“Why isn’t anyone fighting back?” I hissed to the woman next to me as we were both shoved forward.
“The sh-shackles.” She motioned down to the black cuffs. “They take away our magic. We can’t fight.”
They could take awaymagic? That must have been the strange effect I felt when the cuffs circled my wrist. Was that what Mysthelm had been doing all these years? Developing ways to stifle our powers so they could make a move?
The sight of a dozen men, women, and children being led tothe water’s edge with knives at their backs had panic flooding me. Blood roared through my ears, my vision growing cloudy as I tried tothink?—
I glanced up, squinting at the sun hanging over the bell tower in the central sector, and I swear the sky turned…pink. When I blinked, it was back to a clear blue, but my thoughts began churning…
A rough hand clamped down on my shoulder, forcing me to my knees. Distantly, I heard my cousin scream for me, but above that, I heard…
Ding. Dong. Ding. Dong.
I froze.
My eyes searched the treeline and landed on the bell tower, three gray bells swinging at its tip.
Believe the gray bells.
The Oracle.
This was it. This was what the Oracle had warned me about. The gray bells had been my clue for the second trial. But did that mean?—?
The strange mirages I’d seen in the village, where everything seemed to sway and flicker. The gray horse changing to brown. The sky just now, appearing pink instead of blue. A ridiculous, inexplicable attack from a silent kingdom.
This…thiswasthe second trial.
Believe the gray bells.
“None of this is real,” I whispered to myself, realization barreling into me. Slowly, I twisted my neck to face my cousin, his face red and eyes swollen. Was I willing to risk his life on it? On a wild, half-hatched theory?
Before me, the Mysthelm soldier smirked and raised his sword. “Any last words, freak?”
I swallowed hard. There was no more time to think, to deliberate, to fight back. Thishadto be the trial—to test my heart and see what choices I’d make under duress. To see if I could figure it out and beat their littlechallenge.
Ihadto be right.
And if I wasn’t…I prayed death would come swiftly.
“Tell the emperor,” I rasped, knees digging into the grass and soil, “I’ll see him soon.”
Then he plunged his blade into my heart.
39
Rose
Iwoke up screaming and drenched in sweat. My head spun as I bolted upright, blinking away the visions of massacre and fire and smoke staining the backs of my eyelids.
I was…I was in my bed. In the palace. Still in the leggings and oversized tunic I had gone to sleep in after the dinner—no dagger or charms in sight.
Had it truly not been real? Had it all been a—adream?
Scrambling out of bed, I barely made it to the bathing chamber before I emptied the contents of my stomach into the wash basin, the cool porcelain a welcome reprieve against my hot cheeks.
Morgana and Ragnar had been—I couldn’t eventhinkthe words, couldn’t stop picturing blood spurting from Ragnar’s neck. Images of dead bodies in the infirmary swirled around me. The cloying scent of death and decay suffocated me as I retched again.
After a few minutes had passed and my stomach seemed to settle, I rinsed out my mouth and washed my face. I tried not to stare at the yellow pallor of my skin and the way my hair hung limp down my chest. Throwing my boots on, I grabbed my charms and dagger then barged out the door, stumbling my way down the hall.
