“I’m sorry, what?” He nearly choked.
She looked at him with fury burning in her eyes. “I said take me there. Take me down there.” She looked back at the crater. “Take me, or so help me, I will go on my own.”
“That’s madness, Hazel. I know this is upsetting, but we are not going down there. That’s worse than hand delivering you to the Magistry’s gates. Because this?” He gestured to the mine below them. “This is where you go when they’re done with you. This is where they send people to die. You want to know why the public hunts and executions have stopped almost entirely? You’re looking at it.”
Her eyes welled with tears. She imagined her peaceful life, growing up with Connall, with only the Briar & Rose to worry about. Meanwhile, people from all ages and walks of life were dragged here, to their eventual demise.How could this go on, and no one speak out about it?
He grabbed her hand. “Come on. Let’s go.”
She ignored him, unable to peel her eyes from the horrors below.
“Hazel—”
“You knew about this,” she seethed. “You’ve always known, and you’ve done nothing to stop it. You may not carry the whip, but you’re just as complicit in this as they are. And here I was starting to… I thought…” She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to. Her insides were igniting. Her power bubbled within, promising to erupt again if she didn’t control herself.
His face flashed with hurt, with shame, and she was glad for it. Her words had hit their mark, and she was not the least bit sorry. Something about that small victory quelled the bitter, boiling rage.
But then his expression shifted to anger, twin lines furrowing between his brows, his eyes darkening. She wondered which part of what she’d said had crossed a line.
“Peopledoknow, Hazel. Trust me when I say they makeverycalculated moves behind the scenes and are near impossible to track.”
Hazel locked eyes with him, refusing to accept that as an answer.
Slaide accepted the challenge. “Why don’tyoudo something about it, then?” He nodded toward the crater below. “Light it up. Put an end to the suffering.”
She flinched. They’d tiptoed around this subject until now. He’d called her out. Acknowledged what they both knew.
“I’m not interested in murdering innocents, Slaide.” She turned her back on him and started in the direction they’d come from. “And if you’re so certain I can, then arrest me. Gods know you can’t have awitchwandering around the kingdom.”
He followed her silently.
“Make no mistake,” she whirled on him, stopping him in his tracks, “Iwillput a stop to this. I don’t know when, and I don’t know how. But when I am finished, no witch or magical being will ever be in chains again.”
Before she turned around, the corners of Slaide’s mouth tipped upward, hinting at a smile.
Not another word was said as they returned to the horses, leaving the horrors of Blackrock Gulch behind.
Once they were out of sight from the gulch, Slaide brought the horses to a stop and dismounted, making his way around to Hazel. He offered her a hand down, but she ignored him and managed on her own.
Slaide stood there, hand still outstretched as she walked past him.
She walked a few paces away and then got down on her hands and knees, her body immediately racking with sobs.
Slaide walked up behind her, and she looked up at him in disgust before averting her gaze.
He knelt beside her and placed his hand gently on her back, though her body flinched at his touch.
Without warning, she whirled on him and clocked him in the nose.
“Gods damn it, Hazel!”
She mounted Phillip and raced for the Kingswood while Slaide tended to his nose. She was going not just to the Border, but through it. She was going to leave all this behind.
THE BORDER WRAITH
Phillip charged headlong into the woods, spurred on by Hazel’s urgent commands. She chanced a glance over her shoulder, fully expecting Slaide to be on her tail, but was surprised to find he wasn’t. She took the opportunity to slow the horse down and take inventory of her surroundings.
The forest was thick and dark here. The trees pressed in closely, and the path had grown almost nonexistent. The evening had been drawing close, but she could no longer see the sky through the canopy to tell how late it was. The air was heavy and cool, almost damp.
