had blown in, Seraiah could almost believe it.

“Why don’t we split up?” she suggested. “We’ll be able to cover more before it gets dark.”

“All right,” Kai agreed reluctantly, “but be careful. Shout if you need help. And here, take the horse, so you don’t have to carry everything.”

He passed her the reins, their fingers brushing, though this time they both wore gloves.

“I’ll meet you back here,” she said before leading the horse down the aisle.

It felt strange taking the animal with her, but there was plenty of room for them to walk without all the people.

Seraiah stepped up to the first stall that caught her eye. She still didn’t like taking things that did not belong to her. The horse figurine she’d swiped from Papa’s stall had been different. That hadn’t felt like stealing. Not like this.

But we need it more than these people, she reminded herself.

Brushing a bit of snow off the display, she found the stall sold cookware. Not exactly something they could easily take with them.

She left the horse in the aisle and ducked behind the stall to search for a coin box. It only held a few coins, but she emptied it into her hand before moving on to the next.

When she met with Kai again, they’d each collected an armful of items—Seraiah’s helpfully carried by Kai’s horse—and a few coin bags worth of coins. It seemed like a lot of money, but it would go fast in the capital if the stories were to be believed.

They’d both managed to find a good amount of dried meats that would travel well. There was also a bag of beans which they could use for trading if they didn’t cook it themselves. It seemed even if Kestrel and Sterling returned empty-handed, they would still have plenty.

“What’s this?” Seraiah asked as Kai passed her a glass bottle filled with frozen summer wine.

“A gift,” he said, “for Kestrel. I thought she might appreciate it. And maybe she’ll leave me alone.” He muttered this last bit under his breath, like he didn’t intend for Seraiah to hear it.

She wondered what Kestrel could be bothering Kai about. Likely about going back to Nyrene, Seraiah thought. Kai was the one most against making a return, and Kestrel wanted nothing more than to go back.

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Seraiah rubbed at the mark on her neck. Perhaps there was a way for Kestrel to get what she wanted and for Seraiah to seek out answers about the madness. They needed an army to take back Nyrene, and she’d told Sterling the dragons and the gnomes would be likely to help, but they’d need to seek them out.

She snuck a glance at Kai. He would never say yes to a plan where the four of them split up, but perhaps she could convince him it was for the best—without telling him about the madness, of course.

The sign for the hat shop that had been barely hanging on the last time they had visited had lost its battle with the elements and lay half buried in the snow outside the inn. It didn’t appear Kestrel and Sterling had returned yet, as they carried their finds inside the inn. Kai left her to sort things out while he went to stable his horse for the night.

The inside of the building was just as cold as the outside, since the front door didn’t quite shut anymore. Seraiah rubbed her hands over her arms as she looked around the main room that formerly served as a dining area. The tables scattered around in front of the large fireplace still held the left behind food, all of it frozen in place.

She pursed her lips as she stared at the mess. There was no point in cleaning it when they weren’t going to stay here for more than a night. All that mattered was that the guest rooms were serviceable and not freezing.

Seraiah found a candle behind the bar and made her way to the second floor. She quickly realized after checking several of the rooms that none of them had fireplaces. Baromund had a mild climate and didn’t often see snow, so there was no need to have a heat source in every room like they had in Ratha.

Seraiah returned downstairs, looking again at the large fireplace. They’d be warmer if they all stayed down here, even with the broken front door.

When Kai returned, snowflakes dusting his hair, she was still studying the room, trying to figure out if they could drag the straw mattresses from upstairs in front of the fire.

“Everything all right?” he asked.

Every thought fled her head as she watched him use his teeth to pull one of his gloves off and brush away the snow clinging to him.

She blinked. “I-what?”

He tucked the gloves away in to a pocket. “Is everything all right? You were standing there looking rather concerned.”

“Oh, um,” she turned back to the fireplace, “I was just trying to figure out if we could move the mattresses down here since none of the upstairs rooms have heating. Unless you don’t mind the cold, in which case we could leave the mattresses where they are and then we could ignore all of this.” She was aware she was babbling, but she couldn’t seem to make her mouth stop moving.

