Beau.
“I’m coming,” I whispered, clenching my thighs and snapping the reins. Within minutes, the rocky path gave way to a grassy riverbank, and roaring water filled the air with a crisp dampness. Glancing behind me, I could still see the tips of the tallest buildings of the central sector, the top of a bell tower and spires of the palace like a beacon against the rising smoke and haze.
The carriage suddenly stopped. Five Mysthelm soldiers jumped from the box and strode to the back, unlocking the bars of the prison. With a cruelty that had my blood boiling, a man yanked them out, each stumbling as they tried to land on their feet while their hands were cuffed with some sort of black metal. Beau collapsed to his knees, his lanky legs sprawled behind him. One of the soldiers kicked his side with a shout to “Get up!”
That was it. He would die first.
I slid from the horse and reached into my pocket for hellebore and amaranth.
A blade appeared at my throat.
“Not so fast,” came a hiss from behind me, a hand snaking around to grab my wrist. With the knife digging into the flesh at my neck, my captor shoved me forward with the rest of them. My mind raced, trying to devise a plan, a way out of here. The protection charm had worn off by now—I needed to get to my herbs. Or back to the horse. Maybe I could gather reinforcements and return to save?—
I glanced at the brown horse behind me. Brown? Wasn’t the one I rode here gray and dappled?
“Caught another one,” the man behind me drawled. “Might be one of the witches. Saw her reaching for her pockets.” His fingers strayed low on my waist, and I stiffened.
“Rosie?” Beau croaked, staring at me in slack-jawed horror from the ground.
My heart jolted. “It’ll be okay, Beau. We’re going to be fine,” I assured him, fighting the urge to whip away from my captor and run for my cousin. But I didn’t know what these soldiers would do. I couldn’t risk them attacking.
Even from a distance, I could see the pain in Beau’s eyes. The terror and heartbreak reflecting in his silver pools made my blood turn to ice. “Rosie…my ma…they—” He choked on his words, and that ice within me shattered.
Morgana.
She couldn’t be…
“Take her weapons,” one of the men instructed.
This time, I did fight. The man behind me jerked the satchel from my belt loop and with his slackened hold on my throat, I pivoted and slammed the heel of my palm into his nose. It snapped with a satisfyingcrack, and he wheeled backward, clutching his face and shouting obscenities.
Two more soldiers converged. Before I could reach for my charms, they had my arms behind my back. Cool, metallic cuffs clamped over my wrists, and it was like something clenched deep inside of me at the same time. I struggled against its hold but couldn’t move an inch. My shoulders and neck strained wildly as they tugged me to the water’s edge with the rest of the hostages. If I couldn’t get to my charms, if I couldn’t cast, I?—
“Line them up. Kill them. Go get the next group,” the soldier in charge barked to his subordinates.
Wails of protest and pleas for mercy rose at the command. My gaze met that of my cousin, his wide, frantic eyes staring back at me. Looking to me for answers. For safety.
Numbness blanketed me. I didn’t know how to get out of this one. I didn’t know how to protect him, how to get either of us away from danger.
“Don’t touch him,” I snarled as one of the men pulled Beau roughly toward the river. He turned and laughed at me.
“She’s feisty,” he said, licking his lower lip. “I call that one.”
“Why don’t you come and get me now, then?” I glared at him and he tilted his head, assessing me. Examining me.
To my relief, he released Beau. Sauntering forward, ignoring the hysterical hands from the Veridians reaching out to him for pity, he pointed his sword at me. “And mouthy, too. I thinkyouwant to go first.”
“Why are you doing any of this?” I hurled at him. “What have we ever done to you?”
“We’ve been biding our time for decades, little witch. Your magic is acurse,” he spat. “Your people are a poison. This entire empire is unnatural—it should have never gotten such power in the first place. So we’re cleansing it.”
“You’re just going to killthousandsof people?” a hostage cried out.
“Silence!” the Mysthelm soldier roared. “This isn’t a negotiation. We have our orders. Get them in a line,” he said to his companions, who rushed to obey.
How was any of this happening? How had we been so ignorant to their attack? To their blatant hatred of us?
None of this even made any sense.
