He pulled her to safety.
They split up, checking for signs: upturned earth, or an unnatural pattern in the rocks. Cressida would have buried them here two years ago, returning at least a few times to renew her spell.
But Rune didn’t find them in the ground.
She found them lying in a still pool, hidden by reeds. It was the glow that alerted her to it. When the tall grass shifted and the pale light shone through, Rune caught sight of a white casting signature: a rose and crescent moon.
Rune waded through the reeds until she stood at the pool’s edge. The water was crystal clear. Beneath the pale glow of Cressida’s signature, she saw them: two young women lying peacefully under the surface, as if asleep.
Silver-white hair framed Elowyn and Analise’s faces. Long, pale eyelashes rested against their fair cheeks. And there was a gaping hole in each of their foreheads where a bullet had gone in, dealing a killing blow.
Rune’s breath froze in her lungs.
My sisters.
She swallowed, not wanting to step into this place in which they rested, waiting for Cressida to bring them back to life. But in order to check the strength of the magic preserving them, in order todestroythem, she’d have to drag them out.
Drawing a deep breath, Rune walked into the shallow pool. As soon as her boot touched the water, the pool blackened. A force like lightning exploded outward, striking Rune. It turned her vision bright white and threw her backward, into the reeds.
She landed on her rump, pain flickering through her.
Rune winced and sat up, staring at the pool, its black waters still rippling from her disruption.
The spell was obviously still intact.
So why did Harrow’s note say it’s fading?
Without the counterspell, they couldn’t break it. And if she couldn’t enter the pool to drag them out…
“What happened?” Rushing over, Gideon crouched next to her. “Are you all right?” Catching sight of Elowyn and Analise beneath the water, his eyes darkened.
“The spell won’t let me near them,” said Rune. “Maybe Seraphine will have a solution.”
But as he helped her up and they turned toward the bridge, Rune realized an unbreakable spell was the least of her problems.
Across the roaring whirlpool, Seraphine and Antonio were on their knees, a gun pressed to each of their heads. Beyond them, a hundred or more soldiers ringed the gorge.
Among them were witches. Dozens of witches. Their casting knives shimmered in the last light of the setting sun.
Juniper was with them. Her eyes were red from weeping, her hands were bound in front her, and at her back stood Cressida—with a knife to Juniper’s throat.
Harrow, too, was restrained. A soldier gripped the spymaster’s hair as they forced her to her knees.
We’ve failed,thought Rune.
“I’m sorry, Comrade!” Harrow’s anguished voice echoed over the water. “She made me choose!”
Rune remembered Harrow’s note from three nights ago, telling them Cressida was traveling to the Crossroads.
It was a setup.
Rune’s thoughts spun faster than the whirlpool.
Thiswas why the pair hadn’t returned. Why Gideon had received only one brief message from Harrow. Juniper had gone to recruit witches to their cause, and someone had ratted her out to the witch queen, further using her to compromise Harrow.
“She had to choose between betraying you or watching Juniper die,” Rune realized aloud. She glanced at Gideon, whose expression was a mixture of shock and anger. “Cressida would have threatened to kill Juniper unless Harrow led us into a trap.”
Deep down,Rune thought,she still loves her.
