“That heart of yers may be gone, but ye’ve felt it beat. It’s beatin’ ferher.”
“I don’t know what you’re on about.”
She jabbed a knobby finger at my face. “He lies! Shall I offer ye a lie as well?”
Would it be so bad to admit the truth if she told me how Aveen was meant to save me? She was dying tomorrow, after all. Who could she tell? “I’ve felt it,” I confessed.
Her chapped lips pulled into a grin, revealing a mouth full of rotten teeth. “Pity the girl from Graystones who loved a heartless prince. For the only way to save him was at her own expense.”
I’d wondered how Aveen might save me from this curse the Queen had me under.
I’d assumed she wouldn’t survive.
But now I knew for certain.
To save me, Aveenneededto die.
6
Gray mist settledlike a carpet over an unnaturally still sea. I watched it burn away with the sunrise from a bench in town, until the square filled with humans coming to watch the spectacle. Slurs and words of hate spewed from the ones closest to the jail and along the path to the gallows as guards led Molls and Charlie to their deaths. The ancient witch died with a cackle cut off by the snap of her neck. Part of me had hoped Charlie would be first. Not that it really mattered when the result would be the same.
They’d both be swinging from ropes soon enough, and I’d have about ten minutes before their life force returned to the earth. Charlie wasn’t very powerful, but Molls was, and that power could be what tipped the scales in my favor when I finally took on the Queen.
Charlie struggled to climb the wooden stool while the executioner fitted the coarse rope around his gullet.From the back of the crowd, I heard a woman shouting for them to stop. The humans next to me whirled toward the plea, but I kept my gaze on the way Charlie’s eyes softened toward whoever she was. A sister? A daughter? A friend? A lover?
“Stop!” the woman shouted again.
I could have sworn Charlie smiled.
I turned to catch a glimpse of the person attempting to save him. When I saw Aveen weaving between spectators toward the wooden platform, my jaw dropped. What sort of fool interfered with executions? Did she honestly think she could stop this?
The executioner knocked the lever forward, opening the trap door beneath Charlie’s single leg.
Crack.
Dead.
Guards in red livery left their post at the front of the dais, headed straight for Aveen. Before I could make a conscious decision, I was shoving everyone aside on my way to the foolish human, grabbing her, and dragging her away.
She thrashed and kicked in a pitiful effort to free herself. “No! Please! Please!”she cried. The orange hair of my glamour reflected in her wild, tear-filled eyes.“Let me go! They need to stop—”
“Shut up,” I growled, doing my best not to squeeze the life out of her. I had better things to do than save this foolish human from getting herself killed. If I didn’t get back to the bodies, their life forces would be gone, and all of this would’ve been a colossal waste of time. I towed her to the closest alley, making sure no one followed. Thankfully, the guards seemed to have decided that fighting the crowd was too much effort. “Have you lost your feckin’ mind?” I snarled. “Interfering with executions is treason.”
If she were one of us, she’d have been hauled right up to the dais without so much as a trial and hung with the others.
Hold on. . .
For the only way to save him was at her own expense.
Maybe I should’ve let them take her. Ah, well. Too late now.
Her beautiful eyes widened. “Rían?”
I clamped a hand over her gaping mouth. “Quiet. Do not use my name.” There was no telling who was in that feckin’ crowd.
When she nodded, I dropped my hand.
“They killed him,” she cried, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks. “They killed an innocent man.”