Zoey spent the day in the library studying creatures from Erken. Some looked dangerous, and she had no desire to kill them. Others were peaceful and didn’t bother anyone – she didn’t want to kill them either.
Zoey didn’t like this trial and having time to prepare for it gave her time to overthink it. What if she killed a creature and its friends came after her to get revenge? What if she couldn’t kill the creature, and it killed her? If she failed the third trial, would she lose everyone’s respect that she had worked so hard to gain?
Zoey sat in front of a book at a small desk in the library, staring at the pages without retaining anything. She had liked the other two trials more because they had appeared so unexpectedly. She was making this one worse than it was.
By the time the sun set, Zoey was frustrated and felt as if she was getting nowhere. She was not hungry and decided to skip dinner. Maybe Tarragon was over his tantrum and had decided to join everyone at the table. She didn’t want to see his stupid face.
Zoey chose more books from the shelf and slammed them down on the table. She opened the first one, started reading, and tried to force herself to pay attention to the words. She could find something in there that would help her with the final trial.
Thoughts of Eric surfaced as Zoey stared at the book. They hadn’t decided when they would meet each other again, and three weeks had passed since she had last seen him. If they had scheduled another meeting, she was sure it would have been tonight.
She had lost him, but it was for the best. Her life had changed drastically, and he was never going to accept that. He would exhaust himself trying to find a way to break the curse. If there was a way to break it, Caynin would have helped her do so by now.
Zoey did have faith in Caynin. He protected her and took good care of her. He gave her everything she needed and wanted. If there was something he could do to help, he would.
Eric also tried his best, but what could he do that Caynin couldn’t do ten times better? She would not search for Eric in the woods again. It was foolish and reckless. She had to be selfless – like Rane was with Kismet. Meeting Eric again and again would only give him hope that one day things would return to the way they had been.
Zoey was never going to live a normal human life again. Her family was in her past, and while she did miss them, she couldn’t let them near her. Being close to her meant being close to the Fata, and after attending the Red Festival, she didn’t trust the Fata around humans.
Zoey’s eyes were drooping, and she rested her head on her books. She would close her eyes, only for a minute, but then she fell asleep. When she awoke, it was early in the morning. She rubbed her eyes, stretched, and forced herself to rise. Sleeping on the table had been uncomfortable, and she must have been exhausted to sleep there that long.
She yawned and left the library. There wasn’t much crime among the Enerly, so the doors were unlocked. Zoey shivered and looked up at the millions of stars in the clear night sky. She reached Kismet’s room in time to see the door swing open. Kismet rushed out and saw her, “Zoey, are you also going to see him?”
“See who?”
Kismet frowned. “Haven’t you heard? They caught the Slaerie responsible for killing Delia and the others.”
Suddenly, Zoey was wide awake. That couldn’t be right because the Slaerie weren’t behind the murders – a Prenumbra was.
“I’m going with you,” Zoey decided.
She and Kismet headed toward the castle gates where a crowd had already gathered. Zoey pushed through them to see what was happening. A grinning Tarragon faced everyone, and at his feet was a human bound and gagged with vines. The human lay in a fetal position so that no one could see his face.
“I wandered through the woods to clear my mind,” Tarragon said, “when I found another dead Enerly. This Slaerie was standing over her, with weapons on him. Brothers and sisters, I give you the human behind the murders.”
Tarragon reached down and grabbed a handful of hair. He pulled the boy up to reveal his face. Zoey gasped when she saw it was Eric.
“This is wrong,” she told Kismet, but kept her eyes on her friend. “They have the wrong person.”
Tarragon did not know about her friendship with Eric, so he was not doing this to hurt her. What had Eric been doing in the woods, and why had he been caught with a deceased Fata? He was wide eyed, and drool dripped from his chin as the vines that gagged him forced his mouth open. The vines around his wrists were too tight, cutting off the blood flow. Seeing him like this broke Zoey’s heart. She should have told him to never return. She should have chased him away. She could have prevented this from happening.
Tarragon knew a Prenumbra was killing his kind, but he wanted someone to take his anger out on. He wanted someone to punish, and the crowd needed someone to blame. Zoey was not going to let him use Eric. She would die before she allowed him to hurt Eric any more then he already had.
Zoey looked to her right, where Dagan and Caynin stood. Caynin said something to Dagan and glanced at Zoey. They had better not try to stop her. Zoey started pushing through the crowd. She shoved Fata out of the way and didn’t care whom she angered. She was going to reach Eric, no matter what.
Then someone grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She was about to curse when she realized it was Dagan. His emerald eyes held her gaze.
