“Why would you kiss him?” he asks, such pain in his tone that it cracks the fissure in my heart even wider.
The deep discomfort of the Imperial Grand Witch takes over, controlling my body with an expulsion of laughter.
I grab my stomach as Varic’s wounded expression guts me, twisting my insides with this lie. Because he was never meant to see any evidence pointing to a connection between Sal and me. He wasn’t meant to be involved in any way. Yet I want nothing more than to whip the Godsdamned book from the waistband of my leather pants and show it to him. To flip through the pages and explain why I have chosen to take this risk. To display my selfish nature—my sad attempt at reviving the embers of hope that there might be something we can use to overthrow the tyrant ruling us all.
Something hidden within its pages must be important enough to have kept it hidden.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” I say, returning to myself as the Imperial Grand Witch recedes, leaving me to act as if I feel any semblance of calm while fury and fear riot inside me.
“The truth. I need you to tell me the truth.”
I huff out a breath and step back in retreat when his distinguishable warmth winds its way around my arm, holding me in place while I face the doors.
“Tasch.” His pleading use of my name reaches through my ribs and squeezes my heart.
This is not the kind of heartache I know so well, and I wouldn’t have guessed it, but now I know—the sensation of heartbreak is so much worse than every ounce of the fear I use to kill my victims.
Varic’s grip tightens, and Lars speeds to stand chest to chest before him.
“Unhand her. Now.” Lars’ growl is so deep I feel it in my marrow.
General Varic releases me, though his hand hovers as I open my mouth. Hendry looms on my opposite side, prepared to say what is needed to temper the situation, when a sudden vibration is felt along my stomach. It feels as if the book I’ve been given is capable of movement, instilling an eerie sense of unease in me.
We each pause in place when a high-pitched shriek fills the sky, and our eyes cast upward while a swarm of ancient voices screams for me to ‘run’ inside my mind.
A shudder rolls down my body, as it has every other time this has occurred.
I repeat their message aloud as sparks of flame burst within the ribbon of darkness between the trees and the balcony.
Yet these sorts of explosions are neither decorative nor celebratory?—
They’re bombs.
“Retreat!” Hendry and Varic yell in unison as time seems to slow.
“I have her!” Varic says as his arms surround me, bringing the front of my body flush with his own before lifting me off the ground and hurriedly carrying me toward the doors.
“I can walk!” I yell into the thick fabric of his uniform.
“I know,” he says, striding forward.
Lars bounces off Varic’s amber shield as he reaches for me, and small tin bombs burst high above us.
“Godsdammit, Varic!” Lars screams, punching the shield he cannot see. “Let me in!”
Fray hovers above the ground with light gray mist trailing behind him.
“If I part the shield and she gets hurt, I will end your existence!” Varic yells.
“Deal!” Lars screams, widening his arms in preparation as Cirrin and Malin walk directly next to us. Varic expands the shield, allowing Lars to take hold of both of our forms while Fray drops to the ground to be held inside it.
Lars squeezes, indicating he’s about to run, when I push against Varic’s chest to see Hendry cast in amber, and my heart drops down to my stomach with the realization he’s not inside the shield with us.
But he can shield himself. He can keep himself safe.
Yet no orange orb surrounds his form as he peers over the railing.
I open my mouth to shout for him when horror overtakes my body from the giant wall of fire rising to consume half of the balcony.
