Chapter 90
Birch tree branches snapped in Ciana’s face. The underbrush tore at her already ruined skirts, ashes and fallen leaves crunching beneath her slippered feet.
Seeing Andrian there, free and fighting with Mariah, had been a shock.
She didn’t know the name of the young priestess who’d beckoned her into the woods.
The girl’s dark hair was long and unbound around her shoulders, her features aristocratic in a way that told Ciana she was more than a common-born priestess.
And the way Sebastian and Andrian had recognized her piqued Ciana’s curiosity.
That was, if she weren’t hurtling away from a battlefield with a squadron of bloodthirsty mudae on her heels.
Leaving Sebastian there to face the onslaught tore a piece of her heart from her chest. Why must the Armature all be so self-sacrificing?
Yet she couldn’t ask him to run away with her. Though it shredded a piece of herself—and a piece of him, too—he was duty-bound to Mariah. More than that. His very soul was bridged with their queen’s; leaving her to fight a battle on her own would kill something even deeper in him than his heart.
So, when he’d told Ciana to go with the priestess and run, she’d listened.
The priestess glanced over her shoulder, her honey-brown eyes wide but hardened. “Hurry, my lady.”
Ciana ducked beneath a low-hanging branch. “I am—”
They broke past a particularly thick cluster of underbrush, ivy snagging on the frayed edges of her dress. Laying on the ground, hidden by the thick foliage, was a crumpled figure in crisp white robes.
A figure with graying blonde hair and a recognizable, hateful face.
Ciana froze in her tracks, shock catching in her chest.
“Wait—is that—?”
She didn’t need to finish the question. She knew the crumpled figure was Ksee, Qhohena’s former High Priestess. Her heartbeat thudded in her chest as her gaze landed on the small silver dagger embedded in her neck, at the dark blood staining the forest floor.
At the same dark blood splattering the priestess’s dirty white robes.
A hand gripped Ciana’s arm. “My lady.”
Caution rose in Ciana like a tide, the ring on her pinky burning. The priestess hesitated, glancing between Ciana and Ksee’s body.
“It was the only way I could escape,” the priestess whispered. A haze ghosted across her pretty eyes. “She asked me to burn Mariah. I refused.”
Ciana blinked. Some of her caution settled. If she’d been in the priestess’s shoes, would she really have done anything different? “Good riddance to the bitch, then.”
The specter of a smile touched the priestess’s lips.
A mudae’s sharp scream pierced the still air, snapping both their attentions up.
The priestess’s expression returned to one of grim resolution.
“We have to go. Now. I know a place we can hide in the square and wait out the battle.” She tugged on Ciana’s arm.
Ciana hesitated. “But Sebastian said we needed to run deep into the woods. Try to vanish in the trees.”
Anniliese shook her head. “No. Kol’s army may be traveling along Xara’s Road to Verith, but he keeps his legion of mudae close. They’re nesting deep in the woods. If we head in that direction, we run the risk of finding much more than just the few squadrons Kol’s called here today.”
Ciana blanched. More mudae? “Why doesn’t he just call them all here now?”
“Arrogance? I don’t try to understand the decisions he makes. Only someone as mad as him could make any sense of it.”
Ciana didn’t like that answer, but it would have to be enough.
“Fine. Back to Andburgh, then.”
The priestess nodded grimly. “To hide until your queen ends this.” She made to let go of Ciana’s arm, but Ciana caught her wrist, holding her stare.
“Our queen, Priestess.” Ciana smiled fiercely. “Welcome to the court.”
The priestess flushed. “Thank you,” she whispered, before darting off again into the white-barked trees.
With slightly more hope in her heart than she’d had a moment before, Ciana followed.
They burst from the Ivory Forest, breathless and covered in thousands of tiny scratches. The afternoon sun was hot and piercing.
Ciana’s skin crawled the moment they left the cover of the trees. She was too exposed, too vulnerable, too seen, like thousands of eyes had snapped to her the moment she left the canopy.
“How much farther?” she whispered. The priestess scanned the sky.
“Not much,” she said. “It’s near the edge of the square. One of the only buildings they didn’t destroy.”
“How do you know they won’t come back?”
“The army has moved on,” the priestess said. “The lords have their camps set up down Xara’s road. That’s where Kol plans to meet them after all this. They are done with the ruins of Andburgh.”
What choice did Ciana have but to trust her new friend?
They raced across the scorched and bloodstained streets. Evidence of the carnage that had swept the town was everywhere: a forgotten shoe, a trampled market bag, a discarded child’s toy. Ciana tried to keep her gaze fixed on the path before her.
So much death had touched this place. No matter how poorly they might’ve treated Mariah, no matter how much the Salis family had never quite belonged here, these people still hadn’t deserved this.
“This one.” The priestess veered toward a brick building standing at the far edges of the square.
The simple wood door sat beneath a sign that might’ve once been to a tavern.
The windows were boarded up now, but Ciana could picture the travelers who had once sat inside at tables and chairs, enjoying hot food and ale.
Once, she might’ve been one of those travelers. A different girl from a different life.
The priestess slammed into the door, gripping the fine silver handle. She pushed it down, heaving the door open.
Ciana collided with the priestess’s rigid spine, yelping with surprise. “What’s wrong—”
“Lady Hareth. I thought you might scamper back here.”
The slimy voice, spoken with his usual irreverent chuckle, sent ice shooting through Ciana’s veins.