“Let me go.”
“You can’t march up there and make Tarragon look like a fool again,” Dagan warned her.
“You can’t stop me.”
But the sad truth was, he could. Dagan yanked her back forcefully, and if she screamed, no one would help her. She kicked him, to no effect. She reached into her pocket to pull out her iron knife, knowing this was an unwise move. Caynin had been furious when he found out she had the knife, and Dagan would react similarly.
As Zoey shoved her hands in her pockets, she realized she did not have the knife with her. These were the clothes Caynin had given her that morning. Her knife was in her room – she had forgotten to strap it to her thigh under her dress for the Red Festival. She had become way too comfortable in the Everwhite Kingdom.
“Dagan, that boy is innocent.” She regarded him with fierce determination. “I have to help him.”
“I can’t let you do that,” Dagan said.
His hand was on her left arm, and he pulled her closer to him. Her right arm was free. She was so angry and scared for Eric she was not thinking clearly. Zoey slapped him in the face. She slapped him so hard that his face tilted sideways. Slowly, he turned back toward her, and his eyes made her shiver. She feared he was going to hit her back, but instead he threw her over his shoulder like she weighed no more than a feather. There was nothing she could do as he carried her away.
“We should not kill him like this,” Caynin told Tarragon. He was standing in front of the crowd, too, now. “We should do it in two days’ time in front of everyone. He should have a proper execution.”
“For once we agree on something,” Tarragon said. “We’ll take him to the dungeons.”
Dagan carried her around a corner and to the castle’s rear, and she did not dare hit him again. He finally put her down, and she tucked strands of hair behind her ears before she could look at Dagan.
“You should be thanking me,” Dagan told her. “If I’d let you go up there, you and that boy would both be dead.”
“He is innocent,” she told Dagan. “You know it is a Prenumbra behind the killings.”
“You can’t save everyone,” Dagan told her.
Clearly, he did not care if one more human died. He did not care if they were going to torture Eric for a crime he had not committed.
“We have been friends since we were babies,” she said.
His face softened a little, but not enough to make her think he would help her save Eric. “He shouldn’t have come here.”
Zoey wished she hadn’t asked Dagan to free Alfred. If she hadn’t done that, he would still have owed her, and she could have asked him to help.
“You can’t just barge in there and save him,” Dagan told her. “You don’t stand a chance.”
“If I finish the third trial soon, I can use my wish to set him free,” she realized.
Dagan shook his head. “The three princes gave you trials and are responsible for making your wish come true. Tarragon is a ruler, and he has no part in the trials or your wish. Eric is his prisoner.”
“I can wish that the three princes help me free Eric,” she said.
Dagan looked at her. “You can, but that will result in even more bloodshed. Tarragon won’t give him up without a fight.”
“Then we fight,” she said.
“Think of the consequences,” Dagan warned. “If one of the princes or Tarragon dies, it will result in a war. Is that boy really worth it? I think you could spend your wish much better.”
“I can’t abandon him,” she told Dagan.
He regarded her with his forest eyes. “Then find another way to save him.”
“How?”
“I can see why Caynin is in love with you,” Dagan said. “You’re fierce, loyal, and strong willed.”
She was not swayed by his charm. Also, he was not going to tell her how to save Eric. He probably did not know how to, either.
“I want to talk to Eric,” she said.
“The dungeons will be guarded,” he said.
“Can you make the guards disappear?”
He gave her a naughty smile. “Of course I can.”
She sighed. “But, let me guess, you’re not going to do it for free.”
“Nope,” he said.
“What do you want?” Bargaining with him was unwise.
“I want you to owe me one.”
“Fine,” she said. This was a scary bargain because she did not know when or what he would collect.
“When do you want them gone?” he asked her.
“Tonight,” she said.
“Consider it done.” Dagan started walking away. “And Zoey, it will be most unwise to try and break him out. You’ll be caught.”
“I don’t know what I am going to do,” she replied.
“That’s what makes this fun,” he said before he left.
***
Zoey had the whole day to think of what she was going to do, but she could not come up with a plan. No matter how much she paced in her room, nothing came to mind. She was sleep deprived, and that only added to her frustration. After a while, she did the only thing she could do – she went to Caynin. She was glad to find him in his chambers, alone.
He smiled when he saw her. “I wanted to come to you, but I didn’t want you to feel suffocated,” he said quickly. It reminded her how she had reacted badly when he followed her into the woods with Eric. Maybe he did not want to make the same mistake again – thus he had waited for her to approach him.
