“What do you mean,youcan?” Kael asks for me.
“He’s a king, Masen. You were standing beside me when you took the knight’s oath?” I glance down at my wrist, the oath-bound rune firmly etched into my skin. A bleak reminder of the promise I made to a crown I should never have agreed to serve.
“When I couldn’t return home, I was cut off from Greyhollow. I’m guessing it broke my oath? Either way, the mark disappeared,” he says, holding his wrist out for us both to see. Kael glances at me as we share a knowing look.
The fucker is going to die.
“Where’s Elodie?” Bryn whispers from the sofa. Her voice is still fragile, catching on the stillness of the room. Outside, the rain is picking up as the raindrops create a soft drumming against the window. I can’t look through the glass window without seeing Elodie, her tears falling down her face as she turns herself in for a family that isn’t hers to save. I look back at Bryn. She looks a hell of a lot better than she did earlier. Masen says it was the rune purging her of the magic she absorbed from the seal. Earlier, when her breath had been rattling and her skin had felt like ice. I felt a part of me dying. Bryn was as much a sister as Kael and Masen were my brothers. We weren’t bound by name or lineage, but by something far more permanent. The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. That was the truth of our lives. She was the sister I had chosen, the girl we would tease as kids until she threw dirt at us, the one who kept the heart of this group beating whilst the rest of us were out playing at being soldiers. Watching her slip away whilst Elodie was dragged away in the dark felt like being torn in two. I was forced to choose who to save. It’s a choice I hope no one ever has to make.
“She’s...” I clear my throat, finding the right words to answer her. “She’s at the castle. Aldric has her.” Bryn’s face instantly washes with dread. She doesn’t know the inner workings of the castle, the fear of the King’s curse, or the way it drives most to madness. But she has lived through enough to know Elodie will not be in that glasshouse warm and safe.
“He’ll hurt her,” Bryn whispers. “You have to help her,” she says, looking at the three of us. We all share the same look.
“We’re going to get her back. Don’t worry,” I say, willing myself to believe my own words, to get through each passing moment without threatening to storm forward in a blaze of fury. Mara returns to the room, a warm bowl of soup in hand, as she passes it to Bryn.
“Eat, baby. You need food after that.” Bryn sits up slightly, Kael helping her up as she takes the soup, cradling it in her lap.
“I can feel the anger pulsing from you in waves, Rowan,” Mara says to me, taking a seat next to Bryn. I look up at Masen now, willing him to come up with some way to get us into that castle and get to Elodie, unharmed.
“I have a plan. It’s not a good one, but it might work.”
Chapter 29
Elodie
The silver cage feels as though it has moulded itself to my body. Every few hours, the monotony of my misery is broken by the heavy clacking of armoured boots.
This is my ‘mercy’.
Aldric, the twisted benevolent man he is, allows me the dignity of using the washroom. Twice a day. The process feels like a choreographed humiliation. Two guards approach the cage as Thora whispers under her breath, causing the cage to unlock. No lock I can try to pick, no hidden latch I can trigger. Only magic. Magic I have grown to hate, as much as I hate this godforsaken kingdom. I want to go home more than I ever have before. I want to be back in my apartment, with the smell of clean laundry. And the sound of the neighbour’s dog barking for no reason. My kitchen sink that’s been broken for months now. Even the buzz of traffic outside the window. That annoying hum of my fridge at 2am. I would trade all the magic in this world to get back to my life. My life was ordinary, plain. Where I wasn’t some prisoner that somehow figured out how to grow a mystery plant to save a kingdom.
A girl who befriended a talking mushroom.
God, I hope Pip’s okay.
I hope he’s hiding in the dark where no one can find him. And I’m the girl who fell in love with a knight.
Rowan.
Thinking of him causes my chest to ache with the memory of his hands, his rough voice, and the way he looks at me, like maybe I am something more than ordinary. But as I sit here, shivering on the cold metal floor, a treacherous thought takes root.
If I ever find a way out of here… could I leave him?
But could I stay in a world that keeps trying to bleed me dry?
Every time I look at the beautiful, terrifying landscape of Greyhollow. I see the pain it has caused me. The choice feels like a blade at my throat
I loved him enough to save him, but do I love this world enough to live in it?
Thankfully, I doubt it’s a choice I’ll ever actually have to make. My chances of escaping here are slim with every passing hour. The more the king eats of the Widowsbloom, the more this castle obeys him. The guards arrive, but I’d already used my last washroom visit up an hour ago.
“What’s going on?” I ask, fear lacing my tone.
“You’re being moved to the Throne Room. King wants his quarters back.” I’m not even sure how much time has passed.
I feel as though my entire being is fading, my spirit thinning out until eventually I will turn to dust. I don’t respond, only sit back as they throw a heavy cover over me and lift the cage. Feeling more than ever like a trapped bird. When the velvet shroud is finally ripped away, I stare at my surroundings. I’ve been here. They took me here when I first came through the gate.
