“Oh! Ammalie, that’s unfortunate.”
“Well, I’m not ac—”
“But you’ve brought her back, and that’s what’s important to my brother. When Ced gets back, he’s going to be so happy!”
Kori pushed past El, and stuck out her hand, saying nothing.
“Payment, right, uh, Jervis? Can you handle this? And get Gilead?” As an older man motioned for the Righteous Sentries, Amma was led away and through another door into a smaller chamber. Thankful to be away from the others, she allowed it, her mind working hard to take in the keep, searching for a means of escape, but then the door was closed behind her, and she was in a small office filled with ledgers and a simple desk, no windows, and no way out but through Roman.
And Roman had no idea.
“I’m sorry Ced’s not here to welcome you, but he should be back any day, and, oh, Ammalie, you must be starving! What am I thinking? I’ll have something brought in, and we’ll have a room made up, and—”
“No, Roman, listen!” She grabbed his arm before he could go back for the door, hand frozen on the handle. Voice raspy and wavering, she shook him, forcing him to look her in the eye. “You have to let me go. I can’t be here, not when Cedric comes back, not at all. He’s going to kill me.”
“Kill you?” Roman’s face was painted with utter confusion, even more so than what was typical. “Ammalie, Cedric would never. He loves you, he wants to marry you.”
“Gods, that’s even worse,” she moaned, squeezing his forearm harder. “Please, listen to me. It’s an act, all of it. He doesn’t care about me, he just wants Faebarrow and the liathau. He’s already wrecked so much of the barony, he’s turned the whole place upside down since you were last there, and—”
“Ammalie, no, no, that wasn’t Cedric.” Pain made his brows tighten. “That was the skeletons, remember? The one that your captor released. We’ve been trying to liberate Faebarrow since.” He said this with such conviction, Amma almost believed him.
But she shook her head, hard. “No, Roman, listen! The skeletons are good, Laurel told me through a raven. It’s Cedric who’s bad—he was arresting people for pottery, and chopping down all the trees, and my parents will be sent away or killed, and I’m—” Her breath caught, terrified at just the possibility of what he might do.
“Arrested for pottery? Talking ravens?” Roman laughed nervously, and to be fair, her words may have been difficult even for someone with more advanced faculties to follow. “Boy, you really are in thrall, huh?”
“Enthralled,” she said through grit teeth.
“Aww, yeah, that’s it, but it’s gonna be all right, I promise. I’ll have Gilead help you, and if that doesn’t work, I’m sure when you see my brother, you’ll snap right out of it because of love and stuff.”
Amma’s heart was pounding, the mention of Cedric again making her panic. Her eyes darted around the room, falling on a small plant on the desk’s edge. She grabbed onto it and squeezed, willing the tendrils of it to flourish. “No, Roman, I don’t love your brother, and he definitely doesn’t love me.” She sucked in a full breath, focusing intently on the arcana inside her, not wanting to hurt Roman, but willing to do what she had to for freedom.
Roman’s eyes pinged down to her hand, wrapped about the plant, then searched the ground madly like some explanation would spring up from the stone floor, like it would be revealed this was all some elaborate trick, and everyone would be laughing in mere moments. “You don’t want to marry Cedric?”
Amma could only shake her head in desperation, her focus on the plant and the magic she was forcing into it.
“But…but you said you did?” He was really struggling.
She let out a ragged breath. “I know, but I can’t.”
“What…what are you doing?”
Amma looked back to the plant. Her hand was squeezing the stem so firmly, it had snapped, but there was nothing. No growth, no vines ready to ensnare and throw him out of the way, no arcana at all. She squealed, “I’m going to kill that elf if I see him again!”
The door behind Roman opened with a low creak. When he moved to the side, Gilead was there, the mage that Cedric always had following at his heels and doing his bidding. Sallow-skinned and always smiling with a jagged jaw of grey teeth, he set pale eyes on Amma. “I’ve been informed we have something in our baroness that needs to be broken?”
CHAPTER 30
WHEN ONE CONSIDERS THE ALTERNATIVE
Xander was gone, traceless, just like how he’d arrived, except he had cut right into Damien without even touching him. If he were to be believed, then Amma was gone too.
Damien broke into a run, calling her name as he flew through the trees. His dagger fell into his hand with a rapid flick, and he ripped it thoughtlessly over his skin, using his blood to strengthen his seeking spell. He reached out, blood dripping from his arm, sending his senses wide. She would be there, shehadto be—Xander was nothing but a slimy, fucking liar, and this was only some trick.
But Amma’s presence didn’t come back to Damien. Woodland creatures that scattered, birds that took to the sky, slithering things that hid in their holes, they were everywhere, but there was no human—no sweet, kind, beautiful human—no matter how far out he desperately pushed his arcana.
“Master!”
Damien stopped short, kicking up leaves and whipping around.
