by Lisa Morrow
A screeching, nearly human in sound, emanated from it. Releasing Asher, the cat dropped to the ground, rolling in our forgotten meal as its fur blazed.
“Quick,” Asher cried, gripping his bloody arm. “Out through the top.”
I picked up my skirts and climbed the crudely built ladder, emerging out into the snowy day. Asher followed behind, staggering into the snow.
Blair waited, her face expressionless as usual. “Was that really necessary?”
Targanus screamed a battle cry as he appeared from behind a building. Blood smeared his face, and he ran at Blair.
She flicked her wrist and magic surged from her, throwing Targanus backwards and into a building.
A sickening crunch sounded. He crumpled into the snow, unmoving.
A groan from the pit below drifted up to us, and Asher took my hand in his bloodied one, positioning me behind him. I peeked around him, watching in awe as Meisha emerged from the pit. She was naked, although long amber hair spilled over much of her body.
Meisha stood on shaky legs before collapsing to her knees, her hand pressed against the burned flesh at her side. “I found the girl as ordered.” She took a ragged breath before continuing, “let us return.”
Blair appeared unmoved by the pain in Meisha’s voice or the obvious evidence of her badly burnt flesh, but my own stomach turned.
Then, the Protector’s gaze fell on Asher for the first time, and her eyes widened. “Why aren’t you with your mother? And why are you bleeding?”
Asher stiffened and a hesitant surprise filled his expression. “What’s it to you?”
The silence between them lasted a minute too long.
“Nothing,” Blair’s words held a chill. “But, as hard as this might be for you to believe, your people are very important to me. These enchanted lands produce more Protectors than any other village. There’s no need for a young man to be risking his life getting mixed up in our business when he should be busy marrying and having daughters.”
“So you can steal them?” he shot back, cradling his injured arm.
“Time to return to your new home, Rose.” Blair turned to me, dismissing Asher without another word. Her gray eyes flashed, and she stood tall and unmoving. A slight breeze blew through the drifting snow, but not a strand of her dark hair moved. “You belong with us. Your tantrum is unnecessary.”
I stepped around Asher, although his hand clamped down on my arm, keeping me beside him. “Why can’t you just let me go?”
“You are ours now, and I grow tired of this game. If you do not return with me now, I shall kill the boy.”
My breath caught in my throat. Blair’s face remained unexpressive, but I knew her words were more than just an idle threat. The warmth of her magic radiated out from her, searching for a target.
“I’ll return,” I whispered.
Asher turned his pale face to me. Blood dripped from the open wound on his arm, drenching the ground beneath him. “You don’t have to do this.”
I reached up, pressing the palm of my hand against his stubbled-cheek. “I know you would fight for me.” But you wouldn’t win.
He was shaking, leaning forward on unsteady legs as if the slightest wind might knock him down.
I tore myself free from his touch.
His hand fell to his side. “Please, Rose, there’s something about you.”
I smiled and forced my shoulders back. There’s something about you too. “I’m sure we’ll meet again,” was all I managed to say, before walking away from him to meet Blair where she stood.
“That’s a smart girl.” Blair glanced at Meisha, who stood slowly, before limping to Blair’s other side.
A strange sense of acceptance washed over me. I’d fought hard to free myself from these women, but they were more powerful than me. They would bring me back to The Glass Castle, where Sirena waited. I would be taken to the ceremony that would likely end in our deaths. And, there was nothing more I could do about it. I knew no goddess’s name, True Name, that could free us from this fate.
“Wait,” Asher called. The sight of him washed away my certainty, leaving a strange feeling of emptiness as I saw the green hue that tinted his flesh. He’d risked all to save me, and was suffering greatly for his trouble.
“Boy,” Meisha said, her thick accent blending her words together even more with the obvious pain each word cost her. “You will not win this. Your life will be lost in vain.”
“You may have stolen my sister,” he whispered, taking a step towards us. “But, you will not,” he shouted, raising his hand towards us, “take her!”
