Tucked into the farthest corner of the gardens, concealed by the low-hanging branches of a willow tree, Alice poured over the books she'd taken from the library.

She'd only managed to grab two of them, one about Shadow Court history and the other about magical anomalies, but they proved to be at least interesting. The Shadow Court history was one volume out of a series, and she'd clearly managed to pick a volume somewhere in the middle rather than at the start or end. It was annoying, but it provided more information than she had. It would just mean another trip to the library later to check the rest of the volumes.

She'd learned a little about Shadow Fae magic, a little more about traditional bargaining tactics, but nothing that might give away exactly what was happening with Florian. Now that she knew he was in Shadow form the times she couldn't touch him, she just had to figure out where his body was.

Unfortunately, her best guess was that Xavier might be the only person who knew that.

Part of her wished that she hadn't given the journal to Willow, but it was possible that the language was so old that the glass wouldn't work on it, anyways.

"So what does this mean for Florian?" Missy asked, sniffing at the book.

"I've got a few ideas," Alice admitted, "but I gotta talk to someone who knows more about wigglin' outta magical trouble than me."

"What do you need?"

"I think, probably, we need to take a little vacation," Alice said, shutting the book. "I need Kaz for this. Maybe Granny, too."

"We already tried running. It didn't work out very well."

"That's why I'm just gonna ask him this time," Alice said firmly.

Missy hissed angrily, letting out a string of possum noises that certainly did not translate into any known language.

"It's... not the worst plan," Florian said.

Alice gasped, hand on her chest. "You have got to stop showin' up like that," she mumbled.

"Sorry," Florian said. "Hit a snag on my way here."

"A snag?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow as she stood from her spot under the tree. Florian extended a hand to help her up, and she took it on instinct. However, he was stronger then she thought, and she must have been lighter than he expected, because he hauled her up so quickly that she wound up standing almost flush against him, her hands on his chest.

Heat flared in her cheeks as her mouth dropped open. She thought about backing away, but then his hands were on her waist to help her keep her balance, and she found she didn't want to.

His humanoid form was... perfect. Wonderful. It calmed some kind of strange ache in her chest to be this close to him, and though he was certainly handsome, the serenity she felt in his presence had very little to do with how he looked. That must have been the snag, then— he shifted forms, and in the meantime had to make his way back from wherever his body had been.

"Are you okay?" Florian asked, checking her over. "I didn't mean to pull you up so roughly."

"I'm fine," Alice squeaked, almost unable to look at him. Her fingers gently traced over the quilted lines on his doublet as she drank in the feeling of standing so close to him, of smelling that familiar musk with the warm skin and warm personality that she adored.

Wait.

Doublet?

"Did... did you change clothes when you changed forms?" she stammered, suddenly looking down.

"I... ah..." Florian took a step back, stumbling. "In a way, yes."

It was annoying that he couldn't give her a straight answer, but at least he wanted to. He wanted to tell her the truth, and he tried to tell her at every possible opportunity. Xavier, on the other hand, seemed to purposefully hide things from her. He doted on her at every opportunity, but it felt more like coddling than trusting the longer it went on.

"How long will you be able to stay... like this?" Alice asked hesitantly.

"Physical?" He raised an eyebrow.

She nodded.

"Maybe an hour at most," he admitted, looking away.

"Can you sit with me?" she mumbled, unable to meet his eyes. "Please?"

"O— of course." Florian awkwardly lowered himself to the ground, taking a seat on the soft grass with his back to the same massive tree roots that Alice had been leaning against. She settled herself next to him, close enough that their hips were touching, and awkwardly pulled her knees to her chest.

Maybe this was a bad idea. Alice desperately wanted to be close to him, but she wasn't sure how to ask for that without making her feelings obvious, and she wasn't sure she wanted to talk about them out loud yet. She wasn't ready for the inevitable rejection.

However, as soon as she settled in, Florian wrapped his arm around her waist, drawing her even closer to him. He rested his head against hers almost automatically, like they were meant to be like this, and Alice felt her heart beating like a bass drum in her chest. It was like shaking and falling and flying, but all of them at once.

It was perfect.

"Is this... acceptable?" Florian asked, his breath tickling the top of her ear.

"This is good," Alice said with a smile, letting her eyes flutter closed as she rested her head on his shoulder.

