I shook my head. “I have no desire to do anything that will make me more like him. Tell your master that I refuse.”
Celia’s eyes flashed with a moment of panic, and her voice rose in pitch. “Refuse, and you will leave my master no choice but to kill you. But if you vow to serve him, he will allow you to keep your powers, and reap the rewards of service.”
“What rewards have you reaped?” I asked.
Celia didn’t even blink. “I am allowed to live, my lady.”
In its simplicity, that statement revealed just how desperate she must feel. But I could help. I could do more than that. If she would let me, I could heal her. Offering one hand out to her, I stepped forward. “Celia, I can save your heart. I can save you, but you must come with me into the forest.”
Celia shook her head. “It’s better to serve him willingly than to suffer needlessly. Either way, he will win in the end. Please, my lady, surrender to him and live.”
“I will survive just fine.”
“No, my lady. Unless you surrender, you will not survive the next minute.”
I looked around me, realizing I was standing on the forest boundary. Ahead of me, five archers who had obviously been in hiding all this time revealed themselves, all with their disk bows aimed at me. I could not attack them all, nor defend myself from so many disks.
One archer in particular caught my attention, a girl my own age with piercing brown eyes and long, thick lashes, and hair the exact color of Simon’s.
Simon once said he had a younger sister. Could this be her?
Celia raised one arm. “I am begging you to come with me, my lady. For the good of Antora. Nothing else will save your life.”
After several long seconds of waiting, Celia’s nervousness became apparent. Clearly, she did not want to give orders to harm me, but I knew she would if she had to.
A voice behind me commanded, “Return to the forest, Kestra. Now!”
I turned to see Loelle riding up behind me with Joth in the driver’s seat of her wagon. His lips were pressed tightly together in clear irritation, but Loelle’s entire body seemed to be tense with fear.
“My lady, announce your surrender and we will escort you to our king.” Celia’s eyes darted away from me. “He knows about those two behind you. The Navan were cursed here for a reason. They serve only themselves, falsely claiming a larger purpose in this world. Any kindness they are showing you now is only because it benefits them. Once they have taken from you all that they desire, you will be tossed aside.”
“That is not true!” Loelle’s tone sharpened. “Kestra, return to the forest!”
Celia’s gaze shifted back to me, her eyes pleading with me to listen to her. “My lady, they brought you here against your will, manipulating your powers, draining your strength, and robbing you of every glory that should be yours. Lord Endrick can restore it to you. Please, come with me now or these soldiers must shoot.”
I took a step backward, my toes on the boundary. I felt half-lives around me, attempting to drag me back with them, but I resisted their tug too.
“Is he frightened of me?” I asked Celia. “Lord Endrick knows what I can do to him.”
“The Lord of the Dominion fears nothing,” Celia said; then with a cry of pain, her body contracted. “Please, my lady. I beg you to come with me.”
He was squeezing on her heart. There was no reason for it—she had done nothing but obey him.
“One more step back,” Loelle said. “Then you’re safe with us.”
“Return to the forest and you do so as their prisoner,” Celia said. “Or come with me and be a free leader of the Dominion.” She cried out again and I knew Endrick was continuing to torment her. Why was he doing that? “Please, Kestra. He will kill me otherwise.”
I held out my hand for Celia. “No, you must come with me. It’s only a few steps, and I will save you.” I looked up at the archers. “I will save all of you, if you will drop your weapons and come to me as friends.”
“They are not friends,” Joth said. “They cannot be allowed to enter.”
I began to argue with him, until another cry from Celia forced my attention to her again. She was half bent over, clutching her chest, and in her pained voice, she whispered to the disk archers, “Release.”
My eye immediately shifted to the girl who shared Simon’s brown eyes. She didn’t flinch as she sent her disk flying. In that same instant, Joth’s arm curved around my waist, yanking me backward, fully within the borders of the forest. The disks collided in the air where I had just stood, exploding into dust against each other, then falling to the ground.
“What sort of game was that?” Joth snarled at me.
“He’s killing her—let me go!”
I broke free of him and tried to run out of the forest, but the same half-lives who had just protected me now barricaded me from leaving. A scream pierced the boundary, then it was cut to total silence.
“Celia!”
When I saw her again, she had collapsed to the ground, but her body was still now. Dead.
“No!” Desperately, I turned to Loelle. “You can save her.”
“It’s too late, and even if I could, not with those archers out there.” In a sterner voice, Loelle added, “Besides, she would not have needed saving if you had not come to the border.” To Joth, she said, “Put Kestra in the wagon and keep her there until I can get us deeper into the forest.”
He half threw me into the back of the wagon, immediately climbing in next to me. If he wanted a fight, he’d get it. I reached for his arm but was repelled by the same half-lives that had prevented me from going to Celia.
Fuming, I shouted, “Celia was right. I am a prisoner here!”
“We’re all prisoners here!” he countered. “You’re our only chance at escaping, and you might have just ruined it. You should have left the instant you saw the Ironhearts. If they suspected you were here before, now they know it!”
“Well, I won’t be here much longer. First chance I find to escape on my own, I will be gone.” Still furious, I leaned against the sideboard of the wagon and folded my arms as Loelle drove us away.
Once the border was no longer visible, he said, “You might thank us for keeping you from being shot.”
“Us? You and your half-life slaves? Does Loelle control you all too? Of all your people, why are you and Loelle the only two who escaped the curse?”
Joth hesitated, but Loelle looked back long enough to say, “We’ve got to tell her the truth.”
He nodded but still said nothing until we had returned to his home. Then Loelle excused herself to go inside while Joth waited with me in the wagon. My arms remained folded, and I stared up at the trees rather than acknowledge him.
After a lengthy silence, he began. “My father was the king of the Navan, many years ago when we lived across the Eranbole Sea. But there was a great war and only a few of us survived. We escaped, coming to Antora only to face another war. Hoping to preserve our people, we took up refuge here in the forest, but so did many of the Halderians. When Lord Endrick cursed these woods, that curse became ours as well. I was very young then. My mother and I were saved only because my father had placed us in hiding outside the woods, but my mother has never forgotten our obligation to restore what has been lost to them all these years.”