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“You can do it.” Beth seems to sense my struggle and presses her cheek to my chest. “Come on, Gareth. You can control it. You’re the most stubborn, rigid, go-by-the-rules male I know. If anyone can get magic into line, it’s you.”
Her faith in me—along with the veiled insults—spark the same longing I felt for her from the first moment we met. I focus on her, on my need to keep her safe, and pull harder, forcing the magic to return to its well deep inside me. The structure stops shaking, the air simmers to a standstill, and the maelstrom slowly stops.
I gulp in a deep breath, my body quaking from the effort and a sweat breaking out all along my skin. “I’ve never been able to control it. That’s why I can’t use it. I could have destroyed the Catcher before he took you if only I could wield this power instead of it wielding me.”
“You did fine.” She pats my arm, and I pull her out of the way of a falling hunk of brick.
“We need to get out of here before it comes down on top of us.” I scrape the rubble in the doorway aside and pull her into the hall.
She rushes to the stairway and peers up. Bricks fall behind us, the building groaning. There’s no time.
“We have to go. Now.” I scoop her into my arms and bound up the stairs.
“Brute!” She twists to look down the hallway as we reach the main level. “Taura! This way.”
A lesser fae dashes past a falling chandelier and joins us as I hurry to the kitchen and out into the night. A semicircle of slaves has formed, all of them staring up at the mansion that moans and trembles as it falls to pieces.
“Is Master in there?” one of them asks, her tone verging on hopeful.
“What’s left of him, yes.” Beth slaps my arm. “Put me down.”
“No.” I hold her tighter. There’s no way I’m letting her out of my grasp.
“You did this?” The one from the hall—Taura—asks.
“He did.” Beth points her finger in my face. “This big guy right here. He’s to blame.”
“To blame?” I must be mishearing. “I saved you and brought down Granthos’s mansion.”
“Oh, wow. Thanks for the recap.” She twists again, trying to break free. “But what do you think the nobles will do about it? You think maybe they’ll be mad that you killed one of their own? You think, oh I don’t know, that maybe, just maybe, they’ll want vengeance and take it out on the slaves? That’s what they do, Gareth. They will see this as an uprising and make examples of all of us. The dead kind of examples, in case you missed my meaning.”
“I hadn’t thought—”
“Exactly.” She kicks, and I finally put her on her feet, but I don’t step away from her even though her ire has risen to the stars over Arin. “You didn’t think. And now Granthos is dead, the house is destroyed, and all of Byrn Varyndr will call for our heads and—”
The mansion’s top level collapses, and a plume of dust shoots up into the night. We all back away into the hedged lane as the rest of the structure falls in on itself.
Beth is right. It’s not safe for Granthos’s slaves. I may have killed him, but the rest of the nobles will want vengeance. I step forward. “All of you make for the winter realm. Take the road through the Greenvelde and then the Red Plains. From there, take the border crossing into the winter realm. You’ll be safe there.”
“The Red Plains?” The kitchen worker with the dark hair laughs. “We wouldn’t survive there for one second.”
“The Vundi are allies of King Gladion. They will take care of you.” Beth grips the dark-haired one’s shoulder. “You can’t stay here. We’ve talked about it in hushed whispers, but this is the time. Freedom. Now, before it’s too late. All of you go. This place is about to be swarming with high fae. Don’t be here. Run.” She turns to Taura and takes her hand. “Go. I will meet you there.”
“You aren’t coming?” Taura glances at the destroyed mansion.
“Of course she is.” I think about the distance to the winter realm, the trials we’ll likely meet on the way. But I would risk the Spires if it meant getting Beth free from danger. “We’re all heading north to the border.”
“No.” She shakes her head.
“What?” I grab her elbow.
She juts her hip out and pins her hand just above it, the very picture of temper. “I’m not going to the winter realm.”
“Yes, you are.” I pick up the sounds of approaching fae, a mob already gathering on the street out front. “We have to leave. Now.”
She turns to the slaves. “All of you go.”
“What about you?” Taura rests one palm on her belly. Is she with child?
“I’m going south.” Beth pushes her shoulders back. “For Clotty.”
“What?” Taura gapes.
“You’ll die.” The dark-haired one shakes her head and grabs Beth’s hands. “You can’t get her back. No one ever returns from the mines. This is suicide.”
She shrugs. “I planned to end my life tonight. This seems like a flashier way to go.”
My heart goes as cold as the winter wind. She was truly going to kill herself? I thank the Ancestors for allowing me to find her before she did anything.
“But Clotty needs me, and I won’t abandon her. Not now. Not when I have even a small chance at saving her. I have to try. And if I die in the mines, then—”
“The mines?” I cross my arms over my chest. “You aren’t going to the mines. You are going to the winter realm where it’s safe.”
“No one asked you, bossy.” She shoots me a glare that I’ve always found more than a little distracting. But now? Now I want to jump her until the glare dissolves into pure passion. Maybe my face gives away my thoughts, because Beth swallows hard and turns back to Taura.
“I have to try.” Beth hugs the girl, then points through the hedge. “Go swiftly. Do it now while everyone is distracted. I’ll see you all in the winter realm.”
I know she’ll see them in the winter realm, because we are going to the winter realm right along with them. I open my mouth to say as much when a sharp howl cuts through the air.
The slaves take off running through the small gap in the hedge, all of them hurrying as if the master of the Spires is at their backs.
“What is that?” I turn back to Beth.
She’s gone pale, her gaze fixed down the lane toward the back of the property. Undiluted fear transmits down the bond, and I move closer to her.
“Beth?”
“The hounds. The collapse must have set them free. They’ll come straight for me.” She backs away and puts one hand to her throat.
“Then they come to their death.” I throw her over my shoulder and pull a blade from my waistband, then take off into the night.
13
Beth
“Behind you!” I slam my palm onto Gareth’s back.
He whirls and throws one of his blades, the metal nothing more than a blur as it finds its home in the bitch’s skull. She half-yelps before falling to her side, her tongue lolling out.
