The woman lifted her son out of the cart, and his head and limbs dangled over her. She carried him inside the castle and closed the door behind her.
They were inside my home.Myhome. The one place left where I should be able to be left alone.
I glanced up. The sun hung in the sky, relentless and unmoving.
Rage built with each passing moment. The sun crawled across the sky with agonizing slowness. I counted the minutes, the hours, until I could finally break free from this cage and confront the intruders.
CHAPTER 3
LILIA
After a fretful night worried about Mom and Henri, I woke before dawn and prepared to go search for them.
I’d wanted to head into the forest last night when they hadn’t returned, but venturing into unfamiliar territory in the dark would have been foolish. If I’d gotten lost, which seemed likely, I’d waste more time trying to find them. It had taken all my willpower to convince myself the best course of action was to get some rest so I could venture out at the break of sunlight.
And I’d hoped—prayed—that I wouldn’t need to, that Mom would return with Henri last night, both with smiles on their faces after finding a healer who’d helped them.
But that didn’t happen.
After one last look around our cottage, I grabbed my cloak, put on my boots, and tied them over my pants, then I stepped outside. My family needed me.
As I walked through the village, I scanned the other dilapidated cottages with barren vegetable gardens. A sad sight.It hadn’t always been like this. We’d had happier lives before Queen Mireille had squeezed us dry. All after promise after promise of howonly shecould bring peace and prosperity to the region. Howonly shecould help the villagers.
All lies.
She was a powerful