“Am I?” She smiled sadly down at their hands. “I’ll never live in that house again. Or feel the calluses on my palms after a summer in the fields. I’ll never fall in love. Never hold my own child in my arms. But you... you have a whole life before you. You will grow and change while I stay the same. Forever.”
The sun was coming up. The girls could feel the air changing. It was gold tinged and dewy now.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m trapped in a cage,” she whispered. “One that gets smaller and smaller every day.”
Tears shone in her eyes. The girl gripped her sister’s hands harder.
“I don’t want to be trapped anymore,” she whispered, her face pleading. “I want to be free.”
The next morning, when the hawk returned, three of its feathers had turned white. And when its gaze lifted, its eyes were ringed in silver.
Twenty-One
Every step away from that room, away from her sister, broke Roa a little bit more. She’d adjusted the buckled leather straps around her calf to accommodate two sheaths: one for Essie’s knife and one for the Skyweaver’s. The Skyweaver’s knife was there now, hidden beneath her kaftan. But the cold weight of it only made her sicker.
It had come at too high a cost.
Now she had only three days to find a way into the palace for Silva’s men. Three days to betray Dax. And after that... kill him.
With Essie in Rebekah’s clutches, there was no other choice.
Saving her sister was all that mattered now.
“Roa!” Theo’s voice rang out from behind her. She quickened her pace, heading for Baron Silva’s courtyard, unable to face him.
“Roa... please wait.”
Theo reached for her arm. Roa spun away from him.
“Don’t touch me.” Her voice wavered. “Don’t ever touch me without my permission again.”
Theo’s mouth was set in a grim line. “Roa, I’m sorry.”
“It’s too late for that.” The damage was done. He’d given away everything.
It was raining when she stepped into the courtyard. Behind her, Roa heard the doors open and shut as Theo followed her out.
His footsteps halted.
Roa looked up and found the reason. At the end of the lantern-lit path stood Lirabel, cloaked in a now-wet mantle, waiting with her horse. Roa’s guards loomed behind her. Celeste, Tati, and Saba were all mounted and ready to ride. Safire, Dax, Torwin, and Jas were missing.
Roa walked toward her friend.
“Where are the others?”
“Getting Torwin to safety.” Lirabel pulled Roa’s mantle out of her saddlebag. “He needed your horse.” She flung the warm, dry cloak over Roa’s shoulders. After tying the tassels at her throat, Lirabel flipped up the hood to keep Roa’s face shielded from the rain. “You’ll have to ride with me.”
Roa mounted up behind Lirabel and slid her arms around her friend’s waist. Roa didn’t look back to where Theo stood, watching in the rain. Instead, she pressed her cheek to Lirabel’s shoulder as they rode away from Baron Silva’s stronghold, the hooves of the other horses clip-clopping ahead and behind them.
Leaving Essie behind.
Back in the palace stables, Roa told Lirabel to go on ahead of her. The stable girl tried to take the horse, but Roa insisted on untacking it herself. She wasn’t ready to face whatever was waiting for her inside the palace.
Alone with her tumultuous thoughts, Roa took her time undoing the buckles of the horse’s halter, listening to the swish of tails and the whuff of horse sighs, when suddenly the stall door swung open.
“What have you done?”
Startled, Roa looked up to find Dax stepping inside the stall. His gold tunic, soaked with rain, clung to his chest and shoulders, and his damp curls stuck to his forehead. As if he’d raced through the storm to get here.
