Page 54 of The Iron Hex

“Yes.” Evangeline turned to her.

The silence crept over them again.

“Wh—”

“Ho—” They both tried to speak at the same moment, locking eyes with each other before breaking into twin fits of laughter.

“This is insane,” Eira gasped through her laughter.

“You’re telling me,” Evangeline chuckled. “I’ve been a rabbit moonlighting as a person for three years.”

Their laughter calmed, the two of them watching each other—Eira searching for something familiar, and Evangeline searching for something in her own right. Eira could imagine that at one point, before her memory had vanished, she might have been able to pick up what Evangeline had been thinking. But now? It was just a face she was making.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Evangeline said, breaking the silence. “When your memory didn’t come back.”

“You said it was only supposed to last half a year?”

“That’s what you told me,” Evangeline said. “I said I didn’t want you to cast it, that I thought there were other ways we could get around a truth-sense witch. You told me that there wasn’t, that it was the only way to make sure we weren’t caught... and by then we couldn’t get out of Cilirien without being questioned.”

Eira racked her brain desperately, trying to recall how a memory spell worked, but nothing came to her. That part ofher abilities was stuck behind the door she’d locked herself, so she couldn’t answer Evangeline’s questions about her own motivations those years ago.

“How did I even know how to do memory magic?” Eira asked as she rested her chin on her fist, still shocked that she had the capability at all.

Evangeline watched Eira for a moment before she answered. “Eira, there wasn’t a type of magic you couldn’t do.”

A shiver rolled down Eira’s spine—what did Evangeline mean?

“You’re telling me...”

“I don’t want to freak you out because I know how hard the other day was for you when you conjured the vines, but... Eira, you can do it all.”

“Oh,” she said, looking down at her hands, the hands she used to conjure vines and create potions and summon Beatrice. What did that make her? A witch without a specific type of magic wasn’t something Eira had ever heard of... maybe because they didn’t, or shouldn’t, exist.

“You told me you’d be back to being you in six months, and then you just... never came back to me,” Evangeline continued, her voice hitching and sad as she spoke, all that she had lost hanging between the two of them.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Turn back into a person and tell me everything Hugo told me?” Eira asked, her hands anxiously clasping and unclasping together as she thought about the implications of her power.

“I had a plan to... eventually. I just didn’t know how to tell you, or what we would do after I did, and then time passed, and you seemed happy. I was miserable, but safe. I was still figuring it all out when Hugo showed up.” Evangeline rolled her eyes before turning to Eira and leaning in. “I didn’t tell Hugo this because I wanted you to know first.”

“What?” Eira leaned back, shocked.

“I’ve been doing my own digging on my nights at the Honeyed Horn, and I’ve heard a rumor about a living memory witch in the northeast—near Luwha.” Luwha was on the other side of the country, close to the ports that traded with Osnia.

“Here’s what I’m thinking,” she said, turning and clasping her cold hands onto Eira’s. “We steal the horse—it clearly likes you. We ride to the witch, get your memory back, and then we flee to Osnia.”

Eira shook her head in disbelief. “What? Why would we leave Astra?”

“Because the country has outlawed your existence and already thinks I’m dead,” Evangeline answered, voice firm and resolute. “There’s nothing left for us here.”

“But Hugo was searching for you for a reason. Astra needs you,” Eira explained.

“Maybe I don’t want to be in Astra after what it did to my family.” Evangeline clenched her jaw, the muscle bulging at the mention of her family. It wasn’t an unreasonable ask for Evangeline to want to get out of Astra, but if she’d had this plan for so long, why didn’t she leave before?

“I don’t think that’s true,” Eira said, eyes narrowing. “You could have left at any time in the last three years, and I wouldn’t have known. Hugo would have found me, and we wouldn’t have found you. If you truly wanted to go to Osnia, you would have gone.”

Evangeline watched her silently, gaze hardening.

“You even exposed yourself to us...youmade that choice,” Eira continued. “I think it would be easier to flee to Osnia, but I don’t think you want to, truly.”