Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Dahlia
Dahlia lunged for the fire poker as the Giver roared and jumped to his feet.
She spun, using her momentum to slam the iron tool into the side of his knee.
She blanched at the sickening crack, the blow reverberating up her arm.
The slumlord howled and dropped to the floor, burns along his face, chest, and arms.
They had to run now.
One thing she’d learned in Loriia was that frost giants recovered quickly.
Lia backpedaled, grabbing her mother by the hand and dragging her to the exit.
She dropped the poker and yanked open the door, shoving her sobbing mum outside onto the porch first. Dahlia took one step before she was hauled back inside by the hood of her cloak and her hair. She released her mother with a cry.
Tears sprang into her eyes as the Giver shook her, tearing out some of her baby hair. He pinned her to his body, the heat of his chest blanketing her spine as he dragged her toward the back bedroom, her boots scraping the floor.
She gritted her teeth when he squeezed the curve of her left hip too hard, his claws sinking through her clothing and breaking skin as they entered the dark little bedroom.
“Not too smart, my flower,” he panted in her ear. “We’ll have to discuss your temper. Just maybe, I can tame it.”
Get out of his grasp. Do whatever it takes.
She clawed at his wrist with her right hand while she groped for her dagger with the left. Her fingers closed around the worn hilt of her blade. “You’ve not seen my temper.”
Blindly, she stabbed backward, her knife sinking deeply.
The Giver released Dahlia with a bellow, and she yanked her weapon free.
Lia sprinted from the room and out the front door, heavy steps following her.
How was he still moving? A heavy hand shoved between her shoulder blades, and she tumbled off the porch and into the snow, landing on her hands and knees.
Her right wrist screamed in pain, but Lia was just happy she hadn’t stabbed herself. She scrambled onto her feet and swung around, holding her blade out. Dahlia swiped the loose hair out of her face and backed away from the Giver.
He leaned casually against the house, gently probing the knife wound in his gut.
Fear tightened her chest as she spotted her mother shivering in her nightdress at the end of the porch—only a few feet away from the slumlord.
Her mum’s gaze was wild, no recognition in her eyes as she muttered a stream of unintelligible words, staring at Lia.
They needed help. Where the devil was Loshika?
She scanned the surrounding area and stiffened when she spotted several figures tussling near the river. Time seemed to slow as the storm lightened enough that she could see clearly. Loshika fought two Recurrence—the slumlord’s henchmen.
Despair seized Lia as she spotted a lone figure kneeling in the snow, gagged and bound.
Cosmos. Her brother.
Shadows on the other side of the river caught her attention.
Banners.
Warhorses.
Soldiers.
Lia’s breath hitched as she turned back to the Giver, who’d given up his inspection and smiled eerily at her.
“Do you like my gift?” he asked.
Dahlia swallowed hard. “How?” she croaked, trying to find a way out of the situation. How were they supposed to escape the entire Asteran army?
“Nothing happens within my city without me knowing it.” He sighed.
“I thought you knew and respected that.” He pushed away from the stone wall and limped to her mum, grabbing the frail woman by the hair.
He began dragging her across the porch and through the snow toward the river, like Lia hadn’t injured him at all.
“Come along, flower. We have your sentencing to deal with.”
A chill that had nothing to do with the weather slid down her spine. Lia knew how he executed sentencings.
With blood.
She scrambled after him, cursing the deep snow. Tears dripped down her face, leaving freezing tracks as her mum shrieked and cried, her bare feet turning red in the cold.
Lia halted when the Giver reached the river’s edge. It wasn’t a gentle sloping bank but a sharp ledge that dropped into the swiftest part of the icy river. A river that plunged underground not far away. A river that had claimed many lives.
She held her right hand out. “Let’s not do anything we’ll regret,” she said softly, panting.
The Giver laughed, but it was cold and cruel.
“I think the time for bargaining is over. I offered you a way out, and you spat in my face.” He touched a burn mark on his cheek.
“Well . . . kicked coals into it. That was a first.” He shook her mum roughly by the back of her skinny neck and stepped backward toward the river.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Truly.”
The snow started to fall harder.
He chuckled. “You always are when there are consequences to your actions, but I am a generous man. I will let you choose.”
The war drums beat in time with her heart. “Choose?”
A feminine cry cut through the air. Loshika.
An answering cry from the sky. Serenity.
“I’ve known you a very long time, Dahlia Skysinger. While you are intelligent and practical, your family has always been your weakness. It’s also the perfect key to controlling you. So, now I offer you the choice: your mother or your brother?”
Dahlia glanced at her brother’s red face and back at her trembling mother. It was an impossible choice. Even if she did choose, there was no escape. Not with a thousand soldiers just past the river.
Lia swiped the snow from her eyes, smearing the frozen tears on her cheeks. Despair clogged her throat, but she managed to get out, “Please don’t do this.”
