Chapter 53
53
C assandra took a few more steps toward me, her catlike smile growing wider. “I see you’re putting the pieces together, aren’t you?”
I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces. There was so much I hadn’t said to Tristen, so much time we had lost…
…and I hadn’t seen him since he pushed me into the threadwell pool.
There was a good chance I had just lost my greatest love once more. The revelation started to undo me, piece by piece.
My eyes flashed with fury as I looked up to Cassandra. “You knew.”
“Of course I did. Who do you think whisked you away from the altar? But it doesn’t matter now. You will do your duty to the King just like I had to do. Like all of us had to do. You don’t get to run away with the rebels and think you can remake your kingdom somewhere far away from this. Wartime means sacrifice. And it is time for you to sacrifice, Saffron.”
A roaring filled my ears. “I have sacrificed enough.”
I pulled the dagger I had stored in my bodice and lunged at her.
She laughed and disappeared. I stumbled into the empty space where she once stood, a hedge cushioning my momentum.
“I am the High Sorceress. You don’t have enough power to defeat me, girl ,” Cassandra crooned, and I spun to where she had appeared behind me.
I raised my dagger again, but this time she moved lightning-quick, catching my arm mid-swing. “Enough of this.” She whipped her head around. “Take her!”
Guards streamed out of the palace, heading to me. Cassandra let me go and I took a step back. I was surrounded.
“You may be the King’s favored, but I will still enjoy watching you break as you murder your way to the finish line tomorrow,” Cassandra said. Her priestesses emerged from behind the fog-filled garden before her, their blue hoods drawn as she waved at the guards. “Take her away.”
“You’ll pay,” I spat at her. “I swear it.”
“I’ve paid enough,” she said, mocking me. “But keep that energy. It’ll serve you tomorrow.”
She swished away with her blue dress and robes, her priestesses falling in step behind her as she returned to the palace.
Two of the palace guards stepped out and wrestled my wrists into iron bands. I felt the first drops of rain fall from the sky as I was dragged to the cells below the Saltspire Palace to await the final trial.