Skya almost cracked a smile. “Don’t be a brat.”

Emilie ate a few of the berries, hardly tasting them. Then she laid the blanket on the ground. She stretched out on her side with Fritz curled up in her hoodie pouch.

“I thought you’d be happy to see me. Like, hug me or something?”

Skya tossed a log onto the fire, and it hissed and crackled. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” Emilie asked.

“I might not let go.”

“Then don’t let go.”

“I have to be queen before I can be your sister. Now get some sleep.”

Emilie tried very hard not to cry herself to sleep, and she succeeded. Almost.

Chapter Twenty-One

Rafe urged Sparrowhawk into a gallop. As the final pink and red rays of the day’s sunlight streaked across the sky, they reached the Moonstone Palace.

He rode into the courtyard, then halted. He was too dazzled to do anything but stare. The palace looked more like a medieval castle. A tower at each corner of the palace stood four stories high, banners flying. The white stone exterior shimmered red and gold as the sun set. And here, the bustle of the courtyard, women in armor guiding horses to stone stables, and steps that led to two enormous doors, big enough to ride an elephant through. He didn’t even notice Jeremy come up to him until he spoke.

“Rafe? You all right? You disappeared,” Jeremy said.

He looked down. Jeremy held Sparrowhawk’s bridle. By torchlight, sweating, hair damp, face dirty, he looked like a stranger, like a soldier. No, like a knight.

Rafe said, “We have another problem.”

Quickly, he told Jeremy about his encounter with the Bright Boy who called himself Ripper.

“There are no kings in Shanandoah,” Jeremy said. “That doesn’t make any sense. He didn’t say what he wants with you?”

“Only that I have to come as soon as possible or else.”

“God, I hate Bright Boys,” Jeremy said. “Bad enough they terrorize you, but they’re also incredibly annoying.”

His eyes were bright with fury and frustration, but also, Rafe could tell, a touch of bloodthirsty pleasure.

“You want to kill them?” Rafe asked.

“So, so much,” Jeremy said.

“Who are we killing?” Tempest asked. Rafe dismounted his horse and faced her.

“Bright Boys,” Rafe said. “One showed up and demanded I visit his king in the Ghost Town. Can you translate that?”

She growled like a wolf, then said, “I can. Unfortunately. Let’s go to the queen’s salon, and I’ll tell you everything I…I’m allowed to tell you.”

“Give us five minutes,” Jeremy said to her. Then to Rafe, he said, “Come on. First things first.”

Rafe gave the horse over to a stable girl and followed Jeremy up the stone steps of the palace and through the open front doors. He stopped abruptly, seized by a sudden and overwhelming sensation of déjà vu. It nearly knocked him to his knees, this feeling of familiarity, like walking into his mother’s house and smelling the perfume of his childhood again. He turned a slow circle.

An iron chandelier dripping with white candles revealed intricate tapestries hanging on the stone walls. Unicorns and griffins danced around maypoles and red stags raced across meadows knee-high in rainbow-hued wildflowers. Arched entryways led to darkened rooms with beamed ceilings. He walked to one door and looked in. A banquet hall held long tables and the largest fireplace he’d ever seen. He could have stood inside the hearth.

A grandfather clock in a sitting room gave a low chime of the hour, and Rafe knew he’d heard that sound before.

“Jay…” he breathed. “This is…”

“Home,” Jeremy said from behind him. “Right? Feels like coming home.”

Rafe raised his hand to touch a silk wolf embroidered into one of the tapestries. A delicate black beast that bowed to a young woman wearing a crown of antlers. “Home sweet home.”

“Come on. We’ll take the tour later. This way,” Jeremy said. He waved him on and Rafe followed.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“To find your book. I’m guessing it’s in the library. Good place for a book, right?” Jeremy was almost running down the hallways, though Rafe kept stopping every few steps to take it all in. Every time they passed a torch it would flicker to life. When they reached the library, another chandelier overhead suddenly lit up with dozens of burning candles. Rafe turned in a circle. Books sat in dark wooden cases as far as the eye could see. He inhaled the scent of leather bindings, old glue, paper and ink.

“All right…” Jeremy said as he checked podiums and plinths and display cases. “If I were a magic book full of memories, where would I be—”

“It’s gone. Stolen.”

Rafe turned around and saw Winter standing in the doorway.

“Stolen?” Rafe’s stomach fell through the floor.

She walked to a red curtain and pulled it back to reveal a niche in the stone wall. Shards of glass lay on purple velvet.

“A Bright Boy broke in and forced the lock two days ago, shattered the glass box into a million pieces. Somewhere in the Ghost Town, there is someone or something calling himself their king. He wanted your memories,” Winter said. “We don’t know why, only that Queen Skya is pursuing him there. She swears she will bring the book back to you, but until then, you both must stay in the palace and not leave again until it’s safe.”

“Why?” Jeremy asked, stepping toward her. “We always fought by her side. Why would we let her fight alone now?”

“Because she knows who this king is.” Winter dropped the curtain. “He’s an old, old enemy of the prince’s, and she says it’s too dangerous for the prince to face him.”

“Who?” Rafe demanded. “I have an old enemy here?”

“I don’t remember anyone,” Jeremy said. “Everyone kills Bright Boys. They can come back to life, but they usually don’t hold grudges. Like Skya says, they’re all wheel, no hamster.”

“I would say if I knew,” Winter said, “but I only know what Queen Skya told us.”

“Could your memories have been erased or locked away too?” Rafe asked Jeremy.

“I don’t remember that, but I suppose I wouldn’t.” Jeremy shook his head. “What about Emilie? Can you tell us where she is?”

Winter sighed. “The queen is taking her somewhere safer. I know nothing else.” She knew nothing else, but it seemed she wanted to say something else. She opened her mouth but closed it again.

“On the ride here, Ripper showed himself to Rafe and said the king wants to see him,” Jeremy told her.