“I would prefer to be warm,” Kai said from much closer than he had been before.

A gust of cold air rushed into the room as Kestrel and Sterling pushed inside. “Oh, good, you’re back already,” Sterling said, stamping her boots on the floor to dislodge the snow. “Look what I found.”

Seraiah squinted. They looked like slightly bigger versions of her dagger without the ornate details. “Did Kestrel give them to you?”

“No, I told you, I found them.”

“I had nothing to do with it,” Kestrel said, setting a large bag of coins on the closest table, and heading for the fireplace. “She found them hanging in someone’s study.”

“Can you believe someone would use these for decoration?” Sterling asked.

Kai was frowning at her, but didn’t say anything.

Seraiah crossed the room and took one of the blades from Sterling. They were rusted in spots, but when she ran her finger along the edge, she found it was still sharp.

“What do you plan to do with these?” she asked, passing the weapon back to Sterling.

“Use them. All of you have your own. I thought I deserved some too. These will do until I can get something better. What about you? Did you find anything good?”

Seraiah pointed to their pile of items. “Food and coin. No weapons, unfortunately. But Kai did find a gift for Kestrel.”

Kestrel had been poking at the logs in the fireplace, using her magic to get a fire started, but she perked up at the mention of a gift. “Oh, for me? What is it?”

Seraiah lifted the bottle of summer wine.

Kestrel eyed the bottle. “Only one? I hope you don’t expect me to share.”

“There were more,” Kai said, “but we need you to be able to ride tomorrow.”

“Well, thank you for thinking of me. I’m certainly going to need something to help me sleep tonight. I didn’t want to say anything earlier, but this place feels off somehow, and I don’t mean because the people are missing.”

Seraiah had noticed the same thing. Ratha didn’t feel like this, but she’d thought it was only because she was used to Ratha and Baromund was a new place. “If it helps,” she said, “I thought we could drag the mattresses down here in front of the fireplace since none of the upstairs rooms have a way to heat them, so you won’t have to sleep alone.”

“Excellent idea,” Kestrel said. “If Sterling and Kai want to figure out our evening meal, I’ll help you with the mattresses.”

There was a grumble from Kai as Kestrel linked her arm through Seraiah’s and headed for the stairs. Sterling didn’t seem to have heard Kestrel because she was too busy looking over her new blades.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Seraiah asked as they climbed the steps. Neither of them had brought the candle, so the lighting was dim. “Leaving those two in charge of our meal?”

“It’ll be fine. They’ll never improve if they don’t practice, but also I wanted to get you alone to ask you about something.”

Seraiah braced herself, expecting a question about Sterling or Kai.

Instead, Kestrel said, “Did you know the thing on your neck has grown again?”

“What?” Seraiah’s free hand flew up to touch the side of her neck.

“Have you noticed?”

“I try not to look at it,” she admitted, “but it’s been itching lately, and I sometimes catch myself touching it without realizing.”

“Has it always itched?”

Seraiah shook her head. “Only when we were in Ratha. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve felt it since we left or right before we left. It was bothering me that night when Sterling suggested we leave and then nothing since.”

“Interesting.”

They stopped outside the first room.

“Do you think it means something?” Seraiah asked, pushing open the door.

“Might only be coincidence,” Kestrel said, bending to pick up the corner of the mattress. “Hard to say without knowing anything about the mark other than it was left by a necromancer. If I had to guess, I would say he is using it to get you to do something.”

“Do something?” she echoed, lifting the other side of the mattress. “Like what?”

“Like come to him. You said the itching stopped as soon as we decided to leave Ratha and head for Daralis, and then Sterling mentioned the other night about searching for him there. Perhaps another coincidence.”

Seraiah thought about it as they carried the mattress downstairs and then returned for another.

“What if it’s not a coincidence,” she said quietly as they hefted the second mattress and moved for the stairs. “What do you think he wants?”

Kestrel smiled grimly. “Guess we’re going to find out.”