But she turned anyway, heading for the clearing just beyond the edge of the forest. No homes, no villages or farms. Only the earth and the crashing waves of the sea. But she remembered an old fishing shanty. No one appeared to be maintaining it when she was there last Spring, and she certainly couldn’t imagine anyone would be there in this weather. About an hour walk from her greenhouse, so she’d stop there to take a break from the freezing wind until the sun eventually rose.
As she trudged through the snow, her mind drifted to her life before King Roman’s uprising. To the peace and love she felt tending to the royal gardens. To the warmth and affection she missed being surrounded by the other Enchantresses. They had become her family when her own dismissed her.
Quickly, her memories turned on her. Reminding her of the horrors the royal guards and hunters afflicted as King Roman declared magick illegal. Enchantresses were sworn to protect those in Teravie, and she knew in her heart that despite what Evren claimed last night, none of them would’ve hurt another person without cause.
Just as she decided she couldn’t.
Wouldn’t.
Tallulah wasn’t sure why Evren’s words affected her in the way they did. His opinion was not one she cared for, and yet as she pulled her frozen feet through the snow, it was all she could think of. The way he looked at her with such disgust. As if she were the monster in the room, not him.
Halfway to the cliffs, the sky shifted to purple; the sun inching its way into the sky. The trees in the distance were faint, freshly covered in snow and, behind them, the small wooden fishing shanty. Relief spread through her shoulders and false heat bloomed in her chest, imagining the rest she could take once there. Her boots crunched upon the snow, the crashing of the waves soothing her soul.
“Well fancy that, we didn’t even need to go looking for you.”
Her heart stopped, her blue eyes stretching wide. The hunters approached swiftly. Tallulah’s body clenched. The same two hunters she’d almost killed protecting that boy. They’d come back for her. Likely sensed her magick when she used it on Evren.
Dropping her bag, she lifted her wrists to call her magick again. The sound of the blood rushing in her ears drowning out the crashing waves.
Be strong.
A piercing pain sliced through her right shoulder, sending her backwards before she had the chance to summon the ivy. Her head smacked the frozen ground. She tried to sit up, tried to move, but was unable. The arrow had sliced the upper part of her arm as it passed by; the pain searing from the tip of her shoulder down to her toes. Hot tears burned bitter lines down her cheeks as her magick was silenced. The effects of the poison arrow coursed through her entire body.
The men approached—sour ale and smoke furled off them. They pulled her roughly to her feet.
“Did you think we wouldn't come back for you, Enchantress,” one man snarled.
Tallulah gasped again as they shoved her forward, the throbbing in her arm weakening her knees. They pulled her forward again. Closer to the trees, closer to Davenport and away from the cliffs and the fishing shanty.
The men gripped her on either side, dragging her by her elbows. She wanted to fight, but the pain in her arm and shoulder was debilitating and before she knew it, they clasped her wrists together. The dreadful sting of frost-bitten iron rubbed against her exposed skin.
Eight
The third pintof ale went down as easily as the first. Evren sat in the same booth he and Markus had shared several nights ago, his mind racing and replaying his encounter with the Enchantress.
How had he gotten into such a predicament? And why had she let him go? He couldn’t wrap his head around it.
He brought his fourth pint to his lips, taking a long pull of the bitter ale.
She’d let him go when his one job in the entire country was to capture her and sell her off to the king. His thoughts were at war with each other.
She should’ve killed me.But never did he think;I should’ve killed her.
But she didn’t kill him.
She didn’t even try. Every time Evren had found himself in an uncertain position, it was out of defense becauseheattackedher.She had pulled him in from the cold, tended to the wound on the back of his head. She’d fed him and didn’t even poison him.
He couldn’t come to terms with her generosity. Nothing was ever free, so why spare his life when he hadn’t given hers a second thought? It ate away at him. Every second since he left the greenhouse, this Enchantresses filled his mind with poisonous thoughts.
Maybe they’re not all bad.
Maybe it’s us who should be locked away.
Even if he hadn’t planned to kill her, he knew what taking her to King Roman meant. Knew he’d drain every last bit of her magick until she was nothing but a corpse.
He shuddered and doing so surprised him. He had captured and turned in six Enchantresses yet this one left him questioning everything.
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