“No!” I screamed. “No, Ciaran.”
“You didn’t care about him. You mocked him. Shamed him. Took advantage of his love,” Darya hissed. “You think you’re special, Seren? You’re just a little girl playing games you’re not strong enough for, and everyone you love will die for it.”
My shoulders squared as I glared at her. “Shut up, you stupid bitch.”
“Stupid, am I? Somehow I managed to get to you, didn’t I? Got you to trust me, to come to me in your hour of need.” Darya’s eyes glittered with triumph. “Poor, unloved Seren. Unwilling to fight for what she wanted and so easy to predict. All the Ragnalls are. So that’s exactly what I did, just as my lord Haldron had commanded. Go to your tribe. Watch. Wait. Learn. And strike.”
Her words collided into my gut with ferocity. Beside me Esme trembled in her cold, wet clothes.
My Esme, who Haldron and his men snatched, who’d known exactly where to find us.
Because he’d had help from inside our tribe. A spy reporting to him. Telling him how to manipulate the Ragnalls.
“You’re nothing but Haldron’s puppet.”
She arched her brow. “I’m the puppet? That’s naive, even for you. Not a single person in your tribe was free from my influence. Do you really think the council would have condemned you to the Skorn if not for my suggestion? They all did whatever I wanted.”
“Are you hearing this, Seth?” I called out, my voice echoing down the tunnel. “You’re just a pawn in Darya’s—and Haldron’s—game.”
Seth didn’t move though, his face like flint. Lethal.
The side of Seth I’d come to know after Darya.
“It wasn’t hard to get him to cast you aside for me. An alliance with the daughter of the Vangar’s vice command … and a woman who knew how to actually take care of him in bed?” Darya tilted her head, her eyes cruel. “He fell easily.”
The way Darya spoke now, though, it was as though Seth wasn’t even here. Like she could say anything she wanted, and he was just a brainless, soulless skinwraith who would …
I inhaled sharply, and pain flared in my chest.
The skinwraith.
The yellow glowing eyes.
The vuk.
“He’s bewitched, isn’t he?” I set Ciaran’s limp body down carefully, then struggled to my feet. “You bewitched him today, just like you did Giulia, after you turned her into a skinwraith. And the vuk that attacked me in the forest. Seth was going to help us today and you bewitched him. You probably even had all those skinwraiths attack us in the encampment to turn everyone against us, and it didn’t work. People still stood up for me.”
Darya’s lips pursed. “Even Ciaran. Who you’d betrayed.” Her face was cruel. “Yes, Seren, that’s true. But you’re only as strong as your friends. You wouldn’t have survived the Skorn without them. And you’re about to lose them all.”
Seth didn’t stir … and neither did the men and women at his side. They stood eerily still, their swords raised, their breathing in perfect rhythm.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose.
“They’re all bewitched,” I whispered.
Darya flinched, then gritted through her teeth. “Step aside, Tara. Amahle.”
They only stood straighter.
With a smirk, Darya flicked her hand out in a gesture spell and yellow magic flowed from her fingertips.
“Tara, duck!” I called out.
But it was too late. The glow descended on them both, then sank into their skin.
“Seren!” Esme cried out behind me, terror in her voice.
My heart hammered, my vision growing blearier. I sank beside Esme once again, hugging her into my arms.
