But it was hard not to be angry, not when it was so obvious that no one had lifted a finger to help my mother. I saw no other evidence of fighting in the streets, no other buildings or houses damaged. Slaugh had come for me, and when he hadn’t gotten what he wanted, he’d destroyed my home, and…and…
Don’t think about it,I warned myself as tears seared my eyes. I didn’t know what Mother’s fate was. Not yet.
The moon was halfway through its descent by the time I reached Mavlyn’s house, the barest hints of twilight lightening the horizon. As quietly as I could manage, I knocked on the door, hoping I was loud enough to wake them up, but quiet enough not to alert the neighbors. I heard shuffling inside the house, and then the door opened, revealing Seema, Mavlyn’s mother. She was almost identical in looks to Mavlyn, except that her face was harder, less youthful, and her auburn hair, which she’d braided for bedtime, was threaded with a few wisps of silver.
“Adara!” Seema exclaimed, her jade green eyes going wide. “Oh, thank the Radiants you’re safe!”
A light flickered to life from the house across the street, and I winced. “Did Mavlyn make it home safe?” I asked, pitching my voice low. “I left her behind at the tryouts, and I didn’t have time—”
I stopped at the pitter patter of bare feet on floorboards, hope rising in my chest. Mavlyn’s face popped up behind her mother’s shoulder, and the next thing I knew she was out on the porch, her arms banded tight around me as she hugged me with all her strength.
“Mav,” I choked out, hugging her back. “Mav, I’m so glad you’re safe. How did you get back without the soldiers capturing you? Do you know what happened to my mother?”
“The soldiers didn’t even notice what I’d done,” Mavlyn said impatiently, pulling back to look at me. Tears welled in her eyes as she inspected me, and she shook her head. “When I came back, you and your mother were gone. I thought General Slaugh had taken you both!”
“Taken?” So she hadn’t been killed. Dread twisted inside my gut even as relief made my knees wobble, and I couldn’t decide which emotion to give in to. “Did you see them take her away?” I asked Mavlyn’s mother.
Seema’s lips pursed, and she glanced from me to Einar, who had stood by silently this entire time. His glittering eyes scanned the street for danger, and I noticed more gazes peeking out from between curtains, candlelight spilling through moonlit-frosted windows. We were drawing too much attention. Seema seemed to weigh a decision in her mind before she finally stepped back and opened the door wider.
“We should discuss this inside,” she said. “It’s not safe for you out here.”
“The only place Adara is going,” a familiar voice said, ringing with authority, “is to a holding cell until General Slaugh returns.”
I spun around at the sound of Dune’s voice to see him walking up the street toward us. Backing him up were ten other males—members of our militia, all carrying weapons. My stomach dropped at the sight of the people I’d grown up with all turned against me, fear and anger in their eyes, swords bristling.
“You bastard,” I spat. Flames sprang to life in my palms, and Mavlyn’s mother gasped from behind me. “It wasn’t enough for you to try and discredit me during the tryouts—you had to bring General Slaugh directly to my door. Are you satisfied, now that he’s taken my mother away and destroyed our home?”
Dune flinched, but he didn’t lower his sword. “I didn’t mean for that to happen, but it’s not my fault,” he insisted. “If you’d surrendered, the general wouldn’t have taken Chaya.”
“Surrendered?” I seethed. The flames in my hands grew brighter, casting shadows on the males’ faces and highlighting the fear in their eyes. They were clearly uncomfortable with my display of power, not that I blamed them. “For what? I did nothing wrong, and the general had no right to attack my mother. He tried to kill her!”
“The general had every right to attack your mother, and you are not the only reason she was taken away,” a deep voice interrupted. I went completely still as Headman Terran stepped out of the shadows. He was taller and lankier than his son, with streaks of white running through his chestnut hair, but his strong jaw, hazel eyes, and the effortless magnetism he wielded were identical to Dune’s. “Gelsyne committed treason when she fled from the court all those years ago and refused to swear allegiance to our new king. The only reason I allowed her to stay in our village was because of her skill as a healer, but I told her that if the crown ever discovered her existence, I would not protect her. She knew the risks.”
Dune’s eyes widened, and my head spun at this revelation. “You knew Adara’s mother was in hiding?” he asked, sounding as stunned as I felt.
“I did,” the headman admitted. “But I couldn’t turn her away, not when she had a newborn babe to take care of and nowhere else to go.”
“What about Adara’s fire magic?” Mavlyn asked. “Did you know about that?”
“I didn’t.” The headman’s gaze hardened as he looked at me. “Adara, a fae hasn’t been born with fire magic in hundreds of years. You should know how important someone with your abilities would be in the fight against the shadow creatures. Why would you deny the king the use of your power? Isn’t that why you tried to join the military, so you could serve him and protect our kingdom?”
My gaze cut to Dune again, who was staring at me with a calculating look in his eyes. He had been one of the reasons I’d wanted to join, but yes, I had wanted to aid in the fight against the shadow creatures as well as find my place out in the big, wide world I’d never been allowed to explore.
Did the headman have a point? Should I surrender, and allow myself to be taken to the king?
“You cannot, underanycircumstances, allow the general to capture you.”My mother’s words, the last she’d spoken to me before she’d sent me away, echoed in my head.
Part of me wondered if I should trust them, when she’d been keeping so many things from me. But everything she’d done, including the lies she’d told, had been to protect me. And even if I wanted to discount her words, I couldn’t ignore what I’d seen.
“I don’t know what I want,” I finally said. “But I do know that I can’t trust a shadow-touched fae, even if he does work for the king.”
Gasps rippled through the crowd, and I realized the entire village had turned out to watch the commotion. Mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, all barefoot and clad in nightgowns and robes as they watched the exchange with rapt expressions.
“Shadow-touched?” Mavlyn’s mother asked, her tone pitched high with worry. “What do you mean?”
“The girl is speaking nonsense,” the headman said brusquely. “The general isn’t shadow-touched. He would have been frothing at the mouth and raving mad.”
“No, she isn’t.” Einar spoke up for the first time. He stepped in front of me, almost as if he were using his big body to shield me, and for some reason, the knot of tension in my chest loosened. “But shadow-touched isn’t the right word. The general waswieldingshadow magic, not being controlled by it.”
