by Amy Hopkins
Dammit, Danil thought. I wasn't careful enough.
He let the vague thought float back into Gordon’s subconscious.
Something—or someone—is fucking with this guy's feelings, Danil said to Julianne.
She nodded grimly. Not just him. It's like the whole town is suffocating under a blanket of terror. On the surface the city looks peaceful and well run, but living like this? Danil, this isn’t living.
Do we think Catherine is behind this? Danil asked carefully.
Julianne hesitated and bit her lip. As much as she wanted to blame the strange woman who seemed to have taken over the town, there wasn't enough evidence yet—and Julianne was aware that she was biased. The memories of Donna's role in Rogan's cult were still fresh in her memory, as raw as the day Julianne had killed her.
"Let's go back," Julianne said quietly. "Polly will be missing you, and if our new friends notice we have been gone for any length of time they may start to worry."
Danil nodded pensively and turned on his heel to walk back.
They had only been gone for ten minutes, but in that time the campsite had been organized. Polly strode over holding a stack of blankets and bedrolls, smoke slowly winding into the air behind her as two men leaned over a small firepit.
"Did you find anything?" Polly asked quietly. She darted a glance over her shoulder to make sure no one had followed her.
"When morning comes I'll go in alone," Julianne told them.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Danil exclaimed. "Alone? You admitted you don't know what you're up against!"
Julianne shrugged. "If I can't take care of this alone, you're better off losing only me. I don't want these people left unprotected. I don't think smuggling them into a hostile city and leaving them to fend for themselves while I hunt down Catherine is going to do anyone any favors."
"Let Danil and me go," Polly said. She glanced from one mystic to the other, completely ignorant of the threat that lay inside but willing to go up against it regardless. "From what little you've said it sounds like some mindfuckery will be needed in there. Danil can take care of that while I act as his eyes—and his blade."
“You know I love it when you talk tough,” Danil said, leaning toward her for a kiss. Polly rolled her eyes and stepped back, causing him to stumble and almost fall on the dirt.
"That might not be such a bad idea," Julianne mused. "But what if you fall under some kind of mystic spell? Danil won't be able to fight our enemy and keep you safe too."
Polly shrugged. "We both know that sometimes sacrifices have to be made. I have no doubt that Danil would make the right decision."
Danil paled. "I'm glad you're confident. Because I can't see myself leaving you in danger while I save the world."
"She’s right," Julianne said. “I've known you long enough to know you’ll do the right thing.”
Danil didn’t look convinced but he didn’t argue.
“Right,” Julianne said. “It’s settled then. At dawn, you two make your way into the city. Stay in contact the whole time." Julianne jangled her bracelet to remind him that distance no longer created a barrier to their communication.
"I suppose if this goes well Polly will get all the credit, and if we fuck up it'll be my fault." Danil heaved a sigh.
Polly clapped him on the shoulder. "You're learning! I knew my lessons were starting to sink in."
Danil couldn't smother the chuckle that bubbled out. "You're such a smartass."
"You two go and get some sleep. You'll need to be alert and ready for action tomorrow," Julianne said.
Polly and Danil nodded and made their way to the meager supply of rations. Julianne watched as Danil quickly counted the small parcels that were left, mostly loaves of bread and strips of dried meat carefully packaged in oiled cloth. She pursed her lips when both turned without taking anything for themselves.
She would have done the same. There had been so little food left in Kells when they had arrived that they hadn't been able to adequately supply for the journey.
Using a thin sliver of mental magic to quell the grumbling of her stomach, Julianne wandered off to find Marcus. She intended to crawl into her bedroll once she had informed him of their plan and sleep until dawn. She had no doubt there would be no rest after that until this spell suffocating Anrock had been lifted and everyone was safe inside the fortified walls.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Julianne sat quietly in the back of Danil's mind as he patiently waited for someone to respond to his obnoxiously loud calls.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Danil called again, hands cupped to his mouth, but the doors stayed closed. Danil threw a glance at Julianne and shrugged, and in the early morning sun she saw his eyes light up.
