by Erin Hayes
“Thank you,” Anastazie mumbled.
Miss Balek smiled. “Adira, is there anything you would like to share?”
Adira’s throat constricted, and tears pricked at her eyes. This was it. This was really the end. She might never see these people again. She would certainly never sit with them at this table again, break bread with them, mop floors with them…do magic with them.
Was she protecting them, or abandoning them?
Adira swallowed. “I’m very honored to have trained with you all. You’ve each taught me so much, but the most important thing you have taught me, is that it’s never too late to find a place you belong. You’re my family now.”
She decided to leave off the bit about how she’d learned to stop being afraid of who she was, or how she’d learned that there was good left in this world worth fighting for and that she planned to do just that. Statements such as those would draw the wrong kind attention.
A few of the younger kids walked over to Adira and wrapped her in a big hug, while others smiled on warmly. Jedrick nodded his approval across the table. Anastazie stayed seated, her arms wrapped around herself and a pout on her face.
She would be the hardest one to leave behind.
Radana clapped her hands together. “Let’s eat!”
And just like that, everything went gloriously back to normal. The kids scampered back to their seats. Everyone heaped food onto their plates. The aroma of spiced sweet potatoes and savory meat cast its warm embrace on the room, and the sound of banter and laughter shrouded Adira in a cloak of comfort.
Miss Balek winked at her, and Adira nodded in return. After finishing a large plate of food and a chalice of wine, she leaned back in her seat and just observed, committing every last moment to memory.
This was what she wanted to remember—not the way they cheered her on or the magic they’d taught her or the sparring they’d done together…but their humanity. The humanity she would be fighting for.
As Adira’s breaths came calm and steady, her hand slid down to rest on her stomach. Please let it be possible for me to get pregnant. It was the one thing no amount of magic or resolve could prepare her for. Either she would get pregnant, or she wouldn’t. And if she didn’t, her ability to kill a Ravager would mean nothing.
At the end of the day, there was still a chance Adira would not survive. And yet, she had to try.
Just as Adira was about to excuse herself to go wash up, a loud banging sounded at the door. Miss Balek rose to her feet, wiping her mouth before she headed toward the door.
Adira’s heart swelled with giddiness. That would be Alec. He wanted to see her once more before their time together was up. She knew he would come back.
She bounded to her feet and headed down the hall to greet him, but as she neared the foyer, she noticed something was off. Miss Balek’s posture was rigid. She blocked the door. There appeared to be more than one person outside. At least two that she could see, but most likely a third as well being blocked by Miss Balek’s body.
Heart pounding in her chest, Adira rushed the rest of the way to the door, stopping short and gasping when she saw who stood there.
Sandwiched right between two armed guards…was the Regent.
Chapter Eighteen
Alec stood by the secret doorway, holding his breath and listening closely. When he was certain no one was there, he slipped out as quickly as he’d slipped in. But he didn’t get very far.
Alec smashed into a wall he couldn’t see. He reached out his hand, once against being stopped by the invisible force field.
A trap.
His gaze lowered to the ground beneath his feet. Sure enough, the rug normally under the Regent’s bed had been curled back to reveal a runestone embedded in the floor, right in the middle of the walking path beneath the hidden library and the main door to the Regent’s bedroom.
The Regent must have known someone was in the room. No, that couldn’t be right. He would have just looked and handled it then. Alec had never been in the Regent’s room before today. Perhaps this was just something the Regent did whenever he was leaving…
…the castle.
Because he certainly didn’t do it every time he left the room. Unless he’d forgotten to the last time and that was why he’d come back in.
Alec forced air through his nose, growling at himself and his hands curled into fists at his side. Did it really matter why the carpet was pulled back, or when or why the Regent would do such a thing? Right now, he was trapped inside an invisible cell in the Regent’s bedroom. That superseded all curiosity.
He needed to think of a way out. As if there was a way for a human to get past the Regent’s magic. The only magic Alec had ever had was the witch tester, his sword blessed by Dvorak, and the one time use of a runic symbol that he’d used to mark Adira and just as soon removed. None of which were in his possession right now. This situation was shit.
Kneeling down, Alec inspected the runestone more closely. If Adira were here, she would know what to do. Or at least what the runestone was. All Alec could tell was that it looked a lot like the ones used to guard the Sector.
Alec dug his fingers against the grout and tried to pry out the tile. His fingernails splintered and bled from his effort, but it was no use. As strong as he was, he was not superhuman. He couldn’t compete with concrete.
More out of frustration than any delusional belief it would do him any good, he slammed his fist against the invisible wall and growled. He couldn’t even call for help—not that it would do him much good to be caught in this predicament—as these types of the Regent’s cells were soundproof.
Yet, waiting for the Regent to find him here wasn’t an option, either. At least not one Alec wanted to consider.
Adjusting his weight, he shifted to remove a small knife from his hip. This might scrape out the grout enough to remove the stone. There was no promise that would do him any good, but he didn’t have any better ideas.