A surge of chilling magic exploded from him. A spark of silver light flew from his hand, slamming into Blair and forcing her to the ground with such strength that the earth shook beneath our feet. Meisha cried out from beside me, and I gasped.
Waves of shock rolled over me as I turned to Asher. “You’re,” my voice shook as I spit the words, “a wizard?”
I stepped away, willing myself not to run. He frightened me more than the women ever could. They wished for my death, but a wizard desired much more.
Descriptions of soulless eyes filled my thoughts as bile rose in the back of my throat. All wizards should be dead, wiped out, so no person could be enslaved by them again. But trying to connect Asher with a wizard, it seemed impossible. How could something so evil exist inside of someone so… in Asher?
“I’m not,” he denied, shaking his head, but his wide eyes swept from me to his own hand.
“You can’t exist,” I said, taking another step backwards and shaking my head. “The dark days of your people are long gone.”
“They aren’t my people!” he exclaimed. “They’re nothing more than nightmares.”
“And yet you are one,” Meisha said. “Perhaps the last one to curse our lands.”
Blair rose from the ground as if pulled by magical strings, and the air sizzled around her. “Not for long.”
“Please,” Asher groaned, falling to his knees. “I don’t know what that was.” His eyes were locked on mine as he spoke, “but I’m not one of them.” He shuddered, reaching out to me once more. “Trust me.”
A thunderous noise boomed in my ears, and Asher was gone, leaving behind a scorched mark on the earth where he’d once knelt.
I stared down at myself. Numbness and disbelief wrapped me in a suffocating blanket. It was impossible that Asher was dead and gone. He was too much a part of me.
Perhaps I was still asleep in the Safe-Haven, tossing and turning as this nightmare squeezed me in its grip.
“What have you done with him?” Someone screamed.
The me still on the ground turned to the angry woman, my face blank. Blood was smeared across her white apron. More covered her hands and arms up to her elbows.
It took my brain a moment to recognize the woman as Asher’s mom.
“Return my son to me!” she demanded. “At once.”
“He’s dead.”
Each word punched my soul, dragging me back to myself. Numbness faded replaced by an agony too acute to describe. I took short, fast breaths as spots appeared before my eyes. Yet a desperate hope that what I’d seen had somehow been wrong had my gaze fastened to the two women, even as my vision darkened.
Brenna did something completely unexpected in that moment, she smirked. “We both know that’s not true. And if you know what’s good for you, and your secrets, you’ll send him back to me.”
Hope awakened me to the world beyond my suffering. The cold tore at my flesh, my arm still ached, and the smell of cooking food hung in the air.
I took a deep, steadying breath. Asher still lived.
Warmth gathered around Blair as her powers flared. “Now that we know what he is, you know that isn’t possible.”
“What I know,” Asher’s mom said, “is that you’ll send him back to me or suffer the consequences.”
Blair’s voice rose. “Have you forgotten your daughter is in my possession?”
Her arms
dropped to her sides. “Nazar took her, not you. I know you’d never hurt a child.” But doubt had crept into her words.
“I’ll do what’s best for Tarak, no matter what the cost.”
The two women exchanged a look I couldn’t quite read; however, there was an unexpected familiarity to it. In fact, there was an unsettling familiarity to their entire argument.
Meisha shifted next to Blair, her keen eyes missing nothing as they darted between the two women.
“You’re impossible.” Brenna dismissed the Head Protector with a wave of her small hand.
Blair glared. “Let this go.”
“Rose,” Asher’s mom barked my name, “you’re responsible for what’s happening to my son.” She used her apron to wipe some of the dark blood from her arms, in a grotesquely matter-of-fact way. “I have The Protectors’ victims to attend to. And you, you’re responsible for returning my son to me.”
My gaze slid to the burn mark Asher had left behind. My throat tightened. Whatever Blair had done to him, it was my fault. And my responsibility to fix.
“I’ll find him,” I whispered to Brenna. “I’ll bring him back to you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You better, or else you’ll fear my shadow for the rest of your wretched life.”
