“I can’t do it. I can’t say those words.”
He paused before her, crouching and resting his elbows on the side of the bed. “I know you’re still in shock right now. I’d suggest some brandy, but given everything else you drank last night…”
“It doesn’t feel real.” She met his gaze. It was surreal. They had been celebrating his Name Day only hours earlier. Brighde had laughed and danced alongside them. And now she was gone, and Fynn was in chains.
“I know.” He grasped her arm.
“How can she be gone? How can they think Fynn, of all people, could do such a thing?”
“I wouldn’t be so sure they do. It might just be a precaution. They can’t be seen to do nothing.”
“What if they do, Tristan?”
He squeezed her arm, his own fear plain on his face.
“How do I tell her family?” Aloisia knew it wouldn’t be easy – there were many of them and they had all been close. Not a day would go by where Brighde wouldn’t call in on her parents or her five siblings, even for only a few minutes. She looked down at the iron water lily in her lap. “How am I supposed to explain what happened, what we saw? Who is going to believe us? The guards didn’t seem to.”
“Perhaps the guards will call in on her family? Or a priest – it’s often part of our role. Though, given the circumstances…”
“Given the horrific way she died, you mean—”
“Lis!”
“Am I wrong?”
He didn’t answer, and that was all the answer she needed.
Aloisia squeezed her fist, her nails digging into her palm. She couldn’t acknowledge what had happened when she’d touched Brighde’s hand, didn’t want to see what mark it had left, if any.
“What did we see, Tristan?” she asked, her voice small.
He ran his fingers through his sandy hair. “Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t have the words to explain it. Shadows. Blue light.”
“Whatever it was, it must connect to what happened in the alley, right? It can’t be a coincidence.”
“True enough. Though, those shadows weren’t in the alley.”
“But the voice...” Goosebumps raised along her arms. “It said the same thing both times. ‘Darkness gathers. And death with it.’ Could it have meant the shadows?”
“Perhaps…”
“And the being in the alley, with the blue flames, it warned me. ‘Stop him. Save her.’ That’s what it said. How could I have known what it meant?”
“Don’t do this to yourself.” Tristan shook his head. “You couldn’t have known. Neither of us did. I wrote it off as an alcohol induced hallucination. It’s not as if it said ‘Save Brighde’. Then we would have known.”
“Maybe it can explain? The being. It knew what was going to happen and tried to warn us. It could explain what happened, what those shadows were. We just… need to find it again. And get it to talk to us in over four words.”
“What?”
“It could work. It could be the proof we need to free Fynn.”
“Lis, how would it work? Will you have this being testify for the magistrate?”
“If I must, then yes.”
Tristan stared at her for a long moment. “Do you hear yourself?”
“I know it sounds crazy. This whole situation is beyond madness. You must see that?”
