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Just beyond the rails of the pavilion, there were more breaths—those of the dead. I felt them stepping closer, their sighs whispering through the pines. Gods, ghosts, and maybe angels, they all watched. Waiting.
As Paxton rode away, I noted that he was particularly well-groomed today, the sides of his head freshly shaved and his russet ponytail gleaming in a neat line down his back. Maybe he at least wanted to look presentable hanging from a tembris if he was caught.
“I’d have drowned them both like feral kittens a long time ago if I had my way.” There was no jest in his tone, and if the king or Banques gave the nod, I knew he would gladly do it. Lydia and Nash didn’t flinch at his remark, and I wondered at the horrors they had endured every day as prisoners of the king, because though he tried to paint it differently, there was no question—they were his prisoners.
“The gods know where she is. It’s a beautiful place where she was meant to rest. The gods are pleased.”
“You’re never going away again?” Lydia added. “Because family doesn’t go away.” “Never,” I answered, guilt stabbing me, because I knew sometimes family did go away even if they didn’t want to.
“No, Nash,” I corrected. “Vatrésta is for a final good-bye. We will see each other again. Chemarr is for a short farewell.”
The right response? Cutting down innocent rotting bodies? Such a kindness. I checked the revulsion rolling up my throat. “A wise move,” I agreed and pulled off my sock, tucked it in my boot, and began unlacing the other. “And it will certainly help elevate the festive mood.”
“And soon I won’t need to travel with the children at all.”
He was going to give them to Zane. Zane. “Places? More than one?” I asked. “You plan to separate them?”
Yes, Montegue, send them away and eliminate two young Ballengers who might grow up and challenge you one day. Break them, destroy them, but at the same time, keep them close just in case you need to bring them back again to serve some scheming
He won’t be able to do any of these things, Kazi. Stay focused on each step. You’re almost there.
Paxton was lying to them, and he had even drawn maps! Maybe that was the bug he planted in Banques’s ear—maps that would take them in all the wrong directions. I was beginning to love that man and every devious bone in his body.
Truth. Jase promised me a lifetime with him. He promised a mountain full of trees and a family that would grow to love me again. He promised we would write our own story. And I made promises too.
He didn’t notice that my bruise had vanished. A piece of the fantasy filled his eyes instead—delivered by a thief.
We parted ways, but before I reached the sycamore, I stooped at the base of a tall old spruce with thick, gnarled roots at its base, and pulled away the mounds of needles I had piled between them to hide the dead guard’s weapons. I replaced my dull sword and dagger with his very sharp ones, and added his short but deadly push knife to my belt.
His eyes drilled into me, judging the timing of his moves too. And then he lunged. Because he was stronger and could overtake me easily. Because he had the gods on his side. But this time I didn’t have a pickle fork clutched in my hand. Beneath my cloak, I gripped something else in my fist.
The sky swirled above me in shadowy reds. I felt wetness and warmth. Blood. It ran into my eyes, blinding me. I winced, lifting a shaky hand to swipe it away, and my breath caught. My shoulder. This time it was pain that blinded me.
But then I heard a scream. A loud, glorious scream that bounced off the stony canyon. It was the sound of thwarted dreams. The sound of fury and betrayal. The king’s scream.
My other hand painfully slid inch by inch across the stone to my side, feeling my pocket to see if it still held the king’s treasure. It was there. Out of his hands. And I would make sure he never got it back.
me. But I didn’t know how to use the magic or even know if I could, and there was a good chance I would be recaptured. I couldn’t let it fall back into his hands. I surveyed the ledge wall and spotted a tiny crevice at the bottom. I tucked the vial inside, and a small lizard scurried out.
What had she done to make them shut down the entire town? Whatever it was, I hoped it cost them plenty, and I applauded her bravery. We checked back in a few hours later. The roads were still closed. Even I could see, there was no getting through. Whoever this woman was, she was trapped and would be found—unless she had escaped already. I prayed for the latter.
Aleski said Oleez was looking after them, and now of course, Kazi was too. My mother was probably wild with worry, but Lydia and Nash knew what to do. They had been schooled. Wait it out. Play along the way Miandre did. Help will come. But they were so young—younger than she had been. And more innocent. My fingers curled into a fist. Know your enemies as well as you know your allies. Know them better. Make their business yours.
Had he asked someone who I was? But that would mean he was watching me from afar. I should have paid attention to that detail, but he smiled and shrugged, forgetting about the taxes, and said he needed to be on his way. The fields wouldn’t plant themselves.
went and peeked inside. The seat was covered with blood.
finished tying it off and left. If Kazi saw it, she would know I was alive, and I was here, and help was coming.
