by Erin Hayes
He spent the night this way, his fingers aching and stiffening more with each passing hour. The sun went down, and those Ravagers watched him as if at any moment his body or eyes would tire, forcing him to give up the broken runestone shards.
Young Alec had been trained from an early age to never acquiesce to pain. But sleep? Everyone needed sleep. His eyelids started to sag, but he bit down into his lip hard, giving himself a jolt of pain.
Stay strong.
If he failed, he would lose his life. His parents would be murdered. The Region would be massacred. Letting go was not an option.
The boy stayed that way until dawn, his clothes damp from the early morning dew drops, his arms and legs bitten with itchy mosquito welts he couldn’t scratch. Bleary eyed, he glanced around again and finally spotted his mother in the distance.
“Mother!” he rasped.
Her head turned toward him and she took a few slow steps, but then she started looking around again.
“Mother,” he tried, louder this time, the word like razors on his throat. “Over here!”
Finally, her gaze pinned on him, and she ran over as fast as her heavily pregnant body would allow. “Where have you been?” she asked, slowing as she reached him. Her mouth fell open, and her face twisted. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “Alec. What are you doing?”
He stared down at the runes in his hands. “It broke,” he whispered. “I have to hold it together.”
She kneeled beside him and held the stones together so he could free his hands. He flexed his fingers, wincing at the cramp.
“Ring for the Regent,” she commanded. “I’ll hold this until he gets here.”
Alec looked from her to the tower where the bell was kept to ring for the Regent. He hated to leave her here, but he had to do it. She would never make it up those steps.
He darted off toward the tower that stood halfway between the border and his home. Half way up the steps, he noticed his little sister dangling over the edge of the well by the house. Mother should be with her, but instead, she’d been looking for Alec and was now preventing a hoard of Ravagers from infiltrating the Sector.
“Sissy! Get down!” Alec called, his voice not as loud or as strong as he would like.
The girl didn’t listen. Probably didn’t even understand him. She was too young for words yet.
Damn it!
“Father!” Alec tried next.
No response. Father might not even be here. He could be at the marketplace, fetching supplies.
Alec started back down the steps toward his sister, but when he glanced at his mom, he noticed the electrical force-field sparking in and out.
His mother called, “Hurry! It’s crumbling!”
It’s…crumbling?
She meant the runestone.
The runestone was crumbling.
His mother screeched as a Ravager swiped in at her, and even from this distance, Alec was certain it’d made contact. He glanced again at his sister who was teetering on the edge of the well. She would definitely die if the Ravagers broke past border. Right after their mother was killed.
Please, just stay still a little longer.
Alec sprinted up the stairs, rang the bell, barreled back down, and then grabbed the emergency sword from the side of the tower. He raced across the field toward his mother, reaching her just in time to arc the metal blade toward the monster stepping into the Sector and advancing on his mother.
“Get sissy and run,” he ordered his mother.
His mother scrambled back, blood on her face and arms. Her swollen belly rose and fell with panting breaths, her eyes wide. Alec turned back to the beasts, swinging again and slicing deep into another Ravager’s skin. This seemed to slow them down, but none of them were dying.
He turned to make sure his mom was on the way to get his sister. She was on her hands and knees, trying to get to her feet. Sissy was on the edge. She was there.
And then, she wasn’t.
Mother made it to her feet, gasping and sobbing as she ran for the well. Alec attacked another Ravager, and then another, fending them off just long enough to take on the next one.
It was all happening too fast. Until Mother screamed.
Her cry was more soul-shattering than anything Alec had ever heard before. She crumbled into herself, and life crashed to a standstill. Alec wanted to run to her, wanted to run so fast he could go back in time, but he was still fending off the Ravagers.
Alec stood dutifully at the hold in the border, fending off the Ravagers and fighting them back toward the forest as best he could until finally the Regent arrived.
Dvorak made quick work repairing the fence by connecting the two adjacent stones each other, thereby cutting off the need for the crumbled runestone. Then the Regent grabbed the boy by the arm.
“Run,” he said.
Alec didn’t ask any questions. He just ran after the Regent, faster than he’d ever run before, but still not fast enough to go back in time and somehow save his sister. As they passed his mother, the Regent tried to pull her up, but she would not let go of the well.
“We have to go,” he ordered.
She shook her head. “I’m not leaving her.”
“She’s dead!” the Regent yelled. “Run!”
Ravagers were quickly closing in. But why? Hadn’t the Regent repaired the fence?
Then it dawned on him. The runestones. If the Regent connected the two adjacent to the one that had broken, given how far apart they were spaced, it cut off a segment of the Sector. They weren’t in Sector One anymore. They were in Ravager land.
“Mother, please, listen to him,” Alec begged, grabbing at her arm.
She yanked away. “Go.”
Alec looked back at the Ravagers, again at his mother, and then to the Regent.
“You must go, son,” Dvorak said. “Your death will not save your mother.”
Tears in his eyes, Alec allowed Dvorak to pull him along until finally they were safely inside Sector One’s new territory mapping.
