My fucking horse.
Jareth rears and plunges in terror and confusion, but somehow Vern manages to stay on his back. Another vicious kick has Jareth off like a shot, trying to leave this terrifying person behind him. Vern and Jareth thunder straight into the town and up the deserted main street.
I run for a horse and leap onto it’s back, and we go racing after them. I see Vern’s back, and only Vern’s back, as I close the distance between us. Vulnerable bone. Pierceable flesh.
Ryah has run down to the road and is waving her arms frantically. “Cale, don’t kill him. Don’t kill him.”
Her cry disappears into the wind and the clatter of hooves. I raise my arm, the blade held between finger and thumb.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ryah
“Cale, no!”
I watch in despair as Dad and Cale pelt up the main street and are lost from view among the buildings, Cale poised to throw a knife. This time he won’t miss. This time it will mean Dad’s life.
My screams have brought the others. Gorran and Arvid are pelting across the grass for their own horses, followed by Elke and Anouk.
I moan in terror and anguish, and run for a horse. I have to stop Cale. If he kills Dad, he’ll go to prison for the rest of his life. No court is going to look favorably on a man like Cale. He’ll be called gypsy scum. A vagrant who stole me away. I hate that everyone looks at Cale like he’s dangerous and untrustworthy when I know he’s the best man in the world. The only man for me, and I’m going to lose him. He doesn’t even know about the baby that might be growing inside me.
I try to mount up, but hands pull me back. “Ryah, no. Let Gorran and Arvid go.”
It’s Elke, and she locks her arms around me. I struggle like I did in Dad’s arms, kicking and screaming, until Anouk comes and takes my hands and looks into my eyes, her expression terrified.
“Ryah, you need to calm down. You’re going to make yourself sick.”
The pounding hooves of two more horses race up the road. The three of us watch them go, gripping each other’s hands.
I stare at the spot where Cale disappeared, willing him to come trotting back, leading Jareth.
There’s some shouting, and then more silence. A few minutes later, the wail of sirens fills the air, and in the streets of the town, red and blue lights flash.
I sink to the ground, sobbing. Cale’s killed him. Cale in a cell. I want to die. I wrap an arm around my belly and press my face into the grass. It’s not fair. He wanted justice for me because he couldn’t get it for Mirrie, and now he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison.
There are people either side of me, and they sit with me in the grass. I see the patterns of their skirts through tear-blurred eyes, and the feel of their hands on my back. Anouk and Elke, and they’re crying too.
I push my cheek against the grass and bury my fingers in the soil, wishing for the earth to swallow me up so the pain is over. I was stupid to imagine we could ever be happy. I imagine sitting in the public gallery at court, but this time it’s Cale in the dock. Imprisoned. Chained. Lost to me forever.
Elke speaks in a choked voice. “Is that Cale?”
I take a shuddering breath and look up, but my vision is blurry and all I can see is flashing lights in the darkness. I blink hard and wipe my eyes on my forearms. Someone’s coming across the grass toward us.
Arms slip around me. Warm, familiar arms, and he lifts me to my feet. “Shh. I’m here.”
I touch his face, unable to believe he’s real. I leave muddy streaks on his cheeks. It’s really Cale. “Is he dead?”
Tell me it isn’t true. Please, Cale.
Regret washes over his face. “I’m sorry, Ryah.”
I press my face into his chest, sobbing harder. The last moments with the man I love before he’s ripped from me forever. “You didn’t have to. I just wanted you.”
“Wanted me? You don’t want me anymore?”
I look past him to the red and blue flashing lights. Maybe if he flees now, they won’t catch him. I could go with him. Hope flares within me. It wouldn’t be much of a life, but I would be with him, and that’s better than not having him at all. I take Cale’s hand and start to tug him away into the darkness, not sure where I’m taking him but knowing that anywhere is better than here.
Cale lets me lead him, his steps slow and reluctant. “Sparkle, I didn’t kill him.”
I stop short. “What? I thought you said he was dead.”
“Jareth threw him as he was riding down the main street. He died instantly. Broken neck. I came back for you, to see if you were okay.” He takes my face between his hands. “I’m sorry. I think I lost my mind for a moment there.”
I don’t care about any of that, I just care that he’s not going to be taken away from me. “They won’t arrest you, will they? They won’t blame you?”
Cale looks over his shoulder. People dressed in pajamas are lining the streets, staring at a scene I can’t see from here. Gorran and Arvid are leading Jareth and the other horses back to us.
“I don’t think so. There were witnesses when he fell. Will you be all right? I have to go back to the police. They’ll want to question me.”
Fear ripples through me at the thought of him talking to the police. “As long as you come back.”
Cale swoops in for a fierce kiss. His lips against mine finally get through to me. He’s all right. He came back to me. The tears spill afresh down my cheeks, and as he breaks the kiss I wrap my arms tightly around him.
“I’ll come back. Do you hear me? But you need to stay here. I don’t want you to see.”
He doesn’t want me to see Dad’s body in the road. I nod, drinking in the sight of Cale, very much alive and safe and warm in my arms. “I’m all right. I’ll be all right now.”
He kisses me one last time. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Stay with Elke and Anouk, okay?”
When he’s a nearly a dozen feet from me, I remember why I set off to see him tonight in the first place. “Cale. I think I’m having a baby.”
Cale stops dead. I stare at his back, my stomach bottoming out with fear. If he doesn’t want this, if he doesn’t want me tied to him for the rest of his life, I don’t know what I’m going to do. The tears on my face turn to ice.
Cale turns and crosses the grass in three long strides and picks me up in his arms. My feet leave the ground and he squeezes me hard against him.
“Ryah. Oh my god, Ryah.” It’s all he can say, over and over. A smile spreads over his face as he puts me down, and his hands search my belly as if he can feel this baby for himself. “Is it really true?”
“I think so.” Tears slip down my face again, this time at the love and wonder in his expression. “I need to take a test, though.”
I drink in the happiness on his face, unable to tear my eyes away. My Cale, looking at me like this because he’s elated at the thought of me having his baby. After the terror of the past hour, I never thought I could ever be this happy again.
He passes a hand over his mouth, still grinning. “I have to go back to the police and they’re going to think I’m a maniac if I can’t stop smiling.”