I licked my first two fingers, spun out from behind the tree, and snapped. A burst of flames spread in a wall across the forest floor between Daisy’s father and me. The fire was hot, first burning blue, then orange as it ate at the underbrush. The bone-eater reared back, hissing.
I didn’t stick around to figure out what he’d do. I shook my hand to put out the fire at the tip of my fingers and turned to the bear to ask the one question I had been afraid to.
“Vala, the Lady isn’t dead, is she?”
No.
“Then where did she go?”
She never left.
I took a deep breath, turned back toward the sieged city. “Okay. Then where is she?”
37
The Ties That Bind
Cerys
“YOU WERE RECKLESS,” Seren accused me as we raced up the stairs to the main floor of the fortress, rubbing his wrists where the ropes had been. “We could’ve been killed! Well, you could have been killed, but I could have been almost killed!”
“I saved you, didn’t I?”
“I didn’t ask you to!”
“Liar!” At the top of the stairs, we took a left and headed back toward my room. “We can’t let those ancients take the crown. Stupid fox,” I added under my breath. I didn’t know where he’d gone, but I hoped wherever he was, he had a plan.
A good one.
Seren caught my hand and made me stop. “Your fox isn’t coming back. He ran last time, and he ran this time.”
I wrenched my hand out of his grip. “I know what happened by the river,” she snapped. “You need not remind me.”
“No, before that. In the wood eight years ago—”
I heard the guards before I saw them—at least a dozen, brandishing their swords before us. Seren and I backpedaled, but three more came up from behind.
We were trapped.
“I hoped I could trust you, but I was wrong,” I heard the Grandmaster say, and the guards parted for her. She wore dark leather armor and carried a sword at her waist, much like the one Petra had—no, it was Petra’s sword; I could tell from the red ribbon tied around the dragon-headed hilt.
Where was Petra?
The guards shoved us to our knees and bound our hands behind our backs with rope. I struggled against them, but they were too many. The Grandmaster inclined her head toward Seren. She had a new cut on her forehead, a nasty slice. “You are in league with the wood.”
“No—it’s not like that. He’s a friend,” I tried, but the Grandmaster made a motion, and the guards brought us to our feet again. “What are you doing? We’re trying to help!”
“And you will,” she replied. Her eyes were flat and gray. I didn’t like it at all. “Your blood cured that companion of yours—it will cure my city.”
A cold chill curled down my spine. “I don’t have enough blood for your entire city.”
The Grandmaster shook her head, and I realized just how desperate and disillusioned she was. She wanted to save her city—but this wasn’t the way to do it. The bone-eaters would keep coming, and the ancients would keep attacking until they found the crown. I struggled against the guards, but even as I did, I knew she wouldn’t listen to me.
In her mind, I was her only salvation.
My blood was.
She came up to me, her face quietly concealing rage, and curled her fingers around the crown. She untied my sash and took it. I tensed. “No, wait. You’re making a mistake—the crown isn’t—”
“Take them to the main hall,” the Grandmaster ordered, and without even a final glance she turned and left down the hall. “And bring me a sharp knife.”
38
Brave
Fox
A GROUP OF guards held Daisy and Seren in the main hall. I leaned away from the doorway and pressed my back against the wall. My hair was stuck to my neck with sweat, and I tied it up into a ponytail with a bit of thread I unraveled from the hem of my shirt. Getting into the city the second time had been a lot harder than leaving, which just felt like tragic irony. Not only had I had to combat guards who seemed intent on thinking that I was woodcursed, I’d also had to deal with bone-eaters and at least two ancients. I’d lit so many fires with my fingers that they were blackened at the tips.
Beside me, Vala gave a grunt, but it was just the normal kind and not the scolding kind.
“I’m blaming you if I die,” I told her.
She didn’t seem to mind. We took a peek around the corner, careful so that no one saw us.
The Grandmaster grabbed Daisy by the hair and shoved her to her knees. On the other side of the main hall, half a dozen guards held down one bone-eater. The monster looked newly transformed, its face not yet unhinged. There were white ribbons in its dark hair—ribbons I recognized. It was Petra.
“You will change her back,” snapped the Grandmaster to Daisy, and she winced as the bone-eater snapped and pulled against its chains. The city was under siege, and this old woman thought that she could bleed Daisy dry and save her people one by one. She was desperate, and that had made her dangerous.
The bone-eater snapped at Daisy, and she flinched away.
“Save her!” the Grandmaster commanded, as if that were how it worked. “Save her. I know you can.”
“I—I can’t. If the bone-eaters are already fully turned, I’ll kill them—”
“Lies!” the Grandmaster snapped, and grabbed a chunk of her hair. She shoved Daisy closer to the bone-eater. “She isn’t gone yet!”
Oh, but Petra was. She was all teeth and claws and hunger. It had taken her faster than it had me—probably because I had been under the protection of the wood; but Petra had no such shields. The seed had burrowed into her skin and dug through her muscles and sinew, and her eyes were pitch-black with red dots—like pinpoints of light. They flicked toward Daisy, and then to the Grandmaster, as the creature gnashed its jagged teeth.
“I’ll kill her!” Daisy cried, pushing back against the woman. “I don’t want to—I don’t want to kill anyone.”
“Fine,” said the Grandmaster, releasing her, and moved back behind Seren. She took him by his hair and forced his head back, pressing the blade of her sword against his throat. “Then if you don’t help her, I’ll kill your friend.”
Seren sighed at the turn of events and looked over at the Grandmaster dolefully. The blade sank a little deeper into his throat flesh. “Oh, please, end my misery if you can.”
The Grandmaster jerked her blade back, startled. “What are you?”
“A nightmare,” replied the corpse.
I curled my fingers into fists. If I went charging in there, there was no way I would come out unscathed—but maybe that was the point.
“Bear, I’ve got an idea,” I said hesitantly, leaning in to whisper into Vala’s ear as I told her the plan. She harrumphed in agreement and said, I will assist you. Be careful.
“What’s careful to a fox?” I asked, flashing her a grin, though I didn’t feel very confident at all—I was frightened out of my wits, so much so that I clenched my hands to keep them from shaking.
It was my turn to choose now: Daisy or the Wilds.