Alec stared back out into the distance, tears blurring his vision. The Ravagers had clustered around the well. He couldn’t even see his mother anymore. His heart panged so hard it stole the breath from his lungs, and he fell to his knees.
“I have to find my father,” he whispered.
Dvorak crouched in front of Alec. “I’m afraid he didn’t make it. He was running for your mother as we were leaving.”
Alec hadn’t seen. He hadn’t looked back until now. What kind of son did that make him?
The Regent placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You have sacrificed everything for the good of this Sector,” he said, his voice mournful and prideful all at once. “And for that, you will make a great warrior. Your sacrifice will not go unrewarded. Now, come with me, child. There’s much work yet to be done.”
As Alec remembered that day, he felt new pain he’d never felt before. Pain he’d never allowed himself to feel and pain the Regent had never given him the chance to feel. After the death of his parents and sister, Alec had immediately been submerged into training to be a Witch Hunter. Been praised for his “strength” to the point he feared showing anyone his pain.
He’d shoved his mourning aside, and he’d been suppressing those emotions ever since. He’d made excuses for his family’s death because admitting there could have been another outcome would have crushed him…just like it was doing now.
Had he been brave? Had it been sacrifice? Couldn’t he have grabbed his sister first and then rang the bell? Would that have changed anything? Would it have saved his family?
He would never know. But this was pain he had been supposed to feel all along.
But he had to forgive himself, because right or wrong, he had made his choices on what he believed to be best at the time. And he needed to do the same thing now. He needed to do what he believed was right.
Knowing what he knew now about the Regent, Alec realized he already had a great deal of blood on his hands. Bl
ood that would never wash away. But he couldn’t ignore that. He couldn’t hide behind the ideal of bravery and nobility any longer.
If he could save Adira, though, maybe, just maybe, he could forgive himself.
Alec blew a steady breath through his lips and sat up straighter. As a child, he had fought a hoard of Ravagers. Surely he could figure something out. What would Adira do? Alec had spent his life ignoring his doubts and avoiding his feelings, but maybe it was time to trust his heart the way Adira trusted hers.
Alec smirked to himself. Ironic that he’d taught her to be more self-sacrificing, and here he was, trying to be more like her. Finally believing that there had to be a better way than sacrificing a loved one for people who didn’t deserve saving.
He dug into his pocket and retrieved the gift Adira had given him. A sundial charm. He studied the object, turning it around in his hands, dragging his finger along various points of the dial.
As he did so, one of the pieces shifted. Alec wiggled it, and it loosened more. He frowned. Great. Him and his big man hands had broken it.
Or Adira wanted it to break.
Alec wiggled it again, and with very little effort, the gnomon “fin” broke off from the runestone dial plate. That was too easy, confirming his suspicious. But now what? The dial plate didn’t reveal anything new. Just the groove where the gnomon had been.
He inspected the gnomon next. It was like a long triangle with a sharp edge where it had fit into the groove on the plate. He ran his finger along the newly-exposed edge, and it sliced his finger. Blood pearled on his finger tip, and his gaze tilted toward the runestone powering the invisible cell.
An object sharp enough to cut stone? It would have to be magically infused to do that to a runestone, though, and her magic would have to be stronger than the Regents for it to work on this runestone.
Still, it was worth a shot.
He pushed the edge against the stone on the floor, then slowly dragged it toward himself, marring the lines on the runic symbol. He did it again and again until the groove was so deep that the symbols lines didn’t connect on any layer of the stone. Then he held his breath and pushed his hand out to test if the cell was still there.
Nothing.
Nothing there!
He crawled forward, reaching out farther, as if maybe he somehow missed the wall. But no! The wall was gone!
Alec’s body trembled with disbelief, excitement, hope. This was it. He climbed to his feet and padded over to the Regent’s bedroom door, listening carefully for the sound of any life on the other side.
When he was certain the halls were empty, he slipped out and hurried down the hall as quickly as he could without it seeming out of place.
“Hey!” came a voice behind him.
Inwardly, he cringed, then turned around and faced one of the guards.
“What?” he asked, making no effort to hide his irritation.
The guard jogged over to him. “The Regent was looking for you on his way out,” he said. “Said he thinks he found a witch. Some of the other guys said—”
“I hope you did not stop me to pander in gossip.”
“No, it’s just—”
“I am the Regent’s right hand. I think I can manage my duties without your assistance.”
The guard opened his mouth, but then closed it again.
“Is that all?” Alec asked.
The man nodded.
“Then if you don’t mind, I have work to do.”
Alec turned and stormed off down the hall, walking like a man of purpose and not a man twisted up with worry and fear.
Once he was outside the castle, his stride accelerated to a run. He didn’t stop until he reached Miss Balek’s home, his chest heaving as it strained to pull more oxygen in his lungs.
His time in the cell had drained him, not just mentally, but physically as well. It must have been part of the enchantment.
Alec crept up toward the house and paused by one of the windows. Adira said one of the boards had a small hole. It was so they could see from the inside out if someone came to the door. But Alec couldn’t remember where it was.
