Nessa didn't speak.
Maeve did not move her hand. She had to press this moment, and she couldn't let it slip through her fingers. There was a crack in Nessa's previously impenetrable armor, the tiniest sliver of the hope that Breana and Maeve had spoken about.
"Come with me," Maeve whispered. "Think of the things we could achieve, the three of us together. Think of how strong we would be as a united front, overcomin' whatever our father, the king,anyonecould throw at us."
Nessa stared at her, and for the briefest moment, it seemed like her hand flinched upward.
Someone knocked at the door.
Nessa's coldness returned in full, and she swept to open the door, though Maeve noticed that she positioned herself so that whoever was on the other side would not be able to see Maeve. "What do ye want?" Nessa snapped. "I am restin'."
"Forgive me for the interruption," a timid servant's voice came from the other side. "But yer father sent me tae fetch ye. He said…he said it's time."
"Time?" Nessa asked.
"For the execution."
Maeve's heart stopped in her chest. No. She couldn't have missed it—it couldn't have already gotten to the point where there was no time left. Where was Eoin? Where were Darren and Breana? Why hadn't anyone done anything to stop this before it got to this point?
Her legs felt like they lost all of their strength, and Maeve grabbed the edge of a table to support herself. Nausea warred in her stomach, and her vision swam. She could barely see.
"Ah," Nessa said, though Maeve could hear that she spoke in that strange, rehearsed way again, rather than in the more natural voice she'd used when confronting Maeve. "So it is time for the traitor tae die. Good. Leave me."
"I'm tae escort ye…" the servant stammered.
"Leave me," Nessa said again, this time in a more commanding voice. "I must finish gettin' ready for the event."
The servant must have acquiesced because a moment later, Nessa closed the door again and turned back to Maeve.
"Well?" Maeve whispered, trying to speak through her dizziness and fear. "What will ye do?"
"I will go tae the courtyard and witness the execution," Nessa told her primly. "And ye… I suggest ye use the chance tae run. Find Breana and escape. While ye still can."
Nessa did not say another word to her, studiously ignoring her as she gathered a few things and pinned a cloak in the O'Sullivan colors around her neck. She did not even glance at Maeve as she left the room once more.
Maeve knew that a time would come when she'd have to reach out to Nessa again—but now was not that time. As soon as Nessa was gone, she rushed out of the room and down the corridors, no longer caring if she was seen or not. She had to get to Cailean.
Maeve ran as fast as her legs would carry her.
The solitary dungeon where Maeve knew that her father would keep Cailean was unlocked when Maeve arrived, and her heart was in her throat with fear as she pushed open the doors. There were no guards here, nobody at all, in fact. She walked down the thin staircase and along to the cell.
It was empty. There was no sign that anyone had been there except some blood on the floor just outside of the cell door.
No guards.
No prisoner.
No Cailean.
Maeve was too late.
14
The courtyard of O'Sullivan Castle was a sea of strange faces and colors, almost overwhelming in its variation. Maeve, still in her kitchen maid outfit and now with a scarf around her hair that she'd managed to steal from Nessa's room, found it easier to blend into the crowd than she could have ever dreamed. She lost herself amongst the visiting spectators, her eyes drawn instantly to the large platform that had been set up in the middle for the execution to take place.
Cailean's execution.
Unless she did something soon, she would see the man she loved once more—for the last time. But what could she do? What could anyone do now? She stopped herself in that train of thought before it could go any further. She'd learned since joining the rebellion that she could not allow herself to give in to despair.
