CHAPTER TEN

The boy who had appeared behind me looked about my age, tall and all sharp angles. His dark, shaggy hair fell nearly into his eyes, and he was cloaked entirely in black. He wasn’t carrying any visible weapons… but Miranda had still paled when she saw him.

“What are you doing here?” Miranda said.

He ignored her, instead staring straight at me. His eyes were pools of midnight—so dark and magnetic that I almost felt I might fall into them if I looked too long.

“Lena,” he said, his voice musical and low.

I stepped back, shaken. “How do you know my name?”

“I have been hunting you for a very long time,” he said.

The witch. He was working for her—he had to be.

“You can’t take her,” Miranda said. She turned to me, pleading. “Come with me, Lena. He’s dangerous.”

Alaric laughed. “As are all who walk willingly through the Silence. You trust this girl, Lena? She is a liar, and a cheat.” He looked at Miranda. “Tell me, Miranda. Is this all part of some grand scheme to win Calanthe back to your side? Because it won’t work.”

My lips parted in surprise. Callie was alive?

That was impossible. Miranda had been mourning in Haven—her grief had been so palpable I could almost taste it. Callie was dead—wasn’t she? I turned to Miranda.

“Is that true?” I hissed. “You lied to me?”

She looked at me, stricken. “Callie is dead to me. She is forsaken, beyond saving. What I told you is true in the way that matters.”

Was it, though?

Miranda continued, “But you cannot trust him. He serves Katen, the princess of the Gather. The daughter of the king. You don’t know them, not like I do. If he takes you to her, you will die.”

But what if that, too, was just another attempt to manipulate me back into trusting her? I was caught—between the girl who had charmed me and a stranger who knew my name.

I chanced a glance at the trees at the edge of the path. How far could I flee before they caught me? Miranda was just a human girl, regardless of her magic. And though Alaric was frightening, I’d seen nothing to convince me he was anything more than a boy.

A line of ferns unfurled into the forest, a smaller version of those that had appeared to me before. Run, Lena.

“Don’t run, Lena,” Alaric said softly, and my gaze jerked back to him. His eyes were still focused on Miranda, but somehow he seemed to have read my thoughts. “It would behoove you to come with me willingly, both for your own sake and for Miranda’s.”

“Lena, don’t—”

But I had already made up my mind. I darted off the path.

I’d only gone a few steps when a hard shove against my back sent me sprawling. I hit the ground hard and rolled to see Alaric standing over me. He turned around as Miranda rushed forward, knife in hand. He easily sidestepped her attack, then grabbed her by the collar and lifted her effortlessly off her feet. I gasped as he threw her through the air. Her body collided with a tree before collapsing to the ground.

“Miranda!” I cried out. She didn’t move, and my chest tightened at the possibility that she was seriously wounded—or dead.

Alaric turned his attention back to me. I scrambled to my feet, raising my hands. “Don’t come near me,” I warned. “Or I will kill you.”

He smiled a cruel smile. “It’s adorable that you think you can.”

I was rigid with fear as he stalked toward me, heedless of my threat. I tried to rally myself, tried to remember how powerful I’d felt after the Wolf had burned. But this was different. This was a boy, just like the last one. The scent of burning flesh dampened by rain— My stomach roiled as I pushed the memory away. I had to do this. I had to be strong.

Alaric closed the distance between us quickly, and then he was standing only inches from me. If he worked for the witch, he must know of the curse, but he made no move to defend himself as I lashed out, striking his cheek with my bare hand.

Nothing happened.

Alaric’s grin widened. He reached out and grabbed my wrist, the warmth of his fingers a shock against my skin—that boy’s hair shriveling into smoke—I gaped up at him. I could hear the rush of my own blood in my ears. This was impossible—how—

“I don’t understand. You’re supposed to be dead,” I whispered.

“Come, Lena. It’s time for us to go.” He yanked me by the wrist, and I stumbled forward, colliding with his chest. Dazed, I tried to pull away, but his arms enveloped me in an embrace, holding me tightly. Wind lifted my hair and tore at my clothes as branches whipped around us. I ducked my head down as the forest whirled and fell away from our feet.

Somehow, incomprehensibly, we were flying.

Shadows spread out from Alaric’s shoulders, creating the ghostly impression of wings. I looked down. We were higher than the trees now, soaring over the Silence’s canopy. Freed of the forest’s eternal twilight, I could tell that it was still afternoon. Trees stretched out in all directions, as far as I could see. If I fell, I might simply disappear. My stomach lurched at the thought, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

Soon we began to descend. My feet touched the earth, and suddenly the world righted itself again. Alaric let me go. My knees buckled, and I pitched forward onto the ground.