The Giver took the last step to the river’s edge, yanking her mother onto her bare feet. “I haven’t done anything. You’re the one to blame for why we’re here. Choose, or I will choose for you,” he growled.
He really would kill one of them.
Dahlia had no choice.
She tossed the blade into the snow and took a step toward them, her legs trembling.
The snow and wind tugged at her wet cloak.
“I’ve held up my bargains with you in the past. I’ve always paid my debts on time.
It was only when my family was in danger that I deviated.
If you allow me to, I give my solemn vow that I will be an obedient wife who will lay the world at your feet.
Gems? I’ll lead them to you. Power? I will set it at your feet. ”
She swallowed hard, unclasping the wet cloak at her throat. The cold didn’t penetrate as she held the Giver’s dark gaze. A hint of interest filled his face as he scoured her body. “A legacy? I will bear them until you are surrounded by heirs to run your very own kingdom for generations to come.”
“You’ll do all those things for me, regardless,” he snarled.
Lia lifted her chin, her pulse roaring in her ears. “Perhaps, but not with the enthusiasm you desire. I will give it and more if you spare their lives.”
The Giver traced a finger down her mum’s pale freckled cheek. Lia blinked slowly as she noticed her mother’s sobs had slowed. A lump formed in her throat as she locked eyes with her mum, who’d sacrificed everything to protect her children all those years ago.
Clarity showed in her clear blue eyes. A rare glimpse of her real self.
Dahlia gasped.
Her mum’s lips lifted into a soft smile before they formed the silent words, “I love you.”
Serenity dove from the sky and raked her claws across Adder’s face.
In a quick move, her mother twisted, kicked the Giver in the damaged knee, and tackled him.
His eyes widened as he tried to catch his balance but only met air.
The pair tumbled over the edge, her mum’s scream piercing the air. They disappeared from sight.
Lia screamed, running for the river. She skidded to a stop at the edge, her eyes scanning the water. Nothing but bubbles rose to the surface.
“Mother!” she screamed. “Mum!”
The Giver bobbed to the surface farther down, but her mother was nowhere to be found. Dahlia shook, tears pouring down her face. “No, no, no, no, no.” This wasn’t right. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
A large hand wrapped around her arm, and she swung. Loshika caught her fist, silver blood dripping down her cheek. “We must go!”
Lia looked back to the river, scouring the surface. “My mum . . .” They had to get to her. Do something. Anything.
“She’s gone, Reilleve. We must go.”
“We have to help her.” They couldn’t leave.
More shouts reached her ears, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the river.
“We will all die if we don’t run now.” Lo gave Dahlia a firm shake. “You have to think of your sibling.”
Her brother.
Cosmos.
She managed to tear her gaze away from the river. Cosmos was rounding the house with two horses. He jogged through the snow, his face haunted but determined.
Lia pulled out of Loshika’s grasp and sprinted at her brother. They crashed together; he wrapped his arms around her and pulled Lia from her feet. The reins pressed into her arm, but she didn’t care. He was whole.
“You’re okay,” she sobbed into his chest. “You’re okay.”
“Mum! We have to help mum.”
She swallowed hard when he released her as if to run to the river. She caught his hand and he shook his head, eyes wild.
“She’s gone, Cosmos,” she whispered softly.
“No! She can’t be. Mum!”
Lia dropped his wrist and cupped his cold cheeks, forcing him to meet her gaze. “She made a choice for you and I. We have to honor that and run.” He shook in her grasp. “There is no other choice, love. We must flee.”
He slowly nodded, some life draining out of his face.
She took his hands in her own, glaring at the reddened skin along each of his wrists. His right bled freely.
Curse the Giver.
She glanced around Cosmos toward the two goons attempting and failing to retrieve the slumlord from the river. He floated closer to the mountains where the river would soon be swallowed by the earth.
I hope he drowns.
Fear threatened to freeze her in place when Asteran soldiers approached the southern side of the Roan. They needed to leave.
Now.
A heavy cloak settled over her shoulders. Lia angrily swiped at the tears still leaking from her eyes. Cosmos hiccupped, trying to suppress a sob. Numbness was slowly creeping through her body.
Stay present.
Dispassionately, she watched as Loshika pulled the large horse from the post by the porch. The healer mounted and nodded to them. “Let’s get away from this place. Archers are approaching.”
Archers? She whistled for Serenity, praying the avian would flee.
Cosmos angrily wiped at his cheeks and woodenly helped Lia onto her own horse. Her fingers were stiff as they curled around the reins. Where had her mittens gone?
Her brother swung up onto his own horse, eyes desolate as the astrylle swooped above them.
Lia twisted around, catching a glimpse of the Recurrence trying to help their master escape, the enemy lining the river, the drums echoing in her ears.
The river that had swallowed her mum.
“Forgive me,” she whispered.
With that, they fled.