I stiffened, surprised by the violence in her voice.
“Come here,” Blair ordered me, her tone like the snapping of a whip.
I dragged my feet as I walked towards her, resisting the urge to look back at Brenna. An array of emotion weighed heavily on me, made all the worse by the strange sense that I’d escaped one battle only to step into another. How was I supposed to save Sirena, if I couldn’t even save myself? And how in all the world was I supposed to find Asher and save him too?
The only thing I knew for certain, in this moment, was that all paths led back to The Glass Castle. That’s where my friends were, and probably Asher too, and that’s where these women would take me.
When I reached Blair, she leaned towards me. “And if you should choose not to join our order, I’ll have to kill Sirena. I want you to be very clear about that. She appears to be a far more intelligent and reasonable girl than you, I would loath having to do it, but I would.”
Meisha hissed in a sharp breath and curled further over her injured side. “Let us go. She will join.” Her teeth chattered as she spoke. “She has no other choice.”
The air tingled around me, and a fierce wind of gray and black encircled me. When it faded away, I was no longer in the snow, no longer facing a woman who despised me. Instead, I stood in The Glass Castle’s great hall, my friend staring at me.
Somehow it was worse than where I’d been.
“Rose!” Sirena cried running and embracing me. “We feared the fall had killed you.”
“You’re covered in blood,” Yara squeaked from across the room. “Are you hurt?”
I shook my heading, squeezing Sirena as tightly as possible, unable to speak around the lump in my throat. As much as I didn’t want to be back with The Protectors, my heart swelled to know Sirena was safe.
“Have they hurt you?” I finally managed.
She squeezed me harder. “No, they’ve been busy searching for you.”
“Go see the healer,” Blair ordered.
I watched over Sirena’s shoulder as Meisha hobbled toward the servant’s hallway. Everything about how she moved spoke of pain. Something deep inside me felt disturbed that I’d been the one to do it. What else would these women make me do, before they were done with me?
Sirena released me and stepped back, relief mixed with fear reflected in her eyes. Her hair lay in one long braid down her back. She’d changed and showered too, wearing a shimmery blue dress. On the surface, she seemed to have enjoyed her time in the castle since I’d last seen her, but her face and eyes were red and puffy, betraying her outer calm.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
She forced a smile, which made her look even more miserable. “I didn’t sleep well… I thought you were…”
Tears formed in her eyes, then gushed down her cheeks.
“Oh no,” I reached out and brushed a stray hair back from her face, “don’t cry. I lived.” My words came out awkward and unsure.
Using the back of her hand, she wiped at her nose as it ran. “But you could’ve died, and I just left you…”
Tears stung my eyes. “No. Don’t. Clarissa used her magic on you. It wasn’t your fault.”
She nodded, looking unconvinced as she brushed furiously at her eyes.
Yara appeared beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. “She’s been a mess since you left, even though The Protectors said they’d felt a rush of magic when you fell.”
“What’s everyone so upset about? If she’d have just listened to me in the first place, none of this would’ve happened,” Bethenny gloated, leaning back in her chair at the table. A goblet hung loosely in her hand.
Anger raced through me, but I forced down the urge to tear every hair from her head. “I hope you’re right, Bethenny. Because if I am, today we’re all going to die.”
“Enough!” The single word Blair spoke held a warning. “My patience with you is gone.”
I heard the sound of laughter and turned to see Clarissa emerge from the servants’ hallway. “I’d thought nothing would separate Blair from her new pet, but it seems even our leader has her limits.”
My fury boiled as the woman sauntered towards me, her unnatural pink leather outfit clinging to every curve of her body. The hilts of her dagger protruded out of the sheaths at her sides, reminding me of how she’d tried to kill me by shattering the glass bridge.
“I told you I’d get back at you,” Bethenny sneered.
