A man with raven black hair tied back by a leather strap watched the crowd with cold eyes, his jaw set and face all too familiar after it had lingered in her mind all night, followed her in her dreams. His gloved hand gripping a rope as he glanced over his shoulder to the door, where Enid, with her hands bound and tears streaming down her face, stepped out.
7
Anelize thought she knew fear before. Hearing of the stories how Vedrans had been burned upon the pyres, children and women and men alike. All persecuted for being caught using their powers. The very essence that flowed through them as air went in through their lungs.
Anelize and Enid had always been so careful. Taught by their father how to stay away from the Watchmen who patrolled the streets, how not to entertain the thought of using their powers outside the safety of their own homes. Even then, the risk was too great.
And now Enid was…she was…
“No…” Anelize tried to push past the crowd, cursing when the men in front of her refused to be moved as her sister was pulled down the steps. Following obediently as the Vedran they’d saved only last night led her to a carriage with metal bars awaiting her.
Heart pounding, Anelize searched the crowd for Wellyn. For Magda. Anyone who could stop this. She tried to squeeze past, but it was to no avail. It made her grit her teeth, curse at them all to move out of her way as the heat of bodies pressing in closely together suffocated her. Stifling as flames that would consume her. She couldn’tbreathe, couldn’tthink?—
“Kill her!” a woman screamed, loud enoughthat veins bulged from her throat as she pushed herself against one of the arms of the Watchmen attempting to hold the crowd back.
“Take her to the pyre!” a man screamed from the other side of the crowd.
Monsters.
They were allmonsters.
“Silence, all of you!” one of the Watchmen seated atop a black horse called. His severe face regarding everyone with a look of disgust. “This woman has been reported for the practice of dark magic and committing high treason, conspiring with those who would see us all dead! She shall receive her punishment before King Amaranth befitting a Vedran.”
“Enid!” Anelize called but her words were swallowed up by the chaos.
She walked around the crowd, trying to catch a glimpse of her sister, let her see her. In her frantic haste to lock eyes with her, she failed to see someone standing in front of her and she grunted when they collided, the wind being knocked out of her as she fell to the ground.
Looking up, she found that her aunt was standing before her. Her black skirts matching the color of her eyes as she stared down her nose at Anelize.
“Magda! Enid—they’re taking her,” she said as she scrambled to her feet. “She’s been reported?—”
“Oh, yes. She has been,” Magda mused dryly. Not the slightest hint of fear or anger on her part. Only indiscernible disinterest as she cast a glance toward Enid.
Anelize froze as she stared at her. She took a step back as shock turned into realization when she noticed a velvet pouch clutched in her aunt’s hand. She thought she might be sick.
“You did this?” she murmured, breathless. “W-why?”
Magda’s grin was cutting and sinister. “Why do you think, darling Anelize?”
The crowd went up in cheers suddenly, and Anelize turned to see that Enid was being pushed into the carriage by the guards, her hands still bound as she disappeared inside. The Watchman—theVedran—moving to mount his own horse in one fluid movement.
“Magda, please!” Anelize gripped her aunt’s arms, frantically looking to her sister. When she peered out of the bars of the carriage, Enid’s tear-filled eyes searched the crowd until she found Anelize. Her lips parted but she did not cry for her. Did not beg her to save her life. Because she knew not to. Because Anelize had told her so many times that in the case she was ever taken, to not cry for her so as not to be suspected next. That had been meant for Enid’s sake, not hers.Neverhers.
“Please, do something! Tell them you’re wrong, you were just being spiteful.Anything!I’ll do anything you ask, just please don’t?—”
“Anything?” Magda wondered.
Anelize answered without faltering, her voice a harsh, desperate rasp. “Yes. Anything.”
Her aunt tucked the velvet pouch beneath her arm as she placed her hands upon Anelize’s arms. She leaned in close, speaking into her ear so that she could hear her clearly. “Then I want you both to disappear forever.” Anelize recoiled, a look of disgust on her face only to be stopped when Magda sank her fingers into her arms hard enough to bruise, before turning and screaming, “Guards! Over here, there’s another Vedran!”
Eyes snapped to her, and the crowd around her recoiled, no longer vicious in their demands for justice when they found that there was another Vedran among them. Hungry wolvesturning into cowering sheep. The Watchmen all shifted their attention toward her, the Vedran among them narrowing his eyes as their gazes met. The two caught between recognition and deeply-seated rage.
A delighted smile spread across Magda’s lips as she pulled her close. “What are you waiting for? Take her!”
Anelize struggled to rip herself out of her grasp as Watchmen began shoving through the crowd. Out of sheer desperation, mind whirling fear that ruled out all reason she might have had, Anelize shoved her aunt toward one of the nearest guards, making her scream when she crashed into them.
Anelize spun on her heel only to be stopped when two more guards she hadn’t noticed blocked her path, approaching with their hands upon their swords. The promise of violence on their faces as they regarded her.
