Jeremy twitched in his arms, grunting in pain.

“Don’t—” Rafe said, but it was too late. Jeremy twisted hard and yanked the arrow from his back. It had landed under his right shoulder blade, not the left, thus missing his heart.

“Jay? Jay, talk to me.”

Jeremy collapsed onto his side in the fetal position, face white with pain.

“Can’t…breathe.”

“Hold on. Just hold on.” Rafe called the horses over. Freddy went down on his knees like a show pony and Rafe helped Jeremy onto his back. He mounted behind Jeremy to hold him as they rode. Though it was agony for Jeremy, there was no time to be gentle. They raced to the palace, and as he passed through the gates, Rafe called out for help.

Soon they were surrounded.

“Get him into the palace,” Skya ordered. “Now. Carefully.”

Rafe and the Valkyries lifted him—sixteen arms like a stretcher carried him to the queen’s morning room. Ola, the healer woman, kicked them all out but Skya. Even Rafe and Emilie were made to wait outside. Behind the closed door, he listened. Jeremy coughed and it was a terrible liquid sound.

“He’ll be all right,” Emilie said. “I know he’ll be all right. He has to be.”

“How do you know?” Rafe barely knew what he was saying.

Emilie didn’t answer, only held on to him. Jeremy’s soft gasps of pain were music to his ears. They meant he was alive.

Then suddenly it was quiet.

“No,” Rafe said. Just that. Only one quiet no. He started to fall. Only Emilie’s arms held him up.

Skya opened the door.

“He’s alive,” she said. “They’ve given him something to ease the pain. But he doesn’t have very long.”

The words poisoned the air. Rafe could barely breathe.

“You mean he’ll die?” Emilie asked. Her voice was sharp as a sword. “Jeremy can’t die. No, no. That can’t happen. There has to be something. There has to be—”

“The Witch?” Rafe asked.

“Too far,” Skya said. “He won’t make it that long.”

“How long do we have?” Rafe asked her.

She stared at him. When she spoke, she sounded like a judge delivering a life sentence. Better, though, than a death sentence.

“Long enough to get him to a hospital,” Skya said.

“Home,” Rafe said. Of course. Home. Hospitals. Doctors. Surgeons.

“The Painted Sea—” he began. He remembered now how long it had taken them to get home the last time. Two nights and two days.

“No,” Skya said. “He won’t make the sea crossing either. There is another way out, much closer, but—”

“We’ll take it,” Rafe said. “What is it?”

Skya lowered her voice. “Your father’s soul is in the Ghost Town. It would have made a tear between our worlds when he passed through. You can use it to get back home. A day’s ride to the entrance. An hour or two through the Ghost Town.”

“The Bright Boys will swarm us,” he said. “I can’t fight this fear.”

“You can. It’s not courage that repels them most. It’s love. Love casts out fear.”

He was sweating with panic. “You sure about that?”

“I read it somewhere. Sounds good, right?” she said, smiling through her tears. “Now go talk Jeremy into leaving. I’ll get the horses saddled.”

Rafe pushed open the door. The healer had Jeremy’s shirt off and was wrapping his chest in white linen bandages. Jeremy’s face was gray, and blood flecked his lips. She finished bandaging him and came over to his side.

“A hole in his lung, Highness,” the healer said quietly to Rafe. “He’s drowning in his own blood. This wound is beyond my powers.”

“I understand,” he said. “Thank you.”

She walked out and left them alone together.

Rafe went down on his knees in front of Jeremy and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He couldn’t seem to take a full breath.

“Verdict?” Jeremy gasped.

“You’re going to be fine,” Rafe said.

“Liar.”

“You will. We’re going home. You’ll have surgery.”

“No, we can’t. If we leave, we can’t—” He paused to gulp air. “Come back.”

“I don’t care.”

“I do. You’re a prince here. You’re…You belong here. If I’m going to die, Rafe, let me die here—”

“Listen. Listen to me.” Rafe put his hands on Jeremy’s face, forced him to meet his eyes. “There’s something I remembered that you forgot. I was lost. That day we met? The day you saw me drawing my stupid coyote in my notebook? I was already so lost. If you hadn’t found me, I could’ve ended up just like my father. Do you understand that? And remember you said you could always sense where I was because deep down I knew I belonged here, that this was home. That’s not why. I wasn’t lost because I wasn’t here. I was lost because I’m lost without you. All this time, I’ve been lost without you, and you were the only one who could ever find me. And if you die, I will be lost forever.”

Brothers. Lovers. Best friends. Partners in crime. Cellmates. Soul mates. There was no bond that bound hearts that did not bind theirs.

“You,” Rafe whispered in his ear, “are my kingdom. Where you are is where I belong. And I did remember that I loved you all this time. I just forgot I remembered. I’ll never forget it again. And as long as we’re here, I outrank you, so when I say we’re going home, you say—”

“Time to go.”

“Right, right. Exactly,” Rafe said. “Time to go.”

From the doorway, Skya shouted, “Valkyries! Now!”