“You did the right thing,” Zoey said, realizing how well he had come to understand her.
Had he predicted that she would run to him in her desperate state? She was not going to tell him about the deal she had made with Dagan. Caynin held much power – there must be some way he could help her. He was her protector, and she trusted him. She tried not to think about Dagan saying Caynin was in love with her.
“You know why I am here,” Zoey said.
“The boy.” Caynin ran a hand through his hair. “You want me to free him.”
“Please.” She hated how desperate and weak she sounded.
“Zoey, all three princes and Tarragon have equal power. I can’t overrule him.”
The only person who could overrule him was the queen, and Zoey didn’t have any relationship with her, which meant she couldn’t ask for favors. She didn’t have anything to offer the queen to set Eric free. She couldn’t think of a bargain, and the queen would not appreciate her begging.
“He is going to be executed for something he didn’t do. Killing him won’t solve your Prenumbra problem,” she said.
“I know that,” Caynin said, which confirmed that they still had no idea where the Prenumbra was or how to stop it. “I asked to delay the execution because I didn’t want you to watch him die, on the ground by Tarragon’s feet.”
“He is going to die brutally tomorrow night,” she told him.
“But you won’t be there to watch it,” Caynin said. “I can take you away from the castle for a while.”
“I’m not running away, and I am not abandoning my friend,” Zoey said. “If Tarragon wanted to execute me in front of everyone, would you let him?”
“Of course not.”
“So why are things not the same with Eric?”
“I don’t feel the same way about Eric that I do about you,” Caynin said.
“You’re a selfish bastard,” she told him.
She had enough of this conversation. Caynin was not going to help her because he only ever did something if he could benefit from it. He was arrogant to think his life and feelings mattered more than those of others. She was glad he did not stop her when she stalked away.
***
Zoey was lying on her bed, facing the ceiling, exhausted from the lack of sleep and stress. She’d had hours and hours to come up with a rescue plan, yet she had nothing. She went to the dungeons – they were far from the armory. No Fata tried to stop her or talk to her. None of them even knew she and Eric were friends.
The dungeons had a big entrance, and the walls here were rough, with sharp ice crystals growing from them like thorns. They were gray and cold, and the entrance formed a gaping black mouth with stairs which led down into the darkness.
When Zoey arrived, there were no guards. Dagan had kept his word, and she shuddered to imagine what he would ask for in return. She tried not to dwell on it and focused on the matter at hand. She was going to see Eric.
She descended slowly and gave her eyes time to adjust to the dark. The dungeons were cold, dreary, and wet. Water dripped somewhere, and moss covered the walls. The place smelled musty, and Zoey assumed servants never ventured down here to clean. The stairs were slippery, so she proceeded slowly until she reached the bottom. The cells were next to each other, most of them empty, and the temperature had dropped several degrees. As Zoey walked, she realized the place was big, and she didn’t know where Eric was.
“Eric!” she called.
“Zoey! Is that you?”
“Yes!” she cried out. “Eric, talk to me so I can find you.”
“I’m right here,” he said it repeatedly, so that she could follow his voice. She found him, sitting on the ground in a cell, gripping the bars.
“Eric!” She sank to her knees.
He looked bad – dirty, bruised – his clothes were torn, and his cheeks were pale. His iron necklace was still around his neck which meant he was protected against compulsion, but not physical pain. He had been down there all day, and it didn’t look like anyone was taking care of him. Zoey immediately regretted not bringing him food and a blanket.
“What have they done to you?”
“Nothing yet,” he said.
But he would be executed the following night. She touched his hands to comfort them both.
“What happened?”
“I was looking for you,” he said. “I tried to find you, but I couldn’t. Then I found a dead Fata. It looked like someone had sucked the life out of her.”
The Prenumbra had killed her, and Eric was taking the fall for it. She did not interrupt him.
“Then this crazy big Fata found me. He knew I didn’t do it! Yet, he dragged me to the castle and blamed it on me.”
“That’s Tarragon,” she said bitterly. “He is the Ruler of the Everblossom Kingdom.”
“I don’t know how you live among them,” Eric said.
“I’m fine here,” she told him. “You shouldn’t have gone looking for me.”
“I should have. I just wished I found you before I got caught.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand.”
“No, you don’t understand,” he said. “I had to find you, because I desperately had to tell you something.”
“Tell me what?”
Eric drew a deep breath. “These past weeks all I have done was research on The Globetrot-tree and your curse and how to break it.”
“Let me guess,” Zoey said. “You can’t break it.”
“I can’t break it, because there is no curse.”