Alaric knelt at my side, his hand resting on my shoulder. I threw it off and pushed myself to my feet. “What did you just do? Where are we?”

“We’re still in the Silence. This is just a place where we’re less likely to be interrupted. I wanted to speak to you privately before I deliver you to my mistress. And I know you have questions of your own. I promise we’ll get to them in due time.” His tone was infinitely patient, and it infuriated me.

“Don’t talk to me like that. I’m not a child.”

He raised an eyebrow and rose gracefully to his feet.

My hand itched to slap him. But I was afraid to touch him again. I was afraid of what it meant that my curse had failed me now, when I needed it most.

“How long?” I said, my words clipped.

“What?”

“How long have you been hunting me?”

“Seventeen years.”

I gasped. “That can’t be possible. You look—”

“Dashingly handsome?” he said, smirking.

“Young. You can’t be more than a year or two older than me.”

Alaric visibly deflated. “Appearances can be deceiving,” he said, sounding suddenly exhausted. “I’ve been this way for a very long time.”

I rolled my eyes.

“You don’t believe me.”

“No, I don’t.” For some inexplicable reason, I could believe that a boy who could fly had abducted me—but accepting that he was also some unearthly ageless being was a step too far.

“Strange, that. But I understand why. You just found out that you’ve been lied to for your entire life.”

I frowned. “But I’ve only known Miranda a few days.”

“I’m not speaking of Miranda. I am speaking of your parents.”

“What could you know of my parents?” I spat.

“I knew them before you were born. Their names are Joren and Edina. And, if I’m not mistaken, that’s your mother’s handiwork on that cloak.” He reached for my hood, rubbing the fabric between his fingers. “Clever of her.”

I could have explained away so much. But I could not explain how he knew my parents’ names. Unless he was telling the truth.

I swallowed, hard. I was afraid of what he might tell me next. But I had to know. “Why didn’t you die when I touched you?”

“Because your curse is not what you think it is.”

“How—”

“I was there when Katen placed the curse on you,” Alaric interrupted me.

Katen… the princess of the Gather. “Katen is the witch?”

“A witch… is one name for what she is. There are others.”

Katen. The name rang through me like a bell. Katen was the witch who had cursed me. And Alaric was the lackey who would take me to her, to my death.

“Lena, we are short on time.”

I looked up at him, feeling numb. “What does that matter, when all you’re going to do is drag me back to your mistress? Because I don’t really care if I inconvenience her.”

“Not her,” said Alaric. He looked away, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “Us.”

“What are you talking about?” I shot back. “There is no us.”

“If you wish to break the curse and foil my mistress, then I am your best chance. It is true that I am bound to carry out Katen’s commands. But I do not serve her willingly. If I deliver you to Katen, she will kill you. So I have an offer for you instead. If you help me win my freedom, I will kill her for you. And your curse will be broken.”

“And you don’t think I can do that myself?” I said, scoffing.

“No,” he said simply. “Because the power inside of you is not your own. It is hers.”

That made no sense. “What do you mean, it’s not mine?”

“I see you carry a bag from Haven. If you were there, you must have seen some of the blood carriers. Katen is a blood mage. She put her magic in you to keep it a secret from her enemies. And then she placed a curse on you—the Hand of Mora. Anyone who touches you without being told the name of the person who placed the curse will die. So you could not kill her with it if you tried. It is her curse, her power.”

I raised my hands before my eyes, feeling as though they had betrayed me. My own body was monstrous, but it had always been mine. I thought we understood each other. But if this was true…

“I don’t know you,” I said slowly. My voice sounded faint even to my own ears. “How do I know if any of this is true? How do I know you’re not simply toying with me?”

Alaric scoffed at me. “Such games are human conceits. I don’t play them.”

“And you aren’t human?”

“No,” he said somberly. “No, I’m not.”

Strangely, I found that I believed him. “Then what are you?”

He leaned back against a tree. “Once, I was a raven of the Silence,” he said, a note of sadness creeping into his voice. “Before there was a Gather, Shale and Katen were just ordinary people who came here, fleeing their troubles elsewhere.” His words turned bitter. “Katen tricked me out of my wings and bound me into her service. I have served her for more years than I can count.”

He looked at me, his black eyes unblinking. “You ask whether I am telling the truth. If I were truly loyal to Katen, I would take you to her immediately. There is no reason for me to tell you all of this, except that I need your help.”

Miranda had also asked for my help.

But of the two of them, Alaric’s story was more convincing… and his plan more achievable.