It wasn't permanent, of course, but for now, this was the best comfort that she could have asked for. An hour of sitting together with Florian, she thought, might be worth all the trouble.

Florian had known Alice for far longer than she'd been aware he existed.

When Xavier made the bargain with Alice's mother, he'd been there, watching from the trees. He wanted to keep track of everything Xavier did, and he'd watched in Shadow form as Alice's mother traded her daughter for relief from her own grief.

At the time, he thought it was repulsive. Currently, he still thought it was an unthinkable sacrifice, but he also had to admit that without it, he would never have met the woman currently dozing off beside him.

Florian gently played with her bright, red-orange hair as she settled in beside him, snoring softly in a way that he found oddly endearing. As on guard as she was around the palace, he was glad that she felt she could relax in his presence, and he considered it a treat to be able to touch her like this. It wouldn't last long, but it was enough.

He hadn't liked Alice at first.

Xavier kept tabs on her the whole time she grew up in the little witch community outside Boone, checking in every month or so to make sure she was still in place. He never revealed himself, but he wanted to keep track of what was owed to him. Sometimes Florian tagged along, just to make sure that nothing terrible happened, but he'd grown complacent in recent years. For whatever reason, Xavier was biding his time with Alice, and at the time... Well, he couldn't have cared less.

Alice had grown up in a house full of loud women, and she'd learned to be louder if she wanted any attention. She crumbled in the face of her mother, letting the now emotionless woman morph her into a sad shadow of what she could have been, taking every abuse to heart. Alice's tendency towards husband chasing was something he considered incredibly unattractive, and he found her jealous tendencies annoying.

But... then he'd caught a glimpse of her alone in the woods.

Two years ago, he'd decided to tag along in secret when Xavier visited to surreptitiously check on his bargain payment. Florian hadn't expected anything different than usual, just a peek to confirm that she was still where she was meant to be. Instead, they found her out with a basket of berries, feeding them to the local raccoons.

He still remembered her laughing as she talked to them.

"Really? I'm the runt, too, I guess," she said, sighing as she handed the raccoon another berry. He made a chittering sound that Florian couldn't make sense of, but Alice clearly heard more.

"No, don't play tricks! But thanks for tryin' to take up for me, little fella." She gently patted the raccoon on his head, and a few other creatures began poking their way out of the trees.

"Come on, we got enough to share," Alice said, beckoning over two more raccoons and a shy deer.

Seeing her interact with those animals was... an entirely different side of her. It was a bright spot that hadn't been warped or smothered, and it made something in his chest twist to watch. At the time, he'd chosen to ignore it, but that was no longer possible.

He couldn't let her fall into Xavier's clutches.

Florian had a vague idea what his double was planning, and it certainly was not good. At first, he'd only worried about the plan for his own safety, but now he cared less and less for that, and more about making sure that Alice managed to get away from here.

Over the last year on Howard's Knob, she'd bloomed. She was brighter, more confident, seemed happier— and more than anything, those wards had kept her hidden for that whole year. Even Xavier couldn't see past them, and it had been a fluke he was out in the woods that day scouting for her.

Terror seized Florian when he realized Alice was in the Shadow Court. He'd only seen her a few times, only seen that softer shadow a little, but he wanted that better life for her. When she arrived, it looked like Xavier was ready to crush her under his heel, but... Florian had been pleasantly surprised by every one of their interactions.

She was sweet and funny. She was also self-conscious and could be snippy. He could never predict what she would say next, and he found himself looking for her more and more, trying to keep watch, trying to make sure that she stayed safe while she was in the palace walls. With luck, he might still be able to convince her to leave and never return.

Alice wanted to help him, and though it warmed his heart to know that she cared, that the soft and brave side of her had grown and blossomed, he couldn't let her take that risk.

If he was right, Xavier's plans wouldn't just cost him his life, his throne, and his people. They would cost Alice her life, too.

A flashing light roused Ellie from her sleep.

The bedroom she and Kaz shared was on the second floor of their house on Howard's Knob, and there was a flashing light piercing through the mountain darkness. A glass ball on the dresser across the room flashed bright white, on and off. It sat on a delicate iron stand among hairbrushes, papers, and knickknacks, but this one was quite functional.

