My thoughts instantly turned to Redvyr and the others at the tundra, knowing he would be beside himself with worry. I hoped he didn’t think I’d left on purpose, fled from him after that little scene at dinner. He had to know what he meant to me, that I would never abandon him.
I fought with the bindings, trying to weaken them, but I realized quickly that they had wound the rope several times around each wrist before tying the knot to the legs of the chair. I wasn’t getting out of this.
Focusing on my feet, I soon learned that they’d done the same to my ankles. Hanging my head, I focused on the red flowers embroidered on the neckline of my dress, the one Sorka had made especially for me. That was when the first tear slipped free.
Knowing there was nothing but death ahead for me, I hoped that Mishka was alright. And I prayed that Redvyr would know I’d never leave him without telling him, that I’d never leave him at all. For the first time, I prayed to a dark fae god, the god Vix,who the beast fae revered above all others. Perhaps Vix might hear me and save me from the witch’s pyre.
Bound in a vegetable cart,I was barefoot and wearing the dress Sorka had made for me. I believe Gael wanted the people to see me wearing the garb of the dark fae people I had been living with, to prove I was a traitor. But it gave me peace that I was left with a piece of the only home I’d ever known, a gift from the only family I’d ever had.
Two work horses hauled the cart from Lord Gael’s palace on a hill toward the town’s center. He rode his giant Pellasian stallion, his guards riding their mounts in front and behind me. I recognized the auburn-haired guard who rode at his right side, the one who gave the speech at Hellamir. He must be giving mine today.
I noticed all of his guards were moon fae, bearing different colored wings showcasing the various bloodlines, but the townspeople yelling obscenities at me on the sides of the road were mostly wood fae. A few moon fae aristocracy watched from their carriages and horses behind the maddened throng of townspeople.
“Traitor!” yelled one man.
“Whore!” screamed another.
“Burn the witch!”
Then someone from the crowd threw a rotten vegetable, hitting me square in the chest. I whimpered when the next one hit me in the head, then another slapped me in the neck before sliding off. Pieces of the decaying vegetables clung to my skin and hair as more of the crowd threw things at me as I passed.
I kept my gaze straight ahead, even if my vision blurred from unshed tears that I blinked away, refusing to let them see my pain. Up ahead, the stone platform built at the center of the square came into view. It was eerily familiar to the one in Hellamir where we had saved the moon fae seer, Aelwyn.
The cart’s wheels clattered as they rolled from the dirt road onto the cobblestone where the town square began. Mevia was a thriving town with rows upon rows of shops and bakeries and butcheries—all currently closed. The contrast of the town’s civility and the screaming horde calling for my death was a sickening sight.
As we approached the platform where a pyre was ready and waiting for me, I felt a wave of calm come over me. It was as if this wasn’t happening to me, but someone else. My body was relaxed, my mind tranquil, as I was taken down gently from the cart by Selwyn and guided up the stairs in a dreamlike state.
I didn’t struggle or fight. I walked to my fate with my chin up, my head held high. Rather than be forced up the final step to the pyre, I pulled away from Selwyn and went of my own accord, turning to face the screaming mob. I gripped the pole at my back before Selwyn bound my already tied hands to it and stepped back, pausing to frown at me.
“I forgive you, Selwyn,” I told him. “I know you’re only following orders.”
He flinched, his frown softening into something like guilt or remorse. Then he turned his face away and stalked to the foot of the platform where the crowd had gathered, still shouting obscenities. Gael dismounted and walked up to the platform, the crowd parting to let him through. He held up a hand, his good one, and the crowd hushed. But it wasn’t he who spoke, it was the auburn-haired guard.
“Good fae folk of Mevia! We have finally captured the princess of Morodon and we brought her here to face justice.”The crowd roared, then they died down when he continued. “She promised her hand in marriage to our honorable Lord of Mevia. And after the dowry was paid to her, she fled to the wilds of Northgall, absconding with the coin she’d earned through her betrayal.”
More obscenities were shouted at me. He was lying, of course. My father was paid the dowry, and I received none of it. I ran for my life when I realized the kind of male I was supposed to marry, when my own mother refused to hear my pleas.
“Then she committed a worse betrayal!” He paused for dramatic effect. “She lay with one of the demon fae.”
Cries of disgust and words like “harlot” and “whore” were shouted at me. I kept my gaze above the crowd, looking down the road, past the snaking Bluevale River glistening in the sunlight and to the hills beyond—the hills of the Borderlands.
“Not only did she lay with one of our enemy, but it was the lowest of their kind. A beast fae lord!”
More appalling and vicious curses were slung at me. I bit my trembling lip, the tears I’d held back falling now. Not because of what they said, but because I’d never see my Redvyr again. I’d die before I was ever able to tell him that I loved him, that I wanted to be his wife and partner till the end of our days.
“See how she cries now, regretting her crimes against our good lord.”
Lord Gael then stepped forward, facing the crowd but looking back over his shoulder at me.
“Even now, after all you have done,” he said, his voice ringing falsely with the so-called pain I’ve caused him, “even after your thievery of my coin, your betrayal with a wicked enemy, I will forgive you…if you kneel before me and the people of Mevia and swear your fealty to me, to use your magick to protect us. To rid us of the oppression we suffer under King Gollaya and Queen Una.”
What he was really demanding was that I murder for him, that I become his puppet and use my magick to kill for him. But he couched it in terms so that my refusal looked as if I was refusing to protect the people of this town. They were truly fooled by their lord. There was no telling how many lies he’d told to sway them against King Gollaya and his queen.
I held Gael’s gaze. “No. I will not become a murderer for you.”
It was useless to try and defend myself at this point. He had them in his thrall of deception.
“Then so be it.” He nodded to Selwyn.
