He didn’t stay to find out who had wanted to lure him from the house. He grabbed the red leaf from his coat—the last one—and teleported.
After they’d gonea short way into the woods, Garrett clicked something into place around her right wrist—it wasinvisible, but it felt like a shackle. She heard the jingle of metal against metal.
“What are you doing?” she asked, voice trembling. She tried to take a step backward and realized he’d chained her to a tree.
“When Blackwell returns, I’m taking him into custody,” Garrett said. “Then I’ll come back for you.”
She looked the way they’d come in mute horror. She could see the house from here, just barely, but they were far enough away that Peter would be unlikely to notice her—certainly too far to hear her yell. Garrett could swoop in and teleport Peter away before he had any idea what had happened.
The warning she’d left on the porch was useless. What could she do? She thought of knitting, but no—she’d managed so little with it, and nothing that would help her now.
Better to talk. Distract.
“You haven’t asked me what happened,” she said.
“I know what happened.” His voice was grim, and it sounded as if he was faced away from her—looking toward the house, watching for Peter.
“Really?” Anger began to give her strength. “Do tell me what you know about my life, Wizard Garrett.”
“Theo!” His name echoed off the trees. “My name,” he said, the sound suggesting he’d turned around to look at her, “is Theo. Why didn’t youtrustme? The minute he asked you to do this, you could have come to me and I would have helped you! But you chosehimoverme!”
“No, you chose the magiocracy over me!” She glared at him, or at least where she thought he was. “They tried to murder my sister, and you chosethem. Can you blame me for seeing the hand of Providence in my ability to cast spells? I have to protect her!”
He sighed. A few seconds of silence passed between them. Then he said: “It was never intended to kill her. I was trying to scare you into stopping before the tactics got ugly.”
She gaped at him. All she could manage was a weak, “What?”
“Believe me when I say that I know what character assassination looks like, and I refuse to let that happen to you,” he said. “You’re just as much a target as your sister, Beatrix.More,because you’re locked up every day in that house with an unmarried man. So when we got the call that your sister had won the election, I made the crane fall. I aimed it so it would be close, but it wouldn’t hit her. I did it for you.”
Beatrix leaned against the tree behind her for support. The whole world felt like it was shifting around her.
Lydia had been right.
“You almost got yourself killed by coming out of nowhere to save her,” he said, sounding angry—at her. “And after all that, you were evenmoredetermined to keep marching on. MyGod, you’ve broken the law! Why didn’t youlistento me, Beatrix? Tell me, why must you insist on tilting at windmills instead of living a normal life that makes ushappy?”
All the fear, all the heartache, all the lies over Plan B—none of it had been necessary.
“You made me believe my sister was in mortal danger,” she said, very slowly, “because you were concerned about my reputation. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“I couldn’t think of any other way to convince you.”
“And you’re wondering why it is that I don’ttrustyou?” she shouted.
“Keep your voice down,” he hissed. “I was only thinking of you. Who else in your life prioritizes you over everyone, Beatrix? Who?”
Peter. Tears welled up; she blinked to try to stop them from falling. She had not done the same for him.
“Say my name,” Garrett bit out with sudden, frenzied urgency.
This was unnerving in a way that had nothing to do with the shackle around her wrist or the looming felony charges. She could feel the warmth from his too-close face.
“Sayit!”
“Theo,” she said, her voice cracking.
“What is Blackwell to you? Tell me!” He grabbed her with hands she could not see, the fierceness of it stealing the air from her lungs.“Tellme!Tell me,God damn it!”
The possibility that her life might be in danger—not Lydia’s, hers—shot through her like a canon blast.
