“Listen here, you might know more than me as an Ender, you might outrank me in power, but I am hungry and I will be damned if I take another step without getting food!” My voice reverberated across the empty street and a light flickered on high in the building and someone stuck her head out.

“Look what you’ve done. You’ve woken up a human,” he snapped.

Except that it wasn’t a human hanging out of the window, her long brown hair floating on the night breeze. She waved at us. “You came for me, I knew you would!”

Ash shot a glance to me. “Is that Fern?”

I hunched my shoulders. “Yes.”

“And why would she think you came for her?”

I brushed past him, walking toward the building. “Because I helped her escape the queen’s wrath.”

Chapter 19

Fern met us at the doorway, dressed in a long t-shirt that did nothing to hide the tiny bump in her belly. Ash’s eyes goggled and I had a moment of feeling superior. It didn’t last.

“You helped hide a woman who is pregnant with the king’s child in a human city?” Ash grabbed my arm, spinning me around to face him.

“And now I’ll have to hide her again, before you can run back to your master and tattle.”

His jaw dropped and then snapped shut with a click so hard I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d cracked a tooth. “She is not my master.”

“That’s not what your memory showed. I can’t trust you. Even if you don’t want to help her, you are, for some reason. She owns you.” Granite was right, but I didn’t dare bring him into this. He was really the only one I could trust at that point. We stood in the stifling hot entranceway to the building, Fern behind us making shushing noises.

“Be quiet, please, the landlord is very grumpy and he’ll kick me out to the street if I make too much noise.”

But all I could see was Ash, that he could hurt Fern, whether he wanted to or not. All he had to do was tell Cassava that Fern was pregnant and hiding in the human city. He didn’t even have to lift his hand to do the damage, just open his mouth.

His throat convulsed. “I am not her pet.”

“I hope you’re right. Because her life”—I pointed at Fern—“and the life of her child depend on you being able to keep this secret.”

I left him standing there as I followed Fern up to her apartment. The place was sparsely furnished, but she had food stuffs in a white box she called a fridge. She pulled out a plate of food I didn’t hesitate over, even though it looked like worms in red dirt. I ate everything she put in front of me, not even really tasting it. The flavors melded on my tongue into nothing but fuel for my body. She handed me a drink at some point that, I gulped down and she refilled. My stomach finally gurgled contentedly at me and I leaned back. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I didn’t think you’d eat that much.” Her lips twitched and looked down at the three empty plates and I shrugged. “It’s been a rough couple of days.”

She lowered herself into the seat in front of me, her hands resting on the table.

“So I can come back now? I can come home?”

I shook my head. “No, this is just a quick stop for us.”

“The lung burrowers are deep in the forest, Fern,” Ash said, stepping through the doorway, closing it behind him and then turning the lock. “It is no safer for you there now, perhaps even more dangerous.”

She put a hand over her ample bosom. “Basil, is he safe?”

It took me a moment to realize she was speaking of my father, shortening his name, as only someone you were close to would do. “No, he’s not.” I wouldn’t keep the truth from her. If it were me, I’d want to know if someone I loved was in danger of dying.

“Then I must go to him, I can help take care of him.” She stood, pushing her chair back with a screech that evoked some yelling from the room below us.

I put a hand on her arm, stopping her. “No, there is nothing you can do to help.”

Her eyes filled with tears that slid down her face in perfectly straight streaks. “Then you have to save him, for both of us.”

I nodded. “I’m trying. We’re trying.”

“That’s why you just had to eat? Because you’re trying to save your father?” Ash sneered at me and I wanted nothing so much as to backhand him. Yet the sudden shift in him gave me a pause. Of all the people I knew, he should understand the need to be at our best to face Cassava.

“And if I fall flat on my face from fatigue, unable to face whatever is coming because I haven’t eaten in three days, what then?”

The sneer fell from his face and he nodded, his tone back to normal. “If you’re done eating, Princess, I think we have a long run ahead of us.” I stared at him, the quick twist in his attitude was weird at best, and more concerning than anything.

“Is she . . . in your head now?”

His eyes lifted to mine, the honey-colored orbs tinged around the edge with a soft pink glow, the only sign I had that Cassava was riding him, controlling his words and actions.

I swallowed down the large lump growing in my throat. Whatever hold she had on him, it was there now. He was no longer the Ash I could depend on and I had to treat him like the enemy. He raised an eyebrow at me.

“No, of course not. But we need to go. We need to get to your father.”

I bit the inside of my lip, thinking fast. “Wait for me outside, I want to talk to Fern before we go.”