He’d thrown away all of her charms. Where did she get it?
“It’s how we got away from the witch.” Asher’s voice grew hoarse. “It’s what burned her hand. The witch came down to the cell to taunt us. To taunt Rowan. She’d already grown bored of playing with me.”
“What did she say?”
Asher wouldn’t look at him. “Lots of things. You know how they are. It doesn’t mean anything.”
He felt a thread of sympathy for them both, even as he wished Asher would tell him what the witch said. Witches were able to draw out your deepest, darkest fears. They pressed at every weak spot in your mind and spirit. At the same time, he couldn’t fault Asher for holding his silence. He was trying to protect Rowan. She deserved that.
“Go on,” he prompted as they moved closer to the fort. They couldn’t get much closer on horseback from this direction, but they had a good sightline. If the witch broke this way, they’d be able to signal for help and use the crossbow bolts to contain her for a while.
“It was a fire charm she had in her pocket. I told her we shouldn’t use it, but she did it anyway. I could have stopped her. Should I have stopped her?”
“You got out,” Casrian told him. “That’s the important thing.”
Asher sighed as he looked down at the fort. “I don’t think she cared if the witch used it to ensnare her so long as she took the witch down with her. She’s brave. Braver than me anyway.”
There was a bitter twist to his voice. Asher had never been as callous as the others. It made him a good medic, but he sometimes beat himself up about it.
“Rowan wouldn’t have made it out that door without you.”
“She had to hold the charm against the witch’s body to trigger it. Her hand—” His voice went rough. “I don’t know if she’ll be able to use her hand again.”
Casrian’s stomach turned. “She’ll be all right.”
She was alive.
If there was one thing he’d learned about Rowan, it was that she’d climb back to her feet. She didn’t give up.
“I should have been the one to do it,” Asher said. “I didn’t think it would work, the charm. Not down there. She has fae blood, doesn’t she? That’s why Emrys put her in irons.”
Casrian’s jaw clenched at the thought of her bound wrists. “Yes. Her mother has fae blood as well, though it seems stronger in Rowan. I don’t know anything about her father except that he was a soldier.”
He had to have fae blood as well, though no one in Jarn had mentioned any peculiarities in the family. When he got back home, he intended to scour the Academy’s library, question the priest scholars. Someone must know more about her magic and the danger it represented. The trick was going to be how to find the answers without placing a target on her back.
If she woke up.
If she didn’t run the moment she opened her eyes.
Casrian stopped moving forward at the edge of a drop. “Did anything else happen that I should know about?”
Asher looked away, down the brush-strangled hillside. “Nothing that’s mine to share.”
He stared at Asher’s stubbornly set jaw and considered whether to press for more. He decided against it.
“Whatever happened in there, the two of you made it out,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to second guess you. Don’t let anyone else second guess you. We weren’t in there. You were.”
Asher blew out an unsteady breath. “Yeah, I know. It will take awhile to let it go.”
“We’re here for you. All of us. Anything you need.”
He wished Asher had stayed with Rowan and sent Grigor in his stead. Asher shouldn’t have to face the witch again so soon.But it was his choice. Maybe facing her, watching her die, would help him heal.
They found a spot where they had a clear view of this side of the fort, from the front gate where Emrys was positioned to the tower where the Cardis brothers waited. Asher took up a spot a dozen feet away from him and watched the woods while he stared at the ruins below.
He couldn’t see any movement, but that wasn’t reassuring. The witch wouldn’t wait much longer. Every second brought them closer to dawn when her powers would be weakest.
A flare went up, arcing into the dark sky. Red and wavering, it reached a high peak and then started to fade as it fell.
