“What was—” He stopped, then asked more urgently, “Are you well?”
Risa didn’t know.
Once again she felt lightheaded and sick and cold and hot, all at once. She was consumed by the thought of the nameless, faceless girls before her who had died believing they were meant to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of their town. Caught up in a lie, gobbled up by greed, the town too concerned over its future to question whether these girls deserved to have a life of their own.
There was a groan from the crowd.
“Oh,” an anguished voice cried out. No more singing. “I’m feeling depressed.”
“Me too,” another answered.
“What do we do now?” asked another voice.
“I don’t know,” a man said. He stood near a lamppost, face distorted in anger, and pointed an accusing finger at the makeshift stage. “I kind of blame her.”
“Me too,” agreed another.
“Kill them anyway!”
“That’s the thanks we get?” Prince Javi shouted at the crowd. Heslipped his fingers between Risa’s and pulled her behind him. “She saved you from the controlling grasp of a cursed god!”
“Yeah,” answered the burly young man the prince had flirted with just a few hours earlier. He did not look overjoyed at the prospect of speaking to the prince anymore. “But we were pretty happy with him.”
Within moments, the townspeople surged forward, suddenly holding torches, pitchforks, and shovels, which Risa suspected had been used to dig a grave for their future sacrifice.
The prince yanked, and together he and Risa jumped from the platform and ran for the bridge, Brunie sprinting behind them. As they crossed the stream, there was a deep rumble through the air. Something cold and wet landed on Risa’s cheek. She glanced up in time to see gray clouds block out the moon and break open.
Rain followed them down a dirt path that led away from the bridge. It didn’t head for the Bosque, which was good enough for Risa.
“Prince Javi—”
“I think we’re at the point where you can simply call me Javi,” he said with a wheeze. The blond hair made him look sickly, as did the sweat along his brow and lip.
“Can you outrun them?”
“If I must.”
“You can call me Risa,” she decided to tell him then, because at least if they were caught and sacrificed anyway, he would know her name.
“Risa,” he repeated with a lopsided smile.
CHAPTER TENIn Which the Pair Shares a Moment
A horse-drawn cart appeared out of the mist falling over the bridge and stream outside Cairn. The cart’s lantern bobbed along the meandering path that led away from both the Bosque and the town. Risa and Javi slowed, careful to remain out of sight until the cart had nearly passed, and then Risa was pulling the prince onto the back among stacks of crates while Brunie jumped aboard. She worried the driver might have heard or somehow seen them through the fog, but he never slowed.
Risa fell asleep the moment she settled between crates labeledBo’s Rocks and Minerals. She awoke after a particularly nasty bump in the road that sent Brunie scampering from between her legs, where the cat had curled up during the night.
Sitting across from her with his legs extended, hunched anddispleased, was Javi, his blond hair a disheveled mop. His face grew hazy as she stared. Heat raced along her skin.
A telltale sign of magic.
“Don’t look at me,” he hissed, his head cushioned on one of his arms, which was slung across the ledge of the cart. “I’m hideous.”
That wasn’t true, but he certainly didn’t look his best, and not just because his hair turned her vision wonky. “Acceptance is the first step.”
He glared for a moment, then threw something at her. Risa’s beat-up pack landed on her lap, along with a small tangerine and a half-eaten apple.
“You’re welcome,” he spat when she bit into the mushy flesh. It was the first bite of food she’d had in what seemed like forever. “Now, as payment for my rescuing you—”
