I took another step across the stage, then another, forcing a wince away from my features.
“Clarissa, please—” Thorne said from behind me.
“Get away,” I said to the guards, who glanced at Galen questioningly. When nobody moved, I raised my voice. “Get. Away.”
Galen intervened. “We need to get to the carriage. They’ll make sure?—”
“No,” I said again.
My gaze swept over the guards and the crowd beyond, now shouting and moving forward to get a better look at the bonfire. It was chaos, voices blending with the crackling of fire and shuffling of feet on grass and straw.
“They wanted to watch me burn,” I said, straightening my shoulders. “So let them.”
32
Thorne
“Did you see the animal?”
“Who would do this?”
“Is it another attack?”
Frantic citizens scattered throughout the festival, all sacrifices entirely forgotten. Galen and Clarissa disappeared in a swath of guards and smoke.
I pivoted on my heel to face Dion Silenus, clutching his collar and yanking him toward me. “Did you do this?” I hissed.
“Why would you think I had anything to do with it?” he bit out.
“Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps the fact that you’ve been against their engagement from the start.”
“That was before. It wasn’t me, Reaux. I have no idea who was responsible, nor how they managed to get the animal inside there. Now, unhand me!”
“Thorne, dear, what has gotten into you?” my mother exclaimed as she charged up the steps of the stage.
My thoughts churned. She hadpromisedme she’d stop her scheming. She’d agreed that having Clarissa here was a good thing for Galen, and that we needed their marriage to happen.
I trusted her.
Yet I hadn’t seen her since we exited the carriage tonight when we got here. She was another person I knew had been opposed to Clarissa this whole time.
I shook my head to clear my mind, but a seed of doubt had taken root.
“Mother, where have you been?” My tone was cold—as cold as Clarissa’s had been after she’d seen the fox.
I would never forget the look on her face. I was standing at the base of the stage, unable to see the center of the bonfire when she’d dropped the torch right at her feet. Her face froze, lips parted, chest caving inward as if every ounce of air had been ripped from her. Like one breath would make her crumble.
In the blink of an eye, it disappeared. She went utterly still, features blank. Empty. Hollow. Covering her emotions with that blanket she knew how to use so well.
It wasn’t until I barged onto the stage that I saw the fox.
It was despicable. A targeted attack not meant to physically wound, but to send a message. A warning. To break her down after everything she’d done for this territory.
My mother gestured to a middle-aged woman at her side. “I was with Lady Vespera’s mother. What in the world is going—” She inhaled sharply when she finally looked into the fire and saw the fox.
Her eyes widened. “Thorne, you can’t possibly believe I would be behind any of this.”
“I don’t know, I think it’s pretty believable,” I muttered under my breath, making sure none of the others could hear.