Alec held his knife over the edge of the runestone, but didn’t move. This could go one of two ways.
He took a deep breath and, wincing, touched the blade to the concrete.
The knife sparked, and a bolt of electricity shot up his arm, sending him crashing back against the other side of the invisible cell. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed his injured arm with his good hand and cursed under his breath.
That was the worse of the two ways. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, praying for the pain shooting up his to his shoulder to go away.
As he rested there, his mind scrambling to think up an impossible solution, voices from the hall filtered in.
“The Regent said tonight.”
“Good. It’s been long enough.”
The male voices sounded familiar. Guards. But Alec couldn’t place them. If they were his friends, they might help him…but that would mean getting their attention first—also impossible. If they weren’t his friends, he could only hope they would go away by time he got out of this cell. If that ever happened.
The first guard spoke again. “He thinks it’s the same girl who ran at the marketplace.”
“I knew it,” the second guard said. “Thieves always run, but that girl practically flew out of the marketplace.”
Alec straightened, his ears straining to hear more as the voices started to fade down the hall and beneath the clatter of footsteps.
“...worse, I think. I heard he’s going to make her face two Ravagers.”
“That’ll be the least of her worries. Don’t forget what he did to the last Queen who ran…”
Distant laughter. A few more mumbled words. Alec stopped trying to listen. He didn’t want to remember the last Queen who ran. The electric shock lashing. He’d left half way through it. He couldn’t stomach the cries. He’d told himself it was for the greater good. The law said it was that or exile. At least, that’s what he thought the law said. That was what the Regent had claimed the law said.
But now he knew the Regent had created hi
s own laws. Laws that he would expect Adira to follow.
Alec needed to get to her. He needed to reach her before Dvorak found out where she was staying.
He glanced around again, this time in more of a panic.
There had to be a way out.
And yet, there wasn’t.
Chapter Nineteen
So the Regent had come for her.
There was a time Adira would have cowered or run when faced with the Regent, especially under these circumstances. But things were different now. There were people worth fighting for, and Adira was strong enough to be the one to fight for them.
But that didn’t mean she ought to be foolish. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go down, which meant Adira needed to get a better feel for the situation before she decided on any course of action.
Miss Balek didn’t waver as she addressed the company at the door. “Hello, Regent. To what do we owe the honor?”
Regent Dvorak’s face was a stony mask. “Routine visit,” he said simply. “Please advise your…family…to cooperate.”
“Of course.” Miss Balek stepped away from the door, allowing their entry, and turned away to face Adira and the others who had gathered around her. “Everyone, please form a line. There’s no need to make this harder than it has to be. We’ve nothing to hide.”
All the witches from dinner, children and adult alike, formed side-by-side lines in two neat rows, except for one. Adira whispered to Kveta, “Where’s Anastazie?”
Kveta nodded toward the kitchen, but didn’t move from her place in line.
“Excuse me,” Adira said to Miss Balek, “but the fan in the kitchen can be quite loud. I should check if anyone didn’t hear.”
Miss Balek nodded, but as Adira turned to head toward the kitchen, a guard grabbed her by the arm.
“Here,” he said. “I help find.”
Adira cringed, but bit her tongue to stop from arguing.
“Right this way,” she said, though really he was more dragging her along than she was leading him.
When they reached the kitchen, Anastazie was curled up in a ball under the dinner table. Adira yanked free of the guard. “She’s probably confused. Let me get her.”
The guard pointed two fingers at his eyes and then at the boarded window over the sink. “I have my eye on you.”
Right.
Adira climbed under the table and crawled over to Anastazie. “You have to come out there.”
“Why?” Anastazie whispered. “You should have just left me here!”
Adira shook her head. “I understand what it’s like to be scared. To want to run. But I promise you, they aren’t here for you. It will be better if you are out there then for them to think you are trying to run away.”
Anastazie hugged her knees tighter to her chest. “Who do they want, then?”
Adira leaned really close to the little girl’s ear so no one else would hear them. “Me.” She reached out her hand. “Now come on. Let’s show these jerks that nothing scares Miss Balek’s brood.”
Anastazie’s eyes brimmed with tears, but she followed Adira out from under the table. Adira kept the girl close to her side as she resumed her spot in line. There. That accounted for everyone in the house.
Dvorak looked down his nose at all the witches. The room fell pin-drop silent, until all that could be heard was the exhaust fan whirring in the kitchen. How much did the Regent know? Was this really just a routine visit? If so, why hadn’t Alec warned her? He would have known, unless the Regent had known not to trust him.
Surely Alec hadn’t sent him, and if Dvorak was here without his lead witch hunter, that meant Alec was in danger. And Adira couldn’t do anything about it—at least not until she dealt with whatever was going on here.
“Bring him in,” the Regent said, raising his hand and waving on the guards with two fingers.
Moments later, the guards escorted Erik into the room. Until that moment, Miss Balek had kept her resolve. But in that very instance, her expression fell.
Dvorak pulled Erik to his side and placed his hand on his far shoulder. “You said the woman from the marketplace was here?”