Inwardly, I groaned. It was as if she was completely unaware of how little I cared about her existence. When we were in Duggery, she’d been my enemy, but life was so much simpler then. In the span of a couple of days, I had acquired far more dangerous enemies. I stared down a pack of wolves, and I didn’t need a fly buzzing around my head, demanding my attention.
“Yes,” I said, but my gaze sought Blair rather than the frivolous girl. “I embarrassed you in front of our village, and you betrayed our trust by telling these witches of our plan.”
Yara gasped from beside me, but Blair responded calmly. “Call us whatever you like my dear, but it’s time for The Choosing ceremony.” She crossed to stand beside Clarissa in the center of the room. “Line up girls.”
But I wasn’t done yet. “I heard you say only one of us would survive this ceremony.”
Blair raised a brow. “No one dies from the ceremony, but it’s true that it can be very difficult for those with weaker powers.”
“Why?” I prodded, wanting to know the truth, even if it meant scaring the girls even more.
She took a moment to answer, the anger fading from her face before she spoke. “This ceremony is not like the one back in your village, that one is simply for show. To give the villagers something to be excited about and to ease the fears of the girls. This one is different. It requires a sacrifice and binds you to The Protectors.”
“Are we to be the sacrifices?”
Clarissa rolled her eyes. “Goddesses, you’re dumb. Didn’t she just say no one dies from the ceremony?”
“Like I told you before,” Blair’s voice held a warning, “no one needs to die tonight.”
My stomach twisted, and I glanced at Sirena. Her eyes were filled with fear. If I put up a fight, Sirena would be killed, here and now. But if I simply complied, she might be allowed to live. They’d said one of us would, after all. There was no reason to think Sirena couldn’t be that one.
It was a small chance, but a chance all the same.
Yara touched my arm. “Can we just get this over with?” Her expression told me what I hadn’t wanted to admit to myself, we really didn’t have a choice.
When I didn’t respond, relief reflected across Blair’s face. “All right, the time has come. Stand in line.”
I didn’t move, and reluctantly, the others came to stand beside me.
“I’m afraid,” Sirena whispered, her round eyes full of tears.
Forcing a smile, I held her hand. “I’m right here next to you.”
Her small hand clutched mine more tightly.
Blair raised her arms and whispered something too quietly for me to hear.
The stones in the floor shifted in front of us, groaning with their movements. After a moment, a large space opened between the women and us. Out of this space, a large, deeply grained wooden table rose.
On its surface, two silver basins surrounded by golden goblets caught the light from the many fires blazing in the great hall, momentarily dazzling me. But then my gaze caught the vibrant purple stone in the center of the table, and everything else faded away.
It was perfectly smooth, and four times the size of my head. And as I gazed upon it, a familiar feeling washed over me. A feeling I imagined most people felt when coming home, like I’d found where I belonged.
“It’s time at last,” Blair announced, snapping my attention back to the ceremony. “You’ll make the choice whether to join our order or gain your freedom.”
Blair made it sound like such a simple thing. We could decide not to join The Order, and we’d be released.
Only, they’d never really let that happen.
“Think your choice over carefully,” Clarissa added, fiddling with the leather bracelet on her wrist, as if it were far more interesting than any of us. “It’s the most important decision you’ll ever make.”
I hated them both. Clarissa for her thoughtless cruelty, and Blair for her absence of emotion.
“Before you make your decision, you should know what you stand to gain and what you stand to lose.” Blair paused, meeting each of our gazes. “We aren’t the monsters some people make us out to be, but neither are we simply a group of women who live a privileged life.”
A look of pain crossed her face before vanishing like a trick of the lights. “We were girls, just like you, not so long ago. We had two paths in front of us, and we chose this one, although the choice was not an easy one… not for all of us. We, however, decided to sacrifice a normal life for one of wealth and freedom. Now we have that,” she gestured at the castle around her, “but nothing in this world is free. And the price for such a life? Danger. Uncertainty. And a life of servitude, to both our kingdom and our queen. As the most powerful force protecting all of Tarak, we serve Queen Guadias herself. What she commands, we must obey.”