Danil reached out to the gatekeeper to give him a mental command. It wasn't difficult; although the man had initially refused to open the gate, he had been conflicted. The gatekeeper knew what lurked outside, and his instinct was to protect the people who turned up asking for refuge. It was only his deep-seated fear of what lurked outside that had stopped him from removing the heavy barricade. Queen Catherine warned us of the monsters in the forest, but… Oh, Bitch, what if they end up cursed like us?
Queen? Danil sent to Julianne. Curse?
She didn't respond, but Danil felt her note the strange references. Once he had given the gatekeeper a hard-enough prod, the gates scraped and creaked as they were opened. Gripping Polly's hand tightly, the couple stepped inside.
"I'll let you in," the man said, throwing a nervous glance beyond the mystic. "Just you two. Two is bad enough. I can't be letting a whole country full of strangers inside, not when the risks are… Well, you understand, don't you?"
The man looked at Danil, pleading for the mystic to accept his decision. Taking pity on the man due to the great strain he was under, Danil nodded. "You can close that again. I'm sure that once we speak to Catherine you'll know what to do next."
A cloud of confusion passed over the man's face, but he quickly turned back to swing the tall and heavy doors closed. He turned the wheel that lowered the massive beam into place while his companion worked an intricate pulley system to guide it.
"Now we just have to find our benevolent host." Danil straightened and cocked his head to one side as if listening.
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Polly asked, nervously eyeing the neatly cobbled streets. They were still in the shadow of the great wall, and she shivered as a cool breeze dawdled past. A couple of windows were already open, though lanterns still dotted the streets from the previous night.
"Perhaps we should find a guide," Danil suggested.
Polly raised an eyebrow but didn't comment when a middle-aged woman ducked out of her house and hurried over to them. She angled a worried glance at the sky, then dropped her eyes to the ground.
"Hello,” the woman said. “Hogan said you needed someone to take you to Catherine. Damned if I know how he even knew you were here… Well, my name is Teagan. Just follow me and we'll have you there in no time."
Teagan self-consciously wiped her hands on her apron, puffs of flour clouding the air as she dusted them off. She trotted down the street with the quick jerky movements of someone headed toward their doom.
"You're not hurting her, are you?" Polly muttered. "I've never actually seen you do this before. Kind of creepy."
"Do what?" Danil asked. "She's not under a spell. Her husband was when he ordered her out here, but Teagan isn't affected by anything."
"Ah, I see." Polly shuddered. "But it's still creepy."
"Hey, I have never hidden what I am," Danil said. He wished he could see her expression, but the nearby townspeople were hiding behind doors and curtains and Teagan had her back to them.
"I never said it was a bad thing," Polly remarked. "It's just weird to watch you do it. I know you’d never use your magic to hurt anyone."
"Well, I certainly hope you know that."
Polly darted a glance at the woman ahead. "She
can't hear us, can she?" Polly cursed to herself, only now realizing how loudly they’d been talking. Still, Teagan hadn't given any sign she’d overheard their conversation.
Danil frowned. "She heard everything. She’s too scared to say anything, though."
Polly squirmed uneasily. "You weren’t kidding when you said this town was weird."
They were taken to a large stone manor toward the center of the city. The building was garish, painted crisp white and deep purple with flashes of red. Through the tall windows that lined the front walls, Danil could see plush green curtains embroidered with lavender flowers. None of the colors quite matched, and the withered brown plants by the front door did nothing to pull the decor together.
Teagan walked up to the door and Polly saw her hand tremble as she lifted it to knock. Danil’s eyes were already white since he’d used Polly's sight to navigate the narrow streets, but she heard him mutter something under his breath.
"She's nervous. Not exactly scared of Catherine, but not thrilled to be here either," Danil whispered. Despite Teagan’s resolute dismissal of their earlier conversation, he wasn't sure how the woman would react to being spoken about so openly.
