“You need to use it,” Duana said, her eyes lighting with a feverish intensity. She gripped the bars tight, flinching when the iron bit her skin. “Use it against the wood king.He’sthis enemy you speak of. He has to be.”
Reyna’s lips flattened. “I had my own questions about that, but the wood king doesn’t fit the visions.”
“How can you know?”
“Because I know. I’ve seen all the visions myself.”
“Then, whodoesfit the visions?”
Reyna sighed and closed her eyes. “Me.”
Suddenly, a guard rounded the corner of the gallows. He strode right for Duana’s cell, his boots squelching in the muddy ground. Duana shrieked and scrabbled back to the opposite end of her cage, her body shaking like a leaf. A knife of horror slipped into Reyna’s gut with a sharpness that made her gasp.
“Stop. Leave her,” Reyna said, pressing up onto all fours. “Take me instead.”
The guard snorted. “This isn’t some kind of either-or situation, princess. You’ll both be coming with me.”
Several more guards rounded the corner, surrounding the two cages. Reyna’s hands fisted, and her mind began to whirl with thoughts of an escape. Maybe if she slammed her fists hard enough, she’d knock them out. Or she could grab one of their weapons before they got their hands on her. All she needed was a sword. She might be weak, but she hadn’t lost her skills.
She hoped.
But just as soon as they opened her cage, they slammed a rock against her head.
* * *
Reyna peeled open her eyes as pain flashed across her forehead. Blearily, she gazed out at a silent mob of shadow fae that had been corralled into the square beneath the gallows. They all peered up at her with horror-stricken faces. Some sobbed. Others sagged against each other, all the fight and hope gone from their eyes.
Reyna’s hands were bound behind her back by rough rope that bit into her skin. The Ruin was silent, but she could feel its pleasure. As she glanced around, she noted the guards on either side of her, the rope hanging just above her head, and the wooden platform beneath her aching knees.
Wingallock sat beside her, his eyes shut to the world. She could still feel his life force pulsing between them, but he was slipping away. Tears filled her raw eyes. If only he could live. If only he could stretch his wings wide and escape this brutal fate.
“Princess Reyna Darragh of the Ice Court.” A pair of boots appeared before her eyes. She craned her head to glare up at the wood fae towering over her. He was nothing more than one of Ulaid Molt’s many guards, his face hidden behind a thick shadowsteel helmet, a curving sword in his hands.
“Where’s your king?” she hissed around a throat that felt as though it had been scraped by a thousand swords. “Is he too cowardly to take care of me himself?”
“Our High King has better things to do than stand watch over a meaningless execution,” the guard hissed back. “You’re lucky you even get a chance to voice your final words.”
Reyna’s mouth felt dry. She stared out at the crowd, flinching at the whimpering cries of Duana drifting toward her from where she knelt halfway down the platform. Her fading green hair hung in her eyes, frazzled and soaked with mud. This would be her end. Not in the glory of battle but here, like this. An axe against the hope of all these shadow fae.
She would die here in this place. The entire city would be destroyed. And then the wood king would turn his gleaming gaze north, killing everyone in his path. Tir Na Nog would become the very thing the Dagda had feared.
Her heart thumped. Maybe the Ruin truly had been wrong all this time. The visions had gotten twisted. Or the prophecy had been wrong.
I am not wrong, the Ruin hissed into her ears.You’re just desperate to find a way to live.
She closed her eyes, images of the past and her imagined future flashing in her mind. A reel of memories that twisted together with dreams. None of that would ever come to pass, but maybe she could save the future of everyone here. Maybe Duana was right. Reyna had been too frightened to use the Ruin all this time, but if she could keep control of it just long enough to stop these wood fae, to kill the king…
The Ruin might be the only thing that could stop him.
Suddenly, the noose slid around her neck. The wood fae flashed her a wicked smile, signalling to the guard just behind her. “You have one moment to speak your last words, Princess Reyna Darragh of the Ice Court. And then you shall die.”
39
Lorcan
Lorcan rushed through the streets with his sword raised high. Up ahead, he heard the distinctive sound of screams. Nollaig and Lord Maddox flanked his sides while the army from the twins hacked at the wood fae who had been guarding the gates. He’d managed to convince them to rush on the city at once.
He left them behind, fighting his way toward the square just ahead. He spotted several figures clustered together on a raised platform. As he drew closer, his feet pounding the ground, his heart ripped out of his chest. That was no mere platform. Ropes hung from wooden crosses, swinging in the misty wind. It was a gallows.
