Cara gasped, and air rushed in. She clutched at the arrow in her chest only to find it gone, the wound and searing pain with it. Her skin in front and back of her heart tingled as if freshly healed, and the floor greeted her with the smooth bark of the Forest, not cold granite.

  She opened her eyes to Ted kneeling beside her. His watery eyes widened, and his trembling lips parted and stilled.

  Ted.

  Thorns wrapped around her heart and cold vines slithered through her limbs.

  Ted.

  The vines erupted in flames. She scrambled back. Away from the Hero. Away from the Emperor’s son. Away from the outsider who ripped her away from all she loved.

  His face turned to stone and his eyes dulled. The lump in his throat bobbed and he opened his mouth as if to speak, yet said nothing.

  Ted. The man who fought a gorilla for Tolabar. Who helped her save Gramok. Who ended slavery in Hallowed Falls.

  She pulled her legs up to her chest and tugged them tight, staring at the man she didn’t know.

  No. The world closed in around her. He wasn’t the stranger here.

  She gazed at him, pleaded with her eyes, begged for what she did not know.

  The stiffness in his posture fell away. He crawled over, unslung his pack, and sat against the wall beside her, holding up his hand as an offering.

  An offer. Not a demand. An offer she could say no or yes to.

  Her head slumped down, and she curled into an ever-smaller ball, each beat of her heart making a new demand.

  Run away. Take his hand. Stab him in the chest. Kiss him on the cheek. Jump to her feet and pace the room.

  She did none of those things. Just sat there beside him, staring down at the lap of a stranger.

  And he sat beside her, waiting patiently for the Cara he knew.

  She pulled her legs in tighter. The Cara that wasn’t a complete failure.

  Ted opened up his pack. There was a brief scurry, and then tiny paws scrambled up onto her shoulder, and a wet little nose poked her neck.

  Nibbles. He’d kept her safe. Kept her alive when Cara had let her down. When she’d…

  Her hand shot to her chest, to the hole in her armor over smooth, unblemished skin.

  The armor needed fixing.

  “I died.” The words came out quiet, barely spoken at all.

  “You did.” He said it like it was nothing. Just another day on the forest floor. “Try not to make it a habit.”

  A giggle died in her throat. She pulled up her chin and looked him in the eyes. There was a sparkle there, a prideful joy that rarely graced him, and she found herself smiling. “You did it, didn’t you?”

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  “We did it.” His gaze darted away. “Mostly, anyway.”

  “Tell me.” She leaned her head upon his shoulder. “Please.”

  He spoke of many things. Of the System and updates, of Gok and Death, of terrible bargains and dreadful curses. Of how his father was taken, and how Ted himself was stolen away to her world. Of his fight with Alenia, and the trapping of his father and the deposing salvation of the Emperor. Of fixing a world that was broken.

  When at last he fell silent, Cara took his hand and squeezed. “Thank you. For everything.”

  Yet he shook his head and cast her hand off, and spoke words more terrible still. Of a world built for Heroes. Of Heroes warping the world by their presence. Of Heroes bending Companions to their whims. Of orders that could not be refused.

  Cara stared ahead at the smooth bark of the ruins, mustering the courage to croak out the question hanging like a tree-slaughter’s axe. “And now?”

  “The update fixed it, or should have done. You’re free to disobey my orders now. Or would be…”

  “Would be?”

  “There’s one last obstacle before you’re free to disobey my orders,” he said, with a flat solemnity that wouldn’t fool a rishnik. “Would you like that?”

  She tilted her head. This was a trick, of course it was, but what was his game? Ted would never be so casual about controlling her mind, so that meant…

  Their eyes met, and he grinned. “So?”

  “It suits you better, Keeper.”

  “I could quit,” he said. “Make you Keeper by default.”

  “I’d quit too. Let the Tolabar rangers end like the village itself.”

  “You wouldn’t. Not when the spell to heal the Forest is in the next room.”

  “Try me.”

  Ted grimaced. “You should probably know first that I inducted a couple of new Lookouts into the Tolabar Rangers.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Who?”

  “The dwarves of Valbort were rather more keen on decapitating the former Emperor and his Assassin-in-Chief than in letting them pass.”

  Her stomach clenched. “She murdered me.”

  “She had orders she was bound to obey.”

  “His orders.”

  “He’s not like that, not now. Death’s bargains… they change you.”

  Cara hesitated, and her mind raced back to Ted’s dismissive grunts after being dashed against the roof of the Hub. “What’s he like?”

  “Thoughtful. Nice, even when he’s not kind. Bit of an obsessive problem solver, fortunately.”

  “Sounds familiar.”

  He shot her a glare for an instant before turning away with a wry little smile. “Guess you’re not wrong.”

  “Am I ever?”

  “Do you really want an answer to that?”

  She squeezed his hand. “Thank you for bringing me back.”

  “You’re welcome.” He bit at his lip. “Don’t make it a habit, I mean it.”

  “Wise. I’ve got a Soul Weakness debuff for a week.” She shifted awkwardly, a long-forgotten history lecture from Reltan surfacing. “It cost a soul, didn’t it?”

  He nodded slowly and let out a long sigh.

  “That slaver thug, right?” A lump formed in Cara’s throat. “The one you tortured to death?”

  He leaned his head back against the wall, and tension tightened throughout him. “Yeah.”

  She lay beside him, her mind racing with all he’d spoken of. “We all exist in a great machine, right? So, the space, the ‘memory’ he used, that will be recycled, and used for a future child?”

  For a while, Ted said nothing, not even acknowledging the question, until, at last, he nodded. “Close enough.”

  She cuddled tighter into him. “Then thank you, my darling Keeper.”

  He wrapped his arm around her. “Lookout. I resign with immediate effect.”

  “That so?”

  “Yup.”

  “Then as my first official act—” she kissed him on the cheek “—I pronounce you Prowler.”

  “Thank you.” He flashed her a smile tinged with sadness. “I shall endeavor to be less of a pain in the ass than the last Prowler of Tolabar.”

  “You’re the worst.”

  “Love you too.” He sighed again, and glanced at the exit. “We should probably get going. The Destroyer’s making his move against the Forest.”

  Wild panic flushed through Cara like wildfire and she sat bolt upright. “The Destroyer’s here?”

  “His army’s closing in. Gramok’s marshaled what allies he can, they’re camped outside.”

  Cara jumped to her feet, drawing a panicked squeak from Nibbles. “Then what are you waiting for? Let’s go shoot the Destroyer in the neck.”