Chapter One #2
The woman tugged her furs around her against the chill as she nodded. ‘Aye, a man like that came through just yesterday.’
Thea’s heart rate spiked. ‘Did he stop? Did he speak to anyone?’
‘No. And we kept well enough away. As you can see, our village hasn’t had much luck. We leave strangers alone and hope they’re not cursed.’
Flexing her grip around her weapons, Thea fought to keep her voice calm. ‘Which way did he go?’
The woman pointed through the ramshackle buildings layered with snow, to a forest that bordered the outskirts. ‘He rode straight down this path here and into the woods. We’ve seen no sign of him since. But those cursed men came soon after…’
Thea nodded, already itching to get back on her horse and run Hawthorne down.
She was closer than ever to the treasonous bastard now, and she would not let him slip through her fingers, not this time.
Taking a steadying breath, she wiped her blades on the tunics of the dead, sheathing them at her sides.
‘You should burn them,’ she told the woman, motioning to the corpses.
The villager bowed her head. ‘We will. We will light the pyre in your honour and pray to the Furies that the Moonfire Eclipse brings peace to the midrealms.’
‘Much obliged, ma’am,’ Cal cut in, clearly sensing Thea’s patience wearing thin.
Thea shook her head as the woman went to retrieve their rations. ‘That damn eclipse…’ she muttered.
The entire midrealms was in a frenzy about the upcoming celestial event, and the trio was yet to meet someone who didn’t hold out hope that it would be their salvation against the dark forces lapping at their shores.
According to Kipp, the Moonfire Eclipse only happened every century and symbolised a great shift in the magic of their world, wherein light triumphed over darkness.
Ever since the battle of Notos, the rulers of the midrealms had bolstered the importance of the event and the people had rallied to their cause.
In just a few short weeks, the kings and queens of the remaining kingdoms and their nobles were due to arrive at Vios, the capital of Aveum, to celebrate the occasion in the face of the impending darkness.
Thea shifted on her feet, feeling restless.
‘We’re close,’ Cal reassured her. ‘Right on his tail.’
‘Exactly,’ Thea murmured. ‘I don’t want to lose the ground we’ve gained. He’s somewhere out there, laughing at us.’
Kipp shrugged. ‘He never really struck me as the laughing type.’
‘He didn’t strike me as the traitorous type, but here we are,’ Thea said bitterly.
She should have known he was too good to be true, but she’d let her feelings cloud her judgement. He’d made her believe he’d loved her, and for what? To get close to an heir of Delmira? To collect her secrets and report back to the enemy? She’d been a fool.
‘I’m going to get the horses.’ Without waiting for a reply, she trudged to the village gates where they’d tethered their mares.
The unrelenting sadness came in those quieter moments, with the scent of leather in the wind, with the sight of Hawthorne’s tin of peppermint tea sticking out of her saddlebag.
Cursing colourfully, she untied the horses.
All the midrealms were in uproar over his betrayal, even twelve months later, and though she wore the same mask of anger day in, day out, the sorrow beneath that surface grew taut.
Sorrow for what she had lost, including the flicker of hope she’d had for the future.
Sorrow for Malik, who had lost his brother to the very things that had taken his livelihood from him —
‘If you want to go, let’s go, Thea!’ Kipp called loudly, jumping from foot to foot. ‘I’m freezing my fucking balls off. Why is it always so damn cold here?’
‘Frost giants,’ Thea replied, before remembering who’d told her that.
‘What?’
‘Nothing,’ she muttered, tugging the horses along, ignoring the whip of wind that swept across the lake behind her, the thick layer of ice creaking and groaning.
The frigid air bit at her cheeks and nose as she reached her friends, and she felt a twinge of regret that they wouldn’t be lounging before a roaring fire come evening.
But there would be time enough for that once the traitor was in chains.
At the thought, Thea gave her pack a quick pull, hearing the metal clink within, feeling instantly reassured.
Though she hadn’t seen her sister since she’d left Tver, Wren had stayed in touch through a series of letters: updates on the assassin’s teapot she’d invented and on Sam and Ida’s latest shenanigans, the recipe for Thea’s contraceptive tonic, which she still took religiously, and then later, a package that had found Thea and her friends in Kilgrave, Hawthorne’s hometown.
A set of iron manacles, treated with alchemy that made them unbreakable to a Warsword…
Manacles Thea would clamp around Hawthorne’s wrists before she dragged him to the rulers of the midrealms to face trial for his crimes.
Thea removed them from her pack now, clipping them to her belt. She’d need them soon enough.
‘Who’s going to stop you?’ Hawthorne’s words echoed in her mind like a distant song.
‘No one,’ she muttered to herself. ‘Least of all you.’