The priestess was still frozen, a hand tight on the door handle. Ciana peered around her shoulder, fear spearing deeper into her gut, tightening around her chest.
Lord Shawth and Lord Donnet lounged in the empty room, hungry smiles spread across their red faces. Shawth cocked his head, grin widening. “And where is our dear High Priestess? Did you finally grow a spine and rid us of her nuisance?”
The priestess didn’t answer, didn’t move. Her hand trembled at her side, the ends of her long hair shaking as her shoulders heavily rose and fell.
Ciana was about to offer her whatever reassurances she could, was about to pull her out of that door and tell her to run, when Shawth’s cold, watery eyes slid to her.
“And it looks like you brought a friend!” Shawth’s smile broadened. “Well done, Anniliese. You can always be counted on to serve your lords well.”
Something about that snapped the priestess—Anniliese—awake. She released the door handle, taking a lurching step in front of Ciana. “Take me. I’ll do whatever you ask. But let her go.”
Shawth tsked, and Donnet chuckled softly.
“Oh, my dear. If only it were so simple. You see, you have outlived your usefulness to us.” Shawth snapped his fingers.
From the shadows stepped three of his personal guards, clothed in the blood red of his house.
“Gone are the days of priestesses and queens. Kol has promised us a better world, one where men rule in the light and not hidden in the shadows.” He nodded to his men.
They moved forward, faces blank beneath their helms.
Anniliese lifted her hand, unfurling her fist. An ember of golden fire ignited in her palm, flickering in the dim light of the room. “No. You won’t take me or her. Not again.”
Shawth sighed. “Always have to make this difficult, don’t you, Anniliese?”
Ciana screamed, but it was too late.
A fourth guard lunged out from behind a curtain to their left, catching Anniliese by surprise. The fire died in her hand as the hilt of his sword hit her temple. She crumpled silently to a heap on the ground.
Ciana’s hand flew to her mouth, staggering back through the door. A sob choked and caught in her throat. Shawth and Donnet stood, straightening the lapels of their jackets.
“It is actually quite fortunate you found us, Lady Visseau,” Shawth said smoothly. His gaze shifted over Ciana’s shoulder, something brightening in his gaze. “There are some new acquaintances of ours who are very much looking forward to seeing you again.”
Ciana kept backing up away from the building, stumbling over her feet.
Her back slammed into something solid and warm.
She whirled with a gasped sob, tears welling in her eyes. Ydros stared down at her, arms folded behind his back, moss-green eyes unreadable.
He wasn’t alone.
Three familiar figures strode through the ruins of Andburgh. Three people Ciana had foolishly believed she’d never see again—three people she thought she’d escaped for good.
Her fear slid into her stomach like the slice of a dagger, piercing and ragged. Her breath froze in her lungs, her knees buckling.
“Lord Blaise. As you can see, loyalty will always be rewarded under Kol’s reign.” Shawth swept past Ciana, Lord Donnet and his guards on his feet. He shook the offered hand of Ciana’s stepfather, the two men grinning as if trading a prized mare.
To them, perhaps that’s all Ciana was.
“Thank you for returning her to us, Lord Shawth.” Leon Blaise’s voice prickled at Ciana’s skin, so sharp she worried it would draw blood. “We are so pleased to finally bring her home. We have missed her so dearly.” He scoffed. “And to think we were told to run from this world. Bah!”
Ciana was paralyzed by fear. This wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real, it wouldn’t be real—
A sob shuddered through her chest. Sebastian. Where was Sebastian? Why wasn’t he here to save her? He’d promised.
He’d promised.
Ydros faced the Blaise family. “Priam was misguided. But Kol is pleased to earn the allegiance of your esteemed family. He hopes you will remember this kindness and reward him with your loyalty as he builds his new world.”
Ciana would have buckled to her knees, right there in the bloodstained cobbled streets.
Would have, if not for the two guards gripping her arms, holding her to her feet.
They dragged her forward, and she knew she should fight. Mariah would want her to fight. To give them hell all the way to the bitter end.
But all those terrible, ugly memories were rearing their heads, just as they always did. Reality crashed around her, shattering all the happiness she’d found in the past year as if it were nothing but a devastating dream.
It was monstrous, to taste freedom and love, only to have it all snatched away from her as quickly as she’d found it.
The guards halted her in front of her stepfather. The ugly man smiled, showing far too many teeth.
He stepped aside, and his son, dead eyes a picture straight from Ciana’s darkest nightmares, grinned.
“Welcome home, sis,” Lucas said, voice coiling around Ciana like a poisonous serpent. “It will be such a treat to have you around again.” He leaned closer, his foul breath brushing her cheek.
“I hope that Armature hasn’t used you up too much. I’ll be so disappointed if that nobody ruined my favorite toy.”
Ciana could feel herself retreating. Her mind was closing down, shutting off. She fell into that place she’d spent so much of her childhood, a place in her mind she’d created to survive.
But she wasn’t sure she could survive this. Not again.
And Sebastian wasn’t coming.
Lucas stepped away, still smiling. Shawth’s guards shoved Ciana forward, into Leon’s sweaty arms.
“Enjoy your prize, Lord Blaise,” Shawth said. “We will be in touch when we need your help again.”
They exchanged a few more words, but Ciana heard none of them. A carriage rolled into the square, and Ciana was ushered into it.
Her world blurred around the edges as the Blaise family carried her back into a place darker than even the depths of Enfara itself.