Teagan's mouth thinned as she turned to the couple. "There you go. You…uhh…don’t want me to come in, do you?"
Danil glanced at Polly and raised an eyebrow.
The man who opened the door looked less than pleased at the disturbance. His long narrow face and thick eyebrows were pulled into a sour frown. "Our Queen wishes to know why she is being disturbed," he said, his voice as dour as his expression. “Her nerves are fragile. Surely you know better than to startle her with an unexpected visit?”
Teagan's face fell in dismay, but Danil quickly intervened. With a quickly muttered phrase under his breath, he bowed to the butler. "Queen Catherine has requested our presence. This lovely girl was simply showing us the way. I'm sure Queen Catherine will be just fine."
A brief flicker of confusion crossed the butler's face, then he smiled and bowed to Danil. "Of course, of course. Come this way." He gestured Danil and Polly inside but dropped an arm behind them to prevent Teagan from following. The girl sighed with relief as the door closed in her face.
"Charles, my good man," Danil said with an easy grin, "tell me exactly how young Catherine came to be Queen?"
Charles almost fell over his own feet and a sudden wash of discomfort flooded his face. "I… Um, I don't remember. I'm sure it… It’s legitimate, I’m sure it is."
"It's all right. I won't press you for it just yet." Danil spoke flatly, recognizing the signs of a not-so-subtle spell. He dug around in Charles' head, cursing the clumsy spell Catherine had put on him.
Charles shook his head.
"This way." Once the conversation had ceased, Charles sank back into his role as a butler.
Danil wondered exactly what Charles remembered of his past. He had been a teacher; one with an excellent reputation. He had been in high demand by the city’s elite, who wanted only the best tutelage for their children.
He had in fact taught Catherine, though as an adult. She’d requested a tutor after her marriage, and when Coates had died Charles had been absorbed into the household during Catherine’s grief.
Charles guided them up the extravagant staircase and down a hallway hung with old tapestries and paintings and finally paused at two ornately carved doors. He gave a single bow before sweeping the doors open.
"Charles! What are you doing? Why are these people in my bedroom?"
Through Danil's connection with Polly, Julianne regarded the girl. Her face still held the softness of youth, despite her sharp cheekbones and pallor. Catherine’s eyes were ringed in tired circles and her hands shook as she clutched her shawl tighter.
This girl was probably no more than seventeen, Julianne guessed. Catherine’s brown hair hung in limp ringlets above her shoulders, held back from her face by a tarnished bronze tiara.
"Danil?” Polly murmured.
Danil reached out to her, letting Julianne feel the flood of fear that ran through his girlfriend. Both mystics felt Polly wrestle with the emotion as she clenched her hands into fists. She focused on the pain of her nails biting into flesh to distract her from the overwhelming desire to run.
Danil, I don't think this is safe. Julianne sent the warning like a sharp cut. She grew concerned at her fellow mystic's stunned silence. Danil?
A pit of worry opened in Julianne's gut. Though mental magic could be incredibly strong, she had never seen anything like this. Even Rogan's spells had had intent behind them. Danil's brief look into Catherine's mind, however, showed that this had none. Almost like a child who had grown up speaking to animals and thinking it was the most normal thing in the world, Catherine had no idea that what she was doing had any base in magic.
The girl simply believed that everyone was as afraid as she was. That reinforced her fear, creating a loop that convinced her that if everyone else was scared too her fears must be real.
Julianne sent a sharp mental tug on Danil's mind that jerked him out of his downward spiral into terror and he shook his head, blinked, and cut off his bond with Polly. That seemed to help. With his shields in place—and without the added effect of feeling Polly's distorted emotions—he was able to think a little more clearly.
Bitch's oath, Jules. What the hell do I do about this?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Catherine regarded the newcomers with a mixture of terror and relief.
