Franchir
CLAIRE
We left at twilight the following day. The mountain pass between the Unified Territories and the Lawless Lands was too treacherous for a coach, so I rode with Bastien.
It was hard to share a horse and pretend he was nothing more to me than an employer. Especially when his free hand was splayed over my stomach, holding me protectively against his chest.
“We’re approaching the edge of the Blood Treaty’s protection,” he explained against my ear.
I nodded, but tried not to think about it.
After we’d left the tea room, he’d taken me back to our bedchamber and laid with me in our bed. Continuing the fantasy, Bastien kissed my stomach and whispered “I love you” in a way that brought tears to my eyes. I knew it cost him something to pretend like this with me when we had differing opinions. It only deepened my feelings for him.
Afterward, we lay beside each other and shared our dreams for the future. He told me about the youthhome being built in the city where he intended to care for war orphans, and promised to take me there when we returned.
I shared my hope that my sister would come to visit us, and he told me she could stay as long as she liked. And when I fell asleep in his arms, I knew this was the future I was fighting for. It made breaking the curse on Mama’s choker even more urgent.
In a day, when the moon was invisible, Devlinn would help me communicate with the demon whose magick lived inside me and ask it to reestablish the bloodline of inheritance.
As we navigated the knife-edge road down the mountain, I tried not to think about the fact that we were one strong wind from being thrown off, and I wouldn’t have to worry about demons or curses. Instead, I tilted my head into the crook of Bastien’s shoulder, looking up at the riot of stars. They were beautiful this far north, like a blanket I could curl up in. I searched for pictures in the sky, recalling the time I had stared up at it with Sera.
We spent many warm summer nights outside, making up stories about the stars. Our favorite was about the brave witch in the sky. In our tales, she was blessed by Diana with unimaginable power, and her spells filled the sky with stars so her people could see, even when there was a new moon. Now those stories felt hollow, tainted after meeting Imogen. I wanted to ask Bastien about the goddesses, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Not because I didn’t trust him, but because I didn’t want anything the old witch had said to be true.
Bastien raised his fist to signal our host to halt. My wolves stopped beside us. “This is it,” he declared. “The barrier between lands.”
There was no line that marked the boundary, but I could feel the magick all around me. I tried to be brave, like the witchin our stories, but we were so far from the safety of Château Rose.
“Are you ready to cross?” Bastien asked in a low voice.
I hesitated only for a second. “Yes.”
Bastien dropped his hand and urged Lucien forward. As soon as we were through the barrier, my hands began trembling, and perspiration broke out across my brow. Not wanting to appear weak, I kept my gaze fixed on the horizon, but the stars looked more like streaks in the sky, their colors exploding with light as if the brave witch in the sky had cast another spell.
A jolt of energy ripped through me, as if I had swallowed a bolt of lightning, and it was burning through every vein.
“Are you alright?” Bastien asked.
“I... I think so,” I stammered, struggling to gather my racing thoughts. “It feels like….”
I opened our connection and let him feel everything going on inside me. He immediately halted Lucien. “Do you need to stop?”
His devastatingly beautiful face was illuminated by the faint glow of the stars and the remaining moonlight. “No. I think it’s just my magick.” I reached for the horn that I’d stuffed inside my fur-lined pocket, and the shivering stopped.
Bastien noticed the way I sought it out and frowned. After last night, when he’d asked me to set the horn aside, I knew there was something he didn’t like about it.
Natalia rode up beside us on her white mare with an expression that would’ve made milk curdle. “Your Grace? Is there something wrong with the barrier?”
My white wolf answered, lifting her head and howling. The brown one joined her. Their voicesechoing through the mountains.
“Shut those beasts up!” Natalia snapped. “Or everyone in the Lawless Lands will know we’re coming!”
The anger that lived at the tip of my tongue came exploding out. “They’re not beasts. They’re familiars. And they sense things you can’t.”
She turned to her uncle. “You’re going to allow an unruly pack of wolves to announce our position?”
“Fall back, Lady Natalia,” Bastien said with a forced calm. “Your leadership is needed elsewhere.”
His niece sneered at me but did as he commanded, falling back behind us. One by one, the army marched down the narrow mountain pass. As we pressed deeper, I continued to feel the same restless energy, the same shivers that had nothing to do with the cold. In fact, I wasn’t even cold anymore. Sweat was soaking through my undergarments.
