“No…” I shook my head and stepped away from her. “No, no, no. How can your husband let this happen to his own son? Surely, he would—”
“My husband is avilebastard,” Sadrine spat, her voice filled with violence. “Johar too. They are going to kill him, Marina. My boy. My only child…please,pleasehelp me save him…” She folded my hands between hers and gazed at me, waiting on tenterhooks for an answer. I met her eyes—hazel, just like Will’s—and fought down the furious shadows threatening to burst from my hands.
“I am going to save him, Sadrine. I swear it on all the gods.”
She nearly choked on her whispered words of thanks, then scurried away toward Boatman’s Bridge. I walked around the outside of Locksley, running my fingers absentmindedly over the sandstone blocks again and fighting down the roiling anger once again threatening to overwhelm me. Will and Tuck could not die. I would not allow it. Up until now, I had been treading lightly, doing everything in my power to avoid a clash between the humans and the Fair Folk. But now, that peaceful future had been painted over by visions of violence.
If the powerful men of Nottingham wanted a war, then I would give them a fucking war.
When I arrived back in the Hollow, it was shockingly quiet. There was no sign of anyone, save for the soft glow of a dying fire in the den’s hearth. I found Devil asleep on his bed upstairs, wearing only bandages and a clean pair of trousers. In one corner of the room was a stack of debris from when he had crashed through the tree canopy, and in the other sat a pile of broken arrows that had been cut from his wings. I counted at least five arrow wounds on each wing, which werecovered by rough-cut linen patches in lieu of bandages. His other injuries had been treated similarly, and the worst of the bleeding had abated, but my heart was heavy knowing that, even with the rapid healing abilities of the fay, his body was not typical. I had no idea what might happen as he recovered. I did not know how to check him for infection, nor what sort of medicinal herbs might be effective.
When I curled into a ball beside him on the bed, he did not wake from his magyk-induced sleep, so I just clutched one of his hands and sobbed openly. I had failed Locksley, failed Sissi, failed Jazmina and the other girls, failed Will and Tuck, and I had failed Devil too. He must have been keeping an eye on the Abbey for my sake. Why else would he have been there when the attack started? Cold sorrow and shameful helplessness ventured in to replace my raging fury. I could do nothing but welcome it, and wonder whether I might simply crumble under the sheer weight of agony settling over me. There was no telling how long I allowed myself to break down before I felt Devil’s body shift, and heard his cool, calm voice.
“Mayhem…” His arm snaked around my waist and he leaned forward, lips pressing to my shoulder. “Please don’t cry. I’m here.”
“It’s my fault,” I whispered. “They’re all dead and it’s my fault.”
“Don’t you dare say that. Don’t you dare think it. Not for a second.”
“Will and Tuck were arrested. They’re going to hang in five days and that’s my fault too. What if I can’t save them?”
“You can, and you will.”
“And someone is using the Rot-infested Archer’s Cup to infect soldiers.”
“Jon told me.”
“But I can’t even get rid of the Rot!” The words choked me. “I can’t protectanyone!”
“We’ll do it together, May. I promise. All of it.” The sky above us was still dark, so he released a single orb of light as I finally turned to face him. I brushed my fingers over a deep cut running along his jawline. The glow of his strange blood was visible just beneath the skin, like his tattoo-scars, illuminating his ice-blue eye from below. But there was nothing I could do, and the thought of it filled me with renewed despair.
My confession came out as a ragged whisper. “I tried to destroy Nottingham Keep. The iron inside Locksley stopped me, dulled my magyk, but…I wanted to. I wanted to burn it to the fucking ground, along with everyone inside.” I sat on the edge of the bed and ran my hands through my hair, which was still tangled with dried blood from Sissi’s wounds, then stood up suddenly and shouted, “Gods above, I want to fucking kill them all! They deserve to burn, to hang, to bleed out.They deserve every foul fate they’ve seen fit to give others!” Feeling half-mad, I began to pace silently across the floor while Devil pulled himself up with a groan.
“May,” he said softly, a line of concern between his eyes. “Please, speak to me. I want to help.”
“You would not understand.”
“Maybe not, but I will listen nonetheless.”
“You would entertain my bloodlust?” I scoffed. He stood with a soft gasp of pain, stepped into my path, and took a firm hold of my upper arms, forcing me to meet his intense gaze.
“Yes, I would,” he said, breathing still labored. “Scream at me every unkindness you have ever suffered, and pour your grief into my hands. Drown the moon in furious shadow. Blot out the sun, if you must.”
My mouth fell open for a moment, but I closed it and swallowed hard. “You would not…try to stop me? From exacting revenge?”
“Never,” he answered, lifting my hand and kissing the back. “On one condition: Keep me by your side, and I will weave a million stars into the night sky you create.” He opened his hand to show me a bundle of sparks, and I realized that I had blacked out the entire room with my shadows, just like the night we’d first kissed.
But I did not want his stars this time, and I turned away, then spoke in a low voice. “I do not need a weaver. I need a weapon.”
“Then make me your arrow,” Devil whispered, moving closer and settling his hands on my waist. “Tip me with poisonous rage, and I will strike true every time. I swear it.”
“How?”
“By weaving.” He reached around me and released his little stars, which danced across the sheen of shadow covering my body. “There is a way to amplify your Shadowspinning by…weaving it together with my Light. It is called a blood bond. Oberon and Titania have one too. They can pull from each other’s magyk, making it stronger, deeper. One of them alone could level the forest using the other’s power. Together, I imagine they could flatten entire cities.”
A surge of hope flooded my chest, and I turned to face him again, searching his eyes. “Magyk always has a price…”
“The price would be a connection between you and I, allowing us to feel when the other is in pain, even across great distances.”