What would get me first? The plummeting temperatures, the wrath of the king, or maybe a Candok bear who wanted his shallow cave back? But not Zane. Anything but Zane.
told myself the pain, the pain everywhere, from my shoulder to my head to my leg, was good, like hunger in a belly. It would make me more determined, sharp. I told myself a lot of lies to keep me going. Because every step I took made Lydia and Nash safer.
Bleeding fingers meant nothing. Cracked ribs and a swollen shoulder meant nothing. Leading the soldiers away meant everything.
felt things squirm beneath my clothes and crawl over my scalp. I prayed none of them were poisonous. My eyes were already heavy, closing.
Sleep, my chiadrah. Sleep. I felt my mother’s hand, cold on my cheek. Heard the rustle of a leafy blanket covering me. “Am I dying?” I asked. No, my beloved. Not yet. Not today.
I rubbed my muscles with my good arm, forcing warmth back into them, and finally struggled to my feet. There! Something over there is moving! I ran. As much as I could run. The king would not give up until he had me—and his magic—back in his grip.
I worried he had suffered a worse fate than me. He was the one who had suggested taking me to Tor’s Watch. He mentioned my injured ankle and my premonition. And the next morning, once Binter and Cheu were discovered missing, the king would know he was part of the setup. If Paxton hadn’t slipped away by then, he would have no chance. Had he been able to get away? Or was he dead? Already hanging from the tembris?
That’s all I wanted to see, Jase’s eyes and the magic they held—a different kind of magic—as I drifted deeper into sleep.
One thing I did know was I loved Lydia and Nash more than I loved my own life, and knowing they were safe made it possible for me to do everything I could now to save Hell’s Mouth. But there was more than Hell’s Mouth that needed saving.
“Family, as I see it,” Synové answered. “This is a pretty big secret. The hidden entrance,” she said with hushed drama. “We either have to be family or you have to kill us. Isn’t that how these kinds of secrets work?”
But the truth was, they were Kazi’s family, and that made them mine too.
Tell her how sorry I was that I hadn’t been careful, that when I saw the fallen spire, I ran toward my family instead of thinking of the family at my side.
“Put your weapons down. They’re helping me. Where’s Kazi? Is she inside?” I asked. “Them? Helping you? What’s the matter with you, Jase?” Gunner said, his question thick with suspicion. “Where have you been?”
“She was, but we got rid of her. I threw her into one of their snares, and a patrol grabbed her. I was going to kill her immediately, but this way is actually better. Let her body rot up on the tembris like all the others.”
“Or what, Jase? What are you going to do? I am your brother!” My chest heaved. “And Kazi is my wife!”
We all have fantasies. Even Jase and I had them. Fantasies we fed. It will all work out. But sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes life and fantasies and family all went completely wrong.
Instead I had screamed the announcement without her. There was no happiness in it. It was a murderous declaration. How many promises to her had I broken? It was probably a small thing to worry about now, but it burned through me like acid. It was just one more thing that had spiraled out of control.
My stomach turned inside out as I asked the question I wasn’t sure I wanted an answer to. “What will he do to her in those few days?” “I don’t know,” he answered, but I heard the worry in his voice.
“Gunner,” Mason whispered, trying to get him to back down, maybe nervous about what I might do. He had good reason to be nervous.
beating in my chest. When they dragged me into the inn today, a red ribbon flashed past my vision. I realized now it was probably only one of the many festival decorations, but in the flash of that terrifying moment as I was pulled through the inn doors like a piece of live game, I had imagined the ribbon to be something else, tied there just for me. I allowed myself to slip back into that world, a world where there were breezes, promises, tomorrows, and Jase.
Our lips met, and he whispered words between them: Show me, Kazi. Show me what to do. I want you to be my wife.
Bound by earth. Bound by the heavens. Wife and husband. Montegue could never take that away. His footsteps grew louder then stopped just outside the door. He was here.
“The next thing we saw was—” Titus paused. His lips rolled over his teeth. “We saw Jalaine fall from the top of the tower. They threw her over the side.” His hands pulled into fists on the table, but his eyes were empty, like every bit of emotion had already been drained from him.
Discovered that Kazi had been thrown to the wolves by my own family. That my wife was going to be hanged. I promise you, Kazi. They will listen. They will love you.
I had just learned my sister was murdered and my wife had been turned over to a fiend. Doing something crazy seemed like the sane thing to do.
