Page 38 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

Heike eyed them with vague disgust. She cast her eyes around the group as though searching for a target for her annoyance. Predictably, she landed on Lorelei. “So. You can use magic.”

Her tone was conversational, but it dripped with sickly sweet poison. Lorelei’s stomach twisted as her father’s warning rang in her ears.You must never do that where anyone can see.

For years, she had been exceedingly careful. Onemistake—onefoolish act ofselflessness—wasall it took to jeopardize everything. It was one thing for people to suspect you were a monster. It was another thing entirely to hand them proof.

She could not tear her gaze away from Johann’s sword, glinting in the pale moonlight. Her voice kept miraculously steady when she said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh?” Heike curled her lip. “My eyes deceived me, then.”

“I didn’t see anything,” Ludwig interjected.

“I did. She channeled aether.” Johann had removed his glasses and set to drying them with the corner of his shirt. When he replaced them on the bridge of his nose, Lorelei could not read his expression at all. Begrudgingly, he said, “However, her quick thinking likely saved your life.”

The force of Lorelei’s gratitude startled her. It took a moment for her mind to catch up with the fact that Johann zu Wittelsbach, a supporter of the Hounds, had defended her. “What did you say?”

Heike’s mouth hinged open. “Are you feeling quite well?She’s—”

“A witch, yes.” Johann’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “Evenso—”

“No, you superstitiousoaf. She’s a liar.” Heike advanced a step toward Lorelei and raked her gaze across her face. “Isn’t that right, Lori? How terribly convenient for you to let us believe you were the only one who couldn’t have killed her.”

“Tread carefully,” Lorelei replied lowly, “before you say something you regret.”

“Can we let this go?” Ludwig sounded uncharacteristically desperate. “At least until we’re out of the cold. I’d like to keep all my fingers if possible.”

After an agonizing few moments, Heike sighed, and the anger bled out of her. “Fine.”

“There’s surely a bright side to all this,” Ludwig tried. “At least we still have the map?”

“We don’t. Or a dowsing machine, for that matter.” Heike wrung her wet hair out like a dish towel. With false cheer, she added, “We’re well and truly fucked. I hope you’re pleased with yourselves.”

Adelheid let out an irritated sound. This was the most ruffled Lorelei had ever seen her. Her dress was sodden and mud-stained, and her blond hair hung limp down her back. Still, she looked as imperious as ever. “If only there had been another route we could have taken.”

Heike jabbed a finger at her. “Donotblame me for this.”

“Of course not,” Adelheid replied. “You are a victim in this, as you are in all things.”

Heike grinned maliciously. “You’re one to talk.”

“Enough,” Lorelei cut in. “I can’t think with the two of you squawking in my ear.”

A tense silence fell over the group.

She drew in a deep breath and continued, “In every tale, lindworms feed on livestock. There should be a town nearby.”

Sylvia’s pale eyes were like a brand on her face, but they lacked their usual fire. The emptiness of them unsettled her. “She’s right.”

Johann gestured to the groove the lindworm’s belly had carved out in the earth. It was littered with broken trees and streaks in the torn-up grass that looked disconcertingly like blood. This must have been its path to town. Lorelei could all too easily imagine it slithering back into the water, glutted on hapless cattle. “You’re suggesting we follow its trail to town?”

“Unless anyone has any better ideas,” Lorelei said, “yes. If nothing else, we can regroup there.”

They set off on foot with fog eddying around their ankles. Bit by bit, the night filled up the bowl of the sky like dark waters. The lindworm’s trail led them through a dense forest of fir and white-trunked birches. Bone-pale mushrooms unfurled from the bark of trees gone to rot, reaching toward the dappled moonlight.

Lorelei walked alone in the back of the group, her hands shoved deep into the pockets of her greatcoat. Ludwig had an arm slung around Sylvia as they walked. Heike trudged alone just a few paces behind them, radiating a self-pitying misery. Adelheid and Johann followed her, speaking so quietly Lorelei could not make out a word of it. His head was bowed low, as if inprayer—orperhaps awaiting her judgment. After a short pause, Adelheid covered his hand with her own, there and gone in an instant. With that, she went to join Heike. Lorelei watched Heike bristle, then relax as Adelheid talked. Finally, Heike threaded their fingers together.

Apparently, all was forgiven. The ease of it reminded her painfully of arguing with her own sister.

A persistent headache throbbed at the base of Lorelei’s skull from some dreadful mixture of stress andexhaustion—onethat only worsened when she saw Johann deliberately falling back to match her step for step. Perhaps if she looked sufficiently uninterested, he’d leave her in peace. No such luck. He walked beside her in unsettling silence, his sunken eyes roving over her face.