“You’re visiting your uncle here?Don’tgo to the castle. He collects humans. He likes their weakness. Don’t. Go,” she muttered and then walked off. Her footsteps were uneven, panicked.
“Collects them?”
The words tasted like rust.
Godric swam into view, panic on his face. “You okay?”
I nodded.
But my hands still trembled. The woman’s words had shaken me. I wasn’t planning on going, but thinking of humans as a collection made me sick.
He peered at my hip and the missing sword and dragged me by the underarm away from the tavern. His grip was firm, protective. We walked quickly, zigzagging through streets until we reached a pretty park with a small pond in the middle.
“Where is she?” Godric asked.
I winced. “Five hundred feet down the well.”
He winced. “I can’t believe of all the places he came there.”
“Val says he sensed her. Mind Render was looking for her.”
He rubbed his temples. “We need to leave. You’re in danger here. We both are.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. “I can’t leave her here,” I whimpered.
He blew air through his lips, looking as lost as I felt. “You have to.”
“The Hades I do! I’ll go back when it’s dark and?—”
“And what?” he pressed. “Swim five hundred feet into black, probably frigid, water?”
His voice cracked slightly, fear buried beneath frustration.
Tears filled my eyes, and his face softened. “I can’t leave her.”
‘You have to,’Val said, and I ignored her.
‘No,’I told her.
‘I’ll figure something out. But you need to get to safety.’
It was stupid to come here, to think that after over ten years of fighting this guy, I would be able to offer something new. The weight of my choices pressed on my ribs.
“The king invited me to his castle tonight for dinner. I could go and get Maelis and?—”
“Have you gone mad? With no weapon? You’re human, Brynn! He’d have you barking like a dog and licking his floor if he wanted, and there’s nothing you could do about it.”
His words weren’t cruel, just painfully true.
‘He’s right, Brynn. Go back to my son. I’m not sure how much I can shield you if you are far away. I want Kaelric’s protection over you.’
A wave of fatigue washed over me, and my eyes felt heavy. I knew it was because Val was drawing on my human energy to feed her power, and it was causing me to be weak. My limbs felt weighted, my breath thin.
I couldn’t help the sob that escaped my lips. “I’m not leaving her here.”
Godric pulled me into his arms and crushed me against his chest. His heartbeat was steady against my cheek. “She’s my sister. I love her, too. We will make a plan and be back for her, but my duty is to your safety right now. We have to go. That’s an order.”
Sorrow filtered from the center of my heart throughout my entire chest. I suddenly felt hollow, gutted from the inside out. The world felt thin around me, sound dulling as though someone had packed cotton behind my ears. Even my own heartbeat seemed to echo, distant and wrong.