"What's that?" Ellie groaned, turning her face into the pillow.

"The wards caught something," Kaz muttered, hugging her closer under the blankets.

"Fuck," she said, voice muffled by the pillow.

"We can get it in the morning," he insisted, waving it off.

Ellie, on the other hand, wasn't as convinced. As much as she wanted to turn over and go back to sleep, flashing light or not, she couldn't casually shake off the fact that her wards had trapped something.

In the early days of tweaking the protections, sometimes completely innocent animals wound up caught in the wards. More recently, benign land spirits who happened to be passing through and got a little too close and curious wound up temporarily stuck. The last thing Ellie wanted to do was piss off a land spirit, so it would be best to set them free as soon as possible. It was impossible to program the wards to every spirit, but ones she could talk to were free to wander the land.

... As long as they didn't come in the house. That was a private space, which Ellie felt was reasonable.

"Come on," she grumbled, pushing herself up to a sitting position. "Let's go check."

It would be bad news, in a general sense, to wait till morning. The longer something or someone stayed in the wards, the more irritated it was when you finally let it out. Usually, the wait made benign visitors feel less inclined to stay benign, and malicious visitors were infinitely more annoyed than they otherwise might be.

Not that they had too many malicious visitors, thankfully, but there had been one or two they'd needed to very firmly tell to scoot off.

"Fine," he sighed. "Get the lantern. I'll meet you downstairs."

"Wear pants," she said absentmindedly, reaching for a sweater to put on over her nightgown.

Kaz made a noncommittal kind of noise as she slipped on shoes, and Ellie just hoped that meant he would.

Dressed in a nightgown, a baggy sweater, and slip on shoes, Ellie walked downstairs to the kitchen with her long, silver hair flowing loose down her back. The black oil lantern was on the side table at the bottom of the stairs, a careful distance away from the matches used to light it. By the time Ellie shook herself awake and lit the lantern, ready to head out into the mountain night, Kaz had sleepily trudged downstairs.

He was wearing pants, at least. No shoes, but at least he had pants.

... This time.

"I wanna come," a little voice cried out, followed by the patter of paws on stairs.

Rosemary sleepily tottered towards them, the little puppy nearly tripping over her own oversized paws as she worked her way downstairs.

"Go back to sleep, baby girl," Ellie said gently, bending down to gently pet the pup.

"But I wanna help," she insisted, nudging at Ellie's hand. This was a complex sentence for her, as Rosemary was only about two years old. She was in her adorable, fluffy stage, and learning human words quickly, but Ellie would never put her in danger, and there was no telling what might be out there.

"Not this time, honey. Go sleep," she said, bending down to kiss the puppy's forehead.

That seemed to placate her, at least for the time being, and Ellie took off out the door with Kaz behind her. He slung the shotgun over his shoulder by the attached strap, just in case.

"You really think we need that?" she asked. They hadn't needed anything even close to firearms before, mostly dealing with random animals and a few spirits. Yes, there had been one or two belligerent intruders, but a gun would have been useless on them.

"I think it's better safe than sorry, if we run into another one like Xavier," he muttered.

It was a valid point. Firearms definitely would not be useless on a physical Other.

Ellie wasn't entirely sure where the alert had come from, so she scanned the area at the edge of her lamp light, hoping it wouldn't be necessary to walk the entire perimeter to figure out where something had been caught. Sometimes, even incorporeal intruders left physical traces. It wasn't uncommon to see crushed grass, scorched earth, shadows, or a strange shimmer in the air where there shouldn't be, and those indicators typically brought her close enough that her Spirit Sight kicked in, allowing Ellie to clearly see what was at the edge of her protections.

This time, though, it didn't look like a spirit, the closer Ellie walked to the edge of her wards, the more she could tell there was a shadow cast by something or someone physical. It was an odd shape, though. Certainly not humanoid, or not entirely. She couldn't quite make it out through the gloom.

"What in Sam Hill..." Ellie mumbled, squinting into the shadows beyond her lantern light.

"Who is Sam Hill?" a feminine voice called. "Alice mentioned him, too. Is he a friend of yours?"

Ellie almost dropped the lantern.

"You know Alice?" she asked, surging forward until she was at the very edge of the wards.

Roots and vines sprung from the ground in unnatural volumes, wrapped around and holding in place a... female deer centaur?

