Page 25

I dropped to my knees before Finan, taking one long look at his wolf’s mask before bowing my head and coughing out a pathetic request for his forgiveness. The words cut through my raw throat and seared like acid against my tongue. I hated every Grimward who didn’t defect from their post and follow Drak the moment The Blood Council disbanded. I hated Finan only a little less.

The humiliation ended swiftly as Grimward barked at witches and captives to move faster. I scrambled to my feet and fell in line, crowded beside men and women I didn’t recognize. The ship settled into the sand with a jolt, and Goat jumped over the railing where the foamy waves immediately soaked him up to his waist. Raven remained aboard to tabulate captives from the banished, separating them but treating them no differently.

We shuffled forward, stopping only when a screech split the air. Someone fell overboard, off the ship next to ours and crashed into the shallow water head-first. The man disappeared under the waves, and moments later, two Grimward plunged into the sea in pursuit.

A few seconds later the fallen man bobbed to the surface, and I identified him as a captive, evident by the humps pressing against the shirt on his back. From this distance, I couldn’t see his eyes, but I felt sure they possessed that same ancient gaze, tinged with violet and gold. Thank the sky and sea I didn’t have to capture one of them. I felt a sort of kinship with the West Anglans, with their odd eyes. Just as mine had been when the gods chose me, my eyes once fully black, inky and haunting and outing me as their chosen witch.

The captive stood rooted to the spot with his eyes fixed on the approaching Grimward before he suddenly flinched and spun around, thrashing and attempting to flee. As he splayed his hands over the water, his back facing the sky, I saw those two thick bulges on his back. The strange growth looked almost painful as it tapered down the length of his spine from his shoulder blade and then thinned until it disappeared from view down at his waist.

I didn’t know if my eyes played a trick on me, but the bulbous humps seemed to fan out, pressing tightly against the back of his tunic like an animal hidden beneath the linen, desperate to break free. Panicked and obviously overwhelmed by his scattered thoughts, the man watched helplessly as the Grimward closed in. He froze when the falcon-faced executioner grabbed him, likely knowing they’d swim faster than him and he had no chance of escape. To reach West Anglor required another treacherous journey across The Drowning, and Vylheim owned all the available ships.

He’d either drown or live a little longer as a slave or sacrifice.

With the excitement over, the line shuffled forward again. Raven took a meticulous count of the captives, but Finan shoved his way to stand beside her and speed up the process of transporting us from the ship to the shore. After a minute, he instructed her to take the seers off the ship while he covered her post. Raven twisted her lips in disgust at him, but obeyed. She pushed her way to the back of the boat where my mother and presumably another seer sat. Unlike my mother, who was unconscious and unwell, the other woman was merely quiet and disoriented, giving the impression that she had mentally withdrawn and was unaware of the world around her.

I’d only taken two steps when another screech scraped my ears. We all snapped to attention, heads swiveling back to the West Anglan man as he kicked and thrashed against the Grimward. Despite his efforts, they dragged him into shallower waters.

“Bloodsuckers!” he screamed. “Bloodsuckers!” His movements were jerky and violent, matching that of a wild animal caught in a trap, knowing its fate was to be eaten by a bigger predator.

Bloodsuckers? My throat constricted as I spotted the cloaked men and women in the crowd come to greet us. This wasn’t just the people of Einnland curious about our survival crossing Drukna, but Silver’s court had come to stand at the waterline and greet us too. Vampires wrapped in thick pelts and gowns and hooded garments to cover their skin from any glimpse of the sun.

As if the sun shone in Vylheim anymore.

What did the vampires come here for? Weren’t the Grimward enough to handle bringing the prisoners to Mara’s Keep? What was my sister playing at?

Wailing joined the screaming man’s cries, chanting that word. Bloodsuckers. West Anglans somehow knew—they knew—what vampires were. How did they have information that we didn’t have until only months ago? But how they knew didn’t matter right now. The fact was, they knew that monsters surviving on our blood ruled this land, and sheer terror paralyzed them.

Finan snapped for us to move faster as Goat yelled from below. “Throw them overboard if you have to!”

His voice was drowned out by the man screaming the same warning over and over. “Bloodsuckers! Bloodsuckers!”

I blinked and watched the captives on our ship as their bodies tensed, all of them reacting not just with shock, but with understanding. However hard they tried to hide it, their eyes flashed, their muscles flexed, and every West Anglan stared at the vampires lining the shore. Twenty of them—no, thirty? Maybe more. I flickered my attention from the captives to the vampires, but I didn’t have time to understand the source of the West Anglan’s frozen state before their fear built into chaos.

The captives fought with their lives, undeterred by the Grimward’s brutal methods, and in the ensuing chaos, a solid, warm sensation burned against my leg. Drak’s soul. I slipped my hand into my pocket just as Axel’s hand wrapped around my other wrist.

“Come, my queen,” he breathed. “Now is the time to run.”

The prisoners’ resistance quickly turned bloody. I shoved past bruised faces, animal faces made of clay, past Stasia even. Grimward pummeled on captives and witches, beating whoever was within reach with their fists, and dragging them to the sand. As we kicked over the side of the ship, the chaos drowning us in a mass of bodies, I fell back, searching for Raven.

“Lux!” Axel tugged at my arm.

“Wait!” I said. “My mother, I have to get her.”

But his grip was too strong, and he caught me by surprise. His mossy eyes reflected the waves as they swam with concern. “You must not get captured. Stay with Finan, and he will sneak you away. Past the vampires.”

“But—”

“I’ll retrieve your mother.”

My heart skipped. “Axel, Drak needs you to survive. I don’t trust that guard who’s always stalking her; he’ll hurt you both.”

He shook his head. “Like all executioners, I trained Reindeer, Lux. I can fight him; besides, the king hasn’t needed me since he was a boy. I need him though; we all do. We need him to sit on that throne, or else it has to be you.” His grip tightened around my wrist, but he was never rough. “Stay with Finan. I will break Laurella free of her guard, and we’ll follow you.”

“Thank you,” I whispered.

Following Finan and Stasia was as easy as walking out of the water. Our path to freedom seemed to open wide as the Grimward and vampires didn’t take notice of me trailing after my superior. I twisted around, hearing the splash of water as we made our way to shore, making sure to keep Axel’s salty dark hair within view. Did he have my mother in his arms? I couldn’t see from here, but this chaos, and Finan, it all worked. The plan to sneak past the Grimward worked.

Vampires grabbed witches and threw their hooded cloaks off their heads. I expected them to sink their teeth into those they snatched, but they threw them aside, discarding them without interest.