“Nel!” Eli hurled himself through his doorway and bolted straight for her room. “Nel, I’ve got it. I’ve got the answer!” His searching mind made no contact with her aura, and a quick glance into her room told him she wasn’t there.

He paused, calming his excited thoughts, and focused his attention, pushing into every room of the house. When his thoughts entered the great room, he found a familiar presence there, but not hers.

His stomach plummeted.

“Ana?” He crept back slowly toward the balcony and looked down.

She stood in the front room, her brown hair loose and floating about her face. She stared hard at the glowstone in her hands. “Funny,” she said without looking up. “You’re standing exactly where I found your little mistress. Nel, isn’t it?” She shot him a glare. “Guess it was a name after all.”

“She’s not my mistress,” Eli said.

“She fed me that same lie. If she’s not your mistress, what’s she doing here, wearing your clothes, living in your house?”

Eli sighed and rubbed his hands down his face.

“Ana, I really wish you would have stayed out of this. It’s not like that.”

“Stayed out of it? I wandered into it. I just came by to see you, and I find this pretty little nymph hiding in your house. What was I supposed to think?”

“Where is she?”

Ana slammed the glowstone down on the table. “You’re seriously more worried about her than me? Excuse me. I’m the one who’s been betrayed here.”

“Ana, this is serious.”

“I know it is!”

Eli hurried down the ramp and to the doorway.

“Where are you running off to now?”

“Ana, I need to know where she is. She could be killed if I don’t find her.”

“That’s the same cock-and-bull story she told me.”

“It’s true.”

“Who’s going to kill her? She’s nothing but a little peasant woman who obviously doesn’t even have the decency to wear proper clothes-”

“She’s a human, Ana.”

Finally, blessedly, Ana was silent.

Eli turned back to face her. “She’s very important to Dom for her sister’s sake. If Dad or anyone else sees her, she could be killed.”

“Her…sister?”

“Yes. Dom’s so-called queen. He’s using Nel as bait to get Mil to come back. Dom told me that unless I did this for him I wouldn’t get my Guardianship back.” Eli held his hands out, leaving the guards of his mind open.

She peered at him, felt his aura, saw the truth in his words. Her eyes widened. She looked at the floor, then back at him. Her aura was still tumultuous, but no longer angry.

“That’s unbelievable.”

“Believe it or not, it’s true. Now tell me where she is.”

*

Eli picked his way, searching, along the outer path. He kept his eyes trained on the dark corners and shadows that fell outside the soft light of the glowstones along the streets.

“Nel.” He called for her, narrowing his thoughts so that only she could hear.

A faint echo of violet moonlight greeted his attempt, somewhere near the outer edge of the city, though he sensed her recognition and lost the glimpse. She was scared. She didn’t want to be found.

Neither fact mattered to Eli, because that glimpse was enough to pinpoint where she was. He set off, glad that she’d chosen a hiding place where she’d be much less likely to be spotted by passers-by.

A twinge of fear pushed him faster as he neared her approximate location, between two tunnel entries on the far side of the city. What if she had been seen? What if she’d been threatened?

He stopped where he’d felt her presence and wasn’t surprised to see the spot vacant. He glanced around and saw a shadow lurking two tunnels down. When he started moving, it did too, and it ducked within the archway closest to it.

“Nel.”

The moonlight refused to respond.

Irritated now, he sprinted towards where she’d disappeared and threw himself around the archway.

Nel ran with a lopsided gait, casting wild glances behind her. Her pace was slow— Eli could catch her easily. Instead, he called out to her again.

“How long do you plan on running?”

No response.

“This is what we Tognir call the ‘lost’ tunnel. You know why?”

Her running slowed even more. She was tired.

“It doesn’t go anywhere. It just goes on and on for leagues, with nothing but glowstone mines to break up the scenery.”

She didn’t stop moving, though her limp got worse and worse.

“I see you hurt yourself. You could’ve been seen. Could’ve been killed. Then where would we be?”

“Leave me alone!” Her voice was faint and shrill. She fell, and the heaviness of her nearly-Tognir frame made her feel it.

Eli strode down the tunnel to where she sat and crossed his arms. She didn’t try to run again, for which Eli was grateful— he’d almost forgotten his fatigue from the day, but now it rushed back on him full force.

“Running off without a plan isn’t exactly the smartest thing to do when you’re in new territory.”

“What else was I supposed to do?” Nel sobbed. “I couldn’t have stayed there. Ana would have had the house searched. I would’ve been found and killed.”

“So you are afraid of death,” Eli said. “Wonder of wonders!”

Nel didn’t respond.

Eli looked at her with a sickening feeling of pity. “How’d you hurt yourself?”

“I’m not hurt.”

Eli nudged the ankle in question with his foot.

Pain blossomed in vibrant lime greens on her moonlight, and she swatted his leg. “Ow!”