She had dark skin with white freckles that almost looked like constellations, crystalline antlers like the man who insisted on taking Alice with him, and a glasslike deer body to match.

"I'm bringing a message from her," she said, very carefully nodding towards the saddlebags slung over her deer body. "It's in my pack. Take it if you don't believe me."

Ellie carefully crept forward to the edge of the wards, only calming a little when the woman didn't try to move or struggle as she approached. She wasn't on the defensive, whoever she was, and wasn't going to try any desperate attacks.

Rather than reach into the pack herself, Ellie directed one of her vines to open the flap, snake inside, and retrieve the letter, pierced through by a large thorn to hold it. The vine brought the letter closer, and Ellie unfolded the paper without trouble.

She wasn't sure what to expect when she unfolded the paper, but she wouldn't have come up with the story on the page in a hundred years.

Dear Ellie,

If you're reading this, Willow delivered the letter.

I'm hoping I'll make it home for a visit soon. I am safe. I counted thirteen crows in the gardens the other day. Hope you enjoy the book I sent you to read.

Love,

Alice

"It's Alice's handwriting," Ellie said as she scanned the text.

"You're sure?" Kaz looked over her shoulder, reading along.

"Positive," she said with a firm nod. Ellie folded the letter and put it in the pocket of her sweater, then waved a hand to dismiss the vines holding their visitor.

"Thanks," the deer woman said with a sigh of relief. She stretched, rolled her shoulders, and shifted her lower body back into two humanoid legs, though they ended in crystal hooves instead of human feet.

It was a little strange to watch the shift. Despite growing up around magic of all kinds, shifter magic wasn't something she was particularly familiar with, and it was a bit disorienting to watch the change from humanoid to animal and back. It was also much easier to see the slump in her posture this way, the human marks of exhaustion. She was practically dead on her feet, and there was no telling how long she'd been running to get here.

On the upside, that probably meant she wasn't dangerous, at least at this moment.

On the downside, no one was getting any real information until this woman got some sleep.

"What's your name?" Ellie asked.

"Willow. I'm a refugee from the Shadow Court. I'm supposed to bring you this to translate, too," she said, reaching into her bag once more.

Good. That was consistent with the letter. Kaz took the book from her, holding it close to the lantern as he flipped through a few pages, frowning.

"That's Hartley's area, for sure," he muttered. "We'll get it to him in the morning. We'll come back and get you then."

"Wha—" Willow started, but she didn't make it any farther.

Kaz turned to leave, already halfway through his first step away when Ellie grabbed his arm, pulling him back towards her.

"I'm not leavin' her outside the wards!" Ellie hissed. "If she's in trouble, she needs that protection."

"And if she's lying, she'll kill us in our sleep," Kaz countered.

"She's got a letter from Alice," she said, putting her free hand on her hip in a way they both knew meant that she wouldn't budge.

"I'm trying to keep you safe, rosebud," Kaz said, sighing as he pulled Ellie into a hug.

"You saw that letter," she muttered, voice muffled against his shoulder.

"I did," he said, "but you come first. You always come first for me."

Ellie relaxed against his chest momentarily, breathing in his familiar scent and basking in the safety of his presence. She loved him so much it was almost overwhelming, but she also knew he could be overprotective. On the opposite side, though, she did have a tendency to trust people a little too easily.

However, if Willow was really a refugee, Ellie didn't want to leave her without any protections. There might be scouts following in the darkness, whether she was aware of it or not.

"I won't hurt you, but I don't think it'll do me much good to say it," Willow said, hanging her head. "I want to help Alice as much as you do."

"You said you're a refugee. Is she in trouble?" Kaz asked, letting Ellie go.

"She will be soon, I think," she said gravely. "It might take a while to explain."

"Then you'll explain in the morning," Ellie said firmly. "Ya need food or water for now?"

"No, I'm alright, but thank you," Willow said politely. "Though, even if I can't come into the house, I would truly appreciate safe passage inside the wards."

Ellie glanced at Kaz, trying to read his posture. His hand was on the shotgun strap, not actively planning to shoot, but ready if he needed it. He certainly didn't trust Willow, but he didn't consider her a strong threat, not at this moment.

