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Cold moves through me. The old accounts described impossible water, voices, and changes in the land after Susannah’s failed release. Now the Saints are here, Ezra is close to breaking, and we are preparing to walk the road again. The curse pattern is waking up around us.

“Does this change the plan?” Theo asks.

“Yes.”

His gaze hardens.

“We move now before it gets thicker.”

Wes checks his weapon. “The fog helps them too.”

“What else changes?” Theo asks.

I return to the map. “Visibility. Once we’re inside it, the route markers matter more than the trail itself.” I point to the symbols we’ve been tracing for days. “The true route stays close to the old channel. Low white thread marks the cypress knees. The flowers matter, but we already know the Saints can copy flowers and ribbon, so don’t trust a marker just because it looks right.”

Theo’s eyes stay on mine.

“I’ll mark our route as we go,” I say. “Three knots means I tied it and the path was clear when I passed. One knot means we saw Saints or interference. No knots means don’t assume it came from me.”

“Your marker,” Theo says.

“Yes.”

Ezra points at the old maintenance branch. “And if the compass starts acting weird?”

“The old maps already disagree with the current water course, and the land has been distorting direction around the route.” I tap the channel line. “If the compass fails, we use elevation, tree growth, and the old channel. The route follows the water even where the modern map doesn’t.”

Wes traces the service branch with one finger. “And once Theo and I know they’ve taken the bait?”

“You stop trying to regroup anywhere else.” I touch the open circle again. “Meet us here.”

“Pepper…” Theo says.

“Circle.”

The command costs all three of us. Theo looks at Ezra. The old bond tightens between them. I smell the pain rising beneath their scents.

“Stay with her,” Theo says.

Ezra’s answer comes fast. “Always.”

Theo catches the back of his neck. “No.” He presses their foreheads together. “Stay with yourself too.”

Ezra closes his eyes.

When he opens them, he nods. “I will.”

Theo turns to me. “If the fog hides the route?”

“I stay close to the old water elevation and check the historical markers before I move.”

“If it shows you something?”

His question chills me. The curse has already given Ezra dreams he never lived and Scarlet memories that were not hers. The old accounts describe voices from the water. I don’t know what the fog can do, but pretending it can only obscure our vision would be stupid.

“Trust what I can verify,” I say. “Don’t do anything that asks me to leave the marked route.”

His hand closes around the back of my neck. “If you lose Ezra?”