“Again, I ask. How did you hurt yourself?”

She glared at him.

Eli’s irritation resurged. “Or you can just sit here and wallow in self-pity.” He shrugged and began to walk away.

“I got it caught in somebody’s fish net,” she grumbled.

Eli stopped and looked back. She still looked defiant, but violet had all but swallowed the dark turquoise pride in her aura.

“Now was that so hard?”

Her bottom lip began to quiver. She tucked it between her teeth and stared at the ground.

Eli sighed and stepped back towards her. “Why’re you so angry? I’m just trying to help you.”

“I’ve just been chased out of your house by your angry girlfriend, nearly broke my ankle tripping over somebody’s stupid fishnet, and spent the last hour or so wandering around lost and afraid for my life.”

Eli nodded. “Point taken.”

Nel looked at him and snorted. “The last thing I expected out of this whole hostage situation was to be yelled at by a jealous noblewoman.”

Eli chuckled.

“That’s Ana for you. Always getting into business she shouldn’t.”

Nel peered at him, her thoughts churning. Her eyes held a curious light. “You’re using her to boost your own ego. You’re trying to compensate for something.”

A pang of orange indignation pulsed through Eli. “That’s crazy. Ana’s my best friend.”

“It’s not crazy. It’s true.”

Eli crossed his arms. “This conversation is over.”

“She makes you look good in front of the other nobles. She encourages you and makes you feel like you’re worth something. She gives you good feelings. Isn’t that right?”

Eli shook his head and gave a short laugh.

“You remind me of-” He cut himself off.

Nel glanced at him. “Of your mother. I know.”

Eli looked at her hard. She smiled, just barely.

“I’m not as stupid as you would like to think. I can see it every time you look at me. You’re thinking of someone you’ve lost. I know that look, believe me.” She made to stand up. “That’s why you’re helping me, and that’s why you’re toying with the idea of being with Ana. Because in some way, we both remind you of her.” Her aura erupted in sharp lime greens, and she crumpled back to the ground.

Eli knelt beside her. “Quit trying to get up.”

She sucked in a sharp breath and stared at him.

Eli stared back. He couldn’t deny her words any more than he could deny Mom’s love.

“You’re right.” Eli looked at the ground. “My mom is…” He gulped back the burning sensation in his nose and looked at her, at the dark, dark hair swirling over her shoulders. “She was everything to me. She’s everything to Dad. And we can’t let what happened to her happen to anybody else.” He shook his head. “I can’t keep lying to Dad about you, but I can’t let you die. He would kill you if he knew you were here. But Mom would tell me to save you if I could. She was always like that, full of pity for everyone, even the sacrifice victims.”

“Sacrifice?” Nel’s aura flashed beige as Dom’s threat echoed in her mind. “So the sacrifice is a normal thing.”

“It’s what keeps the kingdom from being destroyed. If we don’t have one…” Eli fought to keep back Mom’s bruised and bloodied image and failed. The burning surged against his nose and eyes, forcing him to hide his face as it contorted with pain.

Nel drew in a little breath. Her aura glowed baby blue.

The pressure of her hand on his shoulder startled him, but he didn’t pull away. His mind was unguarded, and he knew she saw what he saw. But there was no shame in his grief, no corruption in sharing it with her.

Her aura burned bright and approached his.

Eli withdrew from the radiance. It threatened to overpower him, as human as it was, but something in him yearned for it, yearned for the comfort of Mom’s reflection.

He peeked at Nel through his hands. Her green eyes found his, and they were soft, understanding, reflecting his grief.

She nodded and squeezed his shoulder.

Eli shut his eyes and reached for her aura.

Blue-black brilliance flooded his mind. Her humanity engulfed his grief and confirmed it, and instead of numbing the pain like he was so used to, gave it permission to be, and augmented his pain with another like it.

Her dad. Mom. They were the same. They’d suffered the same loss. Their grief was identical.

He let their mingled desolation pulse through him and tear his composure to pieces, let it rub raw every nerve end in his body.

The burning in his eyes strengthened until his shoulders shook with the pain of it. Her hand shook on his shoulder as she wept with him, though its comforting pressure remained steady. He didn’t know how long they stayed there, but he didn’t release her aura until his mind was empty and his heart was full.

He drew in a shuddering breath. Her hand slipped away, and as she retreated to her own mind, Eli reeled in her aura’s sudden absence. He caught himself against the tunnel wall.

“Are you okay?”

Eli shook himself. “Yeah.” He got to his feet as his mind righted itself. “Let’s get you home.” Remembering his discovery, he gave a small smile. “I have a lot to tell you.”

“I can’t walk,” she reminded him.

He slipped his arm around her shoulders and lifted.