Fury in his gaze, he lifted a steady hand and pointed at Adira.
The betrayal stabbed into her like a thousand swords. Yet she couldn’t say she was surprised. Perhaps that was how he’d felt when she turned him down. He wanted to make her feel that same pain. Well, he’d succeeded.
Dvorak strolled over to Adira until he stood so close his breath crawled like spiders over her face. “Not going to run this time?”
Adira stood firm. “I have nothing to run from.”
The Regent’s lifted a strand of hair from her shoulder and twisted it in his fingers. “But do you have something to hide?”
His last word came out in a whispered hiss, and Adira shuddered.
“I suppose there’s only one way to tell,” Adira said, hoping he didn’t notice the slight tremble in her voice.
Dvorak tipped up his chin. “I suppose you’re right,” he said. He held out his hand, and one of the guards stepped forward to deposit the witch tester device into his palm. He pointed it toward Adira but did not activate it. “And what do you think this will tell me?”
Considering what she was considering, she truly didn’t know.
Adira had a choice right now, and one of those choices might not even work. First she had to decide if she was ready to out herself as a witch right now, without having Alec to talk to first, or if she wanted to conceal herself a little longer. She was ready. But this was wrong. This wasn’t what they had planned. And that had Adira doubting herself.
Ultimately, she couldn’t give herself up without first knowing Alec was okay. If he could be saved, she needed to save him before she turned herself in.
She fingered the spinning top in her pocket, repeating the words in her mind over and over again, blok, maska, skrývat…
Since she’d never been able to test this enchantment, she didn’t know which word—if any—to focus her energy on. Still, her energy focused on three different words surely gave her better odds than focusing all of her energy on one word.
She chanted in her thoughts anyway. Blok, maska, skrývat.
The witch tester device activated.
Blok, maska, skrývat.
If she was going to be taken as a witch, it was going to be on her terms. Not because she was marked by some device.
The needle on the device wavered, pointing more toward her than away from her, but not truly set in her direction—just to the side. No matter how hard she thought, though, she couldn’t get it to redirect completely. The block was only partial.
“It’s not you,” he whispered, turning slowly to where the needle pointed. “It’s her.”
The needle pointed toward Anastazie.
No.
Adira’s emotions skyrocketed, and all of her training went out the window.
Smrt.
The needle on the testing device’s compass zoomed away and then spun wildly in all direction.
“I think it’s just broken,” Adira said, holding back a grin.
The Regent narrowed his eyes at her. “Well, then, I suppose we’ll just have to test the blood of everyone in this room. Care to wager what we’ll find?”
Chapter Twenty
Alec had sacrificed his sister for this?
He closed his eyes and rested his head back against the invisible wall. Where had he gone wrong? He had put his whole life into serving the Regent, thinking that was the best way to serve the Sector. But was it? Had it ever been?
If he’d been wrong all this time, then his sister had died for no reason.
That day still haunted Alec. Sometimes when he slept at night, he would feel the strange, disquieting vibration from that day, and he would shoot awake in his bed.
That’s how it’d all started: Alec, a small boy, working out in the field of his family’s farm. Back when the enchantments were first starting to fail, calling fort
h those who were able-bodied to do the work without the help of the machines.
Alec was raking the fields when the earth hummed beneath his feet, almost to the point of a low rumble. The fine hair on his neck and arms stood on edge, and slowly he turned, surveying the area, trying to follow the source of the vibration with one testing step at a time.
It led him to the back of the field, to the Sector limits, to a runestone that had cracked in half. A Ravager turned its head toward him, pausing. Then another, farther in the woods, did the same. As they started to approach, more Ravagers changed their trajectory to head toward him and the broken rune.
Everything happened so fast, Alec didn’t have time to run for help. He needed to do something—and fast—because the Ravagers were just steps away from stalking onto family land.
Young Alec dove to his knees and grabbed the two halves of the runestone from the platform it rested on and held the pieces together. He swallowed hard. Would that even work?
He trembled as the Ravagers skirted closer. They knew the wall had come back down. But would they know if it went back up? They weren’t acting as if it was back up. Did that mean it wasn’t?
Sweat beaded on young Alec’s forehead and dripped down the side of his face. He told himself it had worked. Holding them worked. That’s why the vibration had stopped. Right?
He tried to still his tremors. He needed to hold the stone pieces perfectly together. When the Ravager stepped up to him, Alec squeezed his eyes shut. Minutes passed, and he was still alive. Slowly he peeked again; the Ravagers had backed off, but were cautiously watching him. Waiting for him to fail.
Alec turned his head toward the field. “Father! Mother!” he called. “Somebody, please!”
The field was empty. No one came. He shouted louder. He screamed until his voice went raw. Then he waited, his face wet with tears and his fingers burning with the strain of holding the stone halves together.
Whenever his voice could bear it, he screamed for his parents and neighbors again, his words hoarse and still unheard. Everything out here was so far apart. He could barely see his house from here, and none of the neighbors’ homes were in sight.