“You said that you’ve been hunting me for a long time,” I said slowly. “If Katen is so powerful, then why didn’t you find me until now?”

“Because of your cloak. Your mother wove a spell into it that conceals you from magical scrying when you’re close enough to it. So Katen could only find you by the curse—when it’s used, the power is strong enough for her to sense. You’ve used the curse three times—most recently yesterday, when you killed that Wolf. Katen has felt it every time.”

They’d felt me every time, including the first—

I’m seven again, clinging to my mother’s hand as she walks through the market. I’m bundled up as though we are in the dead of winter instead of early summer. It’s hot, and my throat is parched. I pretend I am a flower, waiting for rain.

A soap bubble floats across the sky, and I giggle, watching it.

“Stay right here,” Mother says, and she turns to haggle with a merchant. I know the rules: stay where you’re told, don’t talk to anyone, don’t touch anything, don’t touch anyone—

But two children run past me as fast as they can, and the girl smiles at me, hair tangled and feet bare, and she is everything I want to be, and a wildness rises within me that calls back—I want, I want, I want. I don’t even understand what I want, not really, but I want it so desperately—my toes wiggle in my shoes, neatly buckled, and when the children run by once more, shrieking with delight, I follow.

It is so easy to follow them, to melt into this gaggle of children and their games. Though I don’t understand all the rules, I understand the freedom that unfolds in front of me.

The girl takes my hand through my glove, and I let her. We run together, and I am laughing—until I’m grabbed by the other wrist, tagged, and I hear a shriek of pain.

The boy who touched me is on fire. He is running as flames lick up his arms to his neck, his face. His hair catching light, curling up into smoke—

There are so many people screaming, and the girl has long since let go of my other hand. I close my eyes, put my hands over my ears, but I can’t block it out.

My mother is there suddenly, lifting me into her arms, running with me, and when we are safe inside again she slaps my face and tells me never, never break the rules again.

And I am crying, saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, is it my fault?”

“Yes. Yes, it’s your fault. And you must never do it again.”

And all the while Father is hurrying around us in a blur, packing our bags like so many other times before.

“Lena.” I was wrenched back into the present by the sound of Alaric’s voice as he shook me by the shoulders. I refocused, taking in the concern on his face. Then I looked past him into the trees, digging my fingernails into the earth as if to anchor myself. There was a metallic taste in my mouth—I’d bitten the inside of my cheek. My entire body was shaking.

I suddenly thought of my father standing in the kitchen, drizzling glaze over the queen’s cakes. He had gone to such pains to protect me—and yet he and my mother had lied about our history. They had lied to me about my own curse. My very nature. How could they? How could they?

This was too much. A sob rose up in my throat, and I could not swallow it down—not after this. In the middle of the Silence, before the stranger who had just shattered my understanding of my entire world, I wept.

“Lena, whatever pain you’ve suffered in the past—we can make Katen pay for it now.” Alaric’s voice was soothing, almost seductive.

Like Miranda’s had been.

“Don’t pretend that you care about my pain,” I said. “You want this for yourself.”

“That is true,” he replied, his face like stone. “I want nothing more than to bleed the life out of my mistress. But when I do that, both you and I will be free. And that, I would think, is something worth fighting for.”

Of course I should not trust him. He wanted to use me, just as Miranda had. But something about him spoke to me. We were both bound by things outside our control.

“Then answer me one more question,” I said, wiping away my tears. “One question and I’ll agree to join you.” Not that I had much of a choice—it was either join him or be delivered to the witch.

“If it is within my power to answer,” Alaric said.

“Why did Katen do this to me?”

Alaric smiled—a small, sad smile. “We are all bound in our own way. She is a princess, but her father is a tyrant. He will allow no one to challenge his rule, and she is powerful enough to be a threat. If he’d learned how much magic she truly possesses, he would have killed her long ago. Katen knew this, so she hid her power far away, where it would never be stumbled upon, or turned against her.”

“In the Mundane. Inside of me.”

Alaric nodded and held out his hand. “As I said before, the hour grows late. Shall we?”

What was I doing? Jumping from one terrible situation into the next. And yet Alaric was right—Katen should pay for the anguish she’d caused me. My fury at my parents’ deceit might never find its target. But I could help bring down the witch and finally break this awful curse. How extraordinary that I was thinking such mercenary thoughts. A week ago I would have been horrified by the prospect—I would have been sick at the idea of using the curse on purpose.

But I was done with running away. This was how I would win my freedom.

I took his hand.

The shadows of wings spread around us, and he spirited me away.