As she put her weight on her ankle, her aura erupted in pain again. She stood on her good foot and bit her lip to keep from crying, then looked at him.

He finally met her gaze. She couldn’t hobble back like this. “Can you swim?”

She frowned. “Not likely. Not with all this extra weight I’m not used to.”

He knew what he’d have to do. Steeling himself, he bent and scooped her into his arms.

She stiffened. “No, no, you don’t have to-”

“Actually, I do. Unless you’d prefer to walk home flamingo style.”

She frowned. Her rose-violet aura shrunk away from his.

He raised an eyebrow at her and shrugged, though his heart beat like steady thunder in his ears. “Your choice.”

In answer, she draped one arm around his neck and nodded.

Eli smiled despite himself. Bubbles danced in his stomach as he looked at her. Her face was within inches of his, illuminated by that deep, dark beauty he’d seen in her so many times before.

She looked back, her emerald eyes glinting in surprise.

Beautiful. Just like Mom.

He looked away and started walking, ignoring the bubbles and dodging the light of the glowstones along the path.

*

“So that’s it. We just go through the Threshold…thing…and I’ll be human again?”

Eli pulled some cloth tight around Nel’s ankle and fastened it with a sharp, thin stone.

“That’s what it seems like,” he replied. He stood and stretched his neck. “It worked for your sister, so it should work for you, too. It might take some time to adjust, but you’d be alright.”

He hoped.

Nel sat biting her lip. Her eyelids drooped, though her thoughts flashed like mad through her mind. She finally looked at him, her green eyes wide.

“Are you sure about this?”

Eli stared back at her. Of course he wasn’t sure. He didn’t fully understand why he trusted the scribe, but part of it was that he simply didn’t have the time to question it.

“No,” he said, “but it’s our only option.”

Nel shifted. Her foot smacked the edge of the divan and she winced.

“You’ll need to prop it up on something.” Eli saw her lone blanket and went to his room, rolling up his own blanket into a makeshift pillow.

“You don’t have to do that,” she said, though she didn’t stop him as he tucked the roll under her ankle.

“Actually, I do. Get some sleep,” he told her, and gave a crooked smile. “Tomorrow’s going to be a big day.”

He turned to leave and glanced back as he reached the doorway.

Nel fought with her blanket, trying to get it unfolded without moving her ankle. Her pained grimace told him she was losing.

He chuckled.

She glanced up at him, dropped the blanket on the floor, and crossed her arms. “I don’t want it anyway.”

“You don’t lie well.” Eli crossed the room to pick it up. He almost handed it back to her, but he knew she’d either fight with it until she hurt herself worse or give up and spend the night shivering.

Knowing she’d resent it, he shook the folds out of the blanket and spread it over her.

She blinked in surprise.

He bent and tucked the edges of the blanket under both feet, taking extra care not to jostle her injured ankle. Straightening, he looked at her, reading her body language instead of her moonlight.

Her wide eyes regarded him with something between confusion and shock. Even in the dim light of the glowstone he could see a tinge of pink on her face. Her arms weren’t crossed anymore; instead she hugged herself. When their eye contact lingered for longer than normal, she looked away, her lips pursed in an attempt to hide a shy smile.

This surprised Eli. He couldn’t help it; he pushed out and found her moonlight, a perplexing mix of violet fear and gold.

She looked back up at him, found him still staring, and laughed.

“Thank you, kind sir. Now you may go, please, so I can sleep.”

The warm laughter in her voice, the crinkled up-turn of her eyes, struck him speechless for a moment. He was so used to receiving her venom and cold hatred. Yet her moonlight showed none of it.

Her eyes danced with glee. She was speaking to him— not her sister, not her mother, but him.

Her smile faded after a moment. Her moonlight flashed in concern.

“Are you okay?”

Eli took in a deep breath and shook himself.

“I’m…I’m fine.” He couldn’t get the image of her smile out of his head. The bubbles he’d felt carrying her home returned full force, and he shook himself again. He felt giddy, lightheaded. “I’m fine.” He headed towards the doorway. “Let me know if you need anything.”

“Eli.”

He stopped. It was the first time she’d actually used his name. He ignored the sudden rush he felt with a kind of hurried mental violence.

“Yes?” He turned back to look at her.

“I never thought I’d say this, but…” Nel twisted her hands in her lap. “Thank you.”

Eli chuckled and, without thinking, gave his most elegant bow.

“No. Thank you.”

He noted the confusion on her face and hurried from her room. He had to force himself to lie down despite his fatigue. He knew what was happening and he couldn’t let it happen. He couldn’t even give it a name. He just had to fight it. Respect was one thing.

But this was a whole new monster entirely, one that threatened to devour everything he held dear, everything he’d hoped for and worked for.

He wrestled the monster, roaring ceaseless thoughts of her, until finally his exhaustion dragged him into a fitful sleep.