Unfortunately, they might be at an impasse. It was possible that they could start a fire and just stay up the rest of the night, but... Willow truly did not look to be in good shape, the longer than Ellie looked at her. Not only was she tired, she appeared to be limping a little.

"We'll keep watch," came a familiar voice in Ellie's mind.

Charlie and Luna, the resident hellhound parents that were close friends with Harper, trotted towards them. They were large for dogs, but not comically oversized as the legends described them, and they were incredibly intelligent. Their pups must have been asleep, because the two parents were alone— after all, Rosemary was back inside.

"Rosemary told us what was happening," Charlie said. "Give her a tent. We'll stand guard."

... Scratch that. Rosemary was clearly not back inside. Squinting through the darkness, Ellie was able to make out a slightly smaller shape standing in the shadows of the two larger hounds. That was probably the pup she was looking for.

"Isn't that dangerous for you?" Kaz asked, brow furrowing.

"I can open a portal into the afterlife at will, and then return anywhere on this plane that I want," Luna said. "I would argue we're the best ones for the job."

"Touche," he conceded.

"Rosemary, come here," Ellie said, sighing.

A smaller shadow peeled away from Charlie and Luna, trotting forward to Ellie. It was a lucky guess that she was out here, as she hadn't seen her so much as... suspected.

"I helped," she said proudly. As Ellie knelt down, Rosemary jumped into her arms. This was part of their routine, and Ellie caught her without issue, though she was getting a little big for it.

"You helped," Ellie agreed, assuming she'd brought Charlie and Luna. "You also didn't listen, though."

Rosemary whined softly as Ellie stood, still holding her hellhound pup. She loved the little hound more than anything, but Rosemary was as reckless as Alice sometimes. Though she'd never been seriously hurt, it was sometimes difficult to keep her out of trouble.

Hugging Rosemary close, Ellie turned towards the newcomer and waved her hand, beckoning her inside. That was all the permission she needed to pass safely through the wards.

"Come on inside the wards, Willow. I'll go grab the camp bed and get ya something for that leg," she said, smiling like a cat who got the cream. Kaz just groaned.

"This is going to be a very long night, isn't it?" he muttered.

"Probably," she said, shrugging, "but it'll be a real excitin' day tomorrow."

"Thank you," Willow sighed, stepping just inside the wards before she collapsed onto the grass, legs practically buckling under her.

"Whoa, there!" Ellie cried, moving a little closer. "Let's get ya a little more inside the wards than that, okay? Stay with me. You can sleep soon."

They finally managed to move Willow to the front porch, where Ellie set up the camp bed with blankets and tended her injured leg. It looked like a sprained ankle, but it was difficult to tell with the combined deer and human bone structure.

Willow was already asleep before Ellie finished wrapping her leg, and the hounds curled in beside her on the porch, promising to meet them in the morning and report anything strange.

"Why do you think she didn't say anything specific in the letter?" Kaz asked as they slowly made their way upstairs. It was a small miracle that they hadn't woken Granny, but... Well, Granny slept like a log. She probably hadn't heard a thing.

"She did," Ellie said plainly. "She used the village distress phrase— thirteen crows."

"Which is?"

"Something we were taught as kids to send if we ever got in serious trouble. It's that old counting crows rhyme— one for sorrow, two for joy?"

"That... sounds vaguely familiar, yes," Kaz said, opening the door to the house. "What's thirteen?"

Ellie laughed humorlessly as she stepped inside. "It's the devil himself," she said. "My best guess is that if Willow got caught, she couldn't risk anyone finding whatever she wrote."

"Damn..." he sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "So... what does Willow know that was too important to write down plainly?"

"We'll find out tomorrow, after we all get some damn sleep. You know I can't think straight when I don't sleep, and that poor woman looked like she was dead tired."

"You were definitely right about that," Kaz said, sighing as he toed off his shoes. "I don't think she could hurt us if she wanted to, not in that state... but I'm glad Charlie and Luna are outside."

"Me, too," Ellie said, covering a yawn. "We'll do interrogations in the morning. Come here, I'm cold."

She slid back under the blankets and opened her arms for Kaz. Smiling sleepily, he tucked in beside her and wrapped his larger form around hers. It took a while for Ellie to fall back asleep, even resting in Kaz's warm embrace, but eventually she drifted off.

They could find out more when the sun rose.