“Oh, you poor thing,” the man crooned and knelt in front of her. “I’m not here to hurt you. Not at all.” His white eyes shone like stars, white-hot. They burned into her soul.
“Please,” she gasped. “Take what you want. The jewels are in the dresser over there!” She thrust a jerky hand toward the nearby bureau.
“Sshhhh.” The man muttered a word…magic, perhaps? She’d heard of magic, but never seen it. A fireball, she was sure. She braced herself for death.
Warmth spread through her, but not the searing heat of the magical fire. Catherine’s heart beat painfully and slowly. Her breath smoothed from ragged gasps into a deep nourishing rhythm that made her head swim.
“Who are you?" she whispered, and for the first time since her mother died the world seemed just a little less frightening.
She glanced at the girl who’d entered with him. Even she seemed to realize something had changed, unclenching her fists and dropping her shoulders.
“My name is Danil,” the man said. He wobbled a little and sweat beaded his forehead. “It’s all right, Catherine. We’re here to help.”
“Help?” The tiniest spark of hope flared deep within Catherine’s soul. Help? No one can help me…can they?
Catherine knew she was cursed. The moment her mother had died, a crippling blanket of terror had suffocated not only her world but everything around her. Threats came for her constantly, from remnant attacks to rabid animals, and once a cloud of angry bees.
She’d been on her own for two years now, thrust into a loveless marriage when her father concluded that Catherine was a bad omen; a magnet for grief and danger. He’d married her off to Coates and dusted his hands of her fate, only to meet a messy end when he ran into a remnant band on his way home from Anrock.
Catherine shuddered, remembering the bloodied and torn arm one of the traders had brought her as proof that her father had died. He hadn’t run fast enough to escape the curse.
By that point Coates had decided Catherine was damaged goods. He’d attempted to lock her up, but had ended up curled into a tiny ball, weeping at the prospect of someone being confined to a small dirty windowless cell for eternity.
And that, Catherine thought wryly, was how she’d inadvertently become responsible for a city full of people; people she’d cursed with her aura of doom.
“It’s not a curse,” Danil told her gently.
Catherine’s eyes shot open. “What are you talking about?” She knew the townsfolk had mumbled accusations, but Catherine had
never confirmed their theories—even though she believed them.
“Your curse. It’s just…” Danil frowned, wondering how to explain in a way she’d understand and not be frightened by. “It’s magic, but it’s a bit broken. It’s like you’re trapped in a mirror maze at a carnival.”
“Magic?” Catherine asked dubiously.
“Yes, but…” Danil cocked his head to the side as if listening to something. “That’s not important now. You need to stay calm and instruct your men to open the gates.”
“The…gates?” Memories of her father’s bloodied ring being pulled from a bitten-off finger flashed into her mind. “No. Not the gates.” She shook her head and scurried back across the bed.
The surge of fear built, then fell again, subdued into a humming bubble of worry.
“Catherine, please!” Danil begged. “My people are out there and a remnant force is—”
“Remnant!” Catherine sobbed. The veneer of control crumbled and Danil staggered under the weight of her terror. “No! No, no one must open the gates! They’ll come in! They’ll eat our arms and tear off our legs. They’ll kill us all. They’ll kill us all!”
“Catherine—”
“No!” She lifted her head, wild eyes turned to his face. “You’re trapped here now. You’re doomed—doomed with the rest of us.”
Gasping raggedly, she skittered away from the visitor’s outstretched hand. She evaded his clumsy grasp and fled, sprinting down the narrow hall and out into the street.
Tears blurred her eyes as she ran, partly from terror and partly from the blinding glare of the morning light. She hadn’t been outside in… No, don’t think about that now. Hide. I have to hide!
She spied a pile of fruit crates discarded by an alley.
Perfect.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Danil’s down,” Julianne snapped as a remnant barreled toward them. “So is Polly.”
It launched toward Garrett but was thrown aside when Marcus slammed into it.