He inched around the front of the house, checking each window. It’d been toward one of the bottom corners, if memory served him right. With it so dark outside, it took Alec nearly three passes before he found it. Then he leaned down enough to peer in.
The Regent stood before rows of witches, witch tester in hand. Had he recalibrated it yet? Or would the whole room set it off?
Alec’s body tensed as Erik, one of the witches, pointed at Adira. Dvorak approached her with the witch tester. This was it. She would be found out in the worst possible way. And how many lives besides her own would be risked because of this discovery?
But after a few more moments passed, it became obvious the Regent still hadn’t found what he’s looking for. That must have meant…Adira had learned to hide herself. Alec grinned to himself, but that grin quickly faded at the next scene to play before his eyes.
The guards and Regent Dvorak began plowing through one witch after the next. Testing them. Confirming. Corralling them to one corner. Moving on.
Collecting them.
The two guards with the Regent grabbed Anastazie and held her down while Dvorak jabbed the needle point of the witch tester into her neck.
Alec already knew what the verdict would be.
Witch.
Chapter Twenty-One
They tested the men first. Adira could think of no real reason for them to do so other than to terrorize the residents; as far as she knew, male witches were useless to the Regent. He’d certainly never sought them out before.
The guards were intentionally rough, the Regent unnecessarily brutal. Even Erik was subjected to the testing, which was carried out with nowhere near the care Alec had shown when he’d tested Adira.
When they were through confirming every male in the household was a witch, the Regent turned toward Adira with a bone-chilling grin.
“Odd.” He shook his head, his eyes wide and his lips curling. “A house brimming with male witches! And I suppose the rest of you are mere humans?”
Of course he didn’t actually suppose that. Even if not for the sarcasm dripping in his voice, it was obvious the Regent knew he was on to something. And the way he always addressed Adira with his questions, always watching her as he made his every move, made her think that “something” was her.
But instead of advancing on her, he turned to other girls in the room. “Who would like to go first?”
Radana and Kveta formed a small wall in front of Anastazie. Kveta raised her hand. “Me.”
Her forced confidence did not cover the tremble in her voice. The guards stormed toward her, but Adira jumped in their path. “Enough. We all know it’s me you’re after. Just leave them out of it.”
Dvorak spun toward her and tilted his head. “Oh, don’t worry, we’ll get to you soon enough.”
He waved on the guards, and they lifted Adira and set her aside to approach the other girls. While the guards held Kveta, the Regent tucked a strand of her hair behind her eyes. The gentle act was even more repulsive than the unnecessary violence that had been shown toward the men and boys.
“We can never have enough female witches on hand, can we?” he asked, staring into Kveta’s eyes. “Now hold still.”
Zmrazit, Adira thought forcefully in her mind. Freeze.
The energy left her, but did nothing. Moments later, Adira’s body was frozen in place, and Dvorak chuckled to himself, not even looking over his shoulder at her as he tested Kveta.
“Witch,” he confirmed, and the guard pushed her aside to the huddled mass of witches on the other side of the room. “Next!”
Slowly the sensation was returning to Adira’s body, but after the way that had gone down, she might as well have stayed frozen forever. If anything she cast toward the Regent would just bounce back to her, using magic would do more harm than good.
This must be why Miss Balek said
never to use Smrt.
Once Dvorak was through with Radana and Kveta, he crouched in front of Anastazie. She stood stock-still, glaring at him.
“What’s your name, little girl?”
Anastazie spit in his face.
The Regent smiled, reached into his pocket, and removed a handkerchief with the Sector One crest on it to wipe his face. “You’re a little firecracker, aren’t you?”
He tucked the handkerchief back into his pocket while the guards pinned Anastazie to the floor.
Adira made eye contact with Miss Balek, imploring her with her mind to indicate what she should do. The old woman just shook her head sadly and returned her attention to Anastazie.
Dvorak was already pulling the needle back out of her neck. “Don’t worry, baby doll. You have about a decade left before we do anything about it.”
As the Regent turned away, Anastazie growled. “Fuck you! You’re just an impotent asshole!”
Regent Dvorak froze, making Anastazie’s efforts to stop him at least somewhat more effective than Adira’s. But also, apparently more infuriating. His face turned red, and the vein in his forehead bulged.
He spun toward her and yanked her up from the ground by one arm. “I see no one here has taught you any manners!” He shoved her toward one of the guards. “We’ll take care of that back at the castle.”
Adira ground her teeth together, her hands balling into tight fists and her fingernails cutting into her palms. She needed to calm down. Needed to figure out what the Regent’s enchantment was, dissemble it, and then attack.
Back to the basics. To what Anastazie had taught her. First thing she had to do was figure out if the Regent had a positive or negative charge…and ideally, where his enchantment was coming from. He must have an object of some kind on him…
Regent Dvorak snapped his fingers and pointed to the old woman. The guards grabbed her arms on either side, and although she was not resisting, slammed her against the wall to pin her still. The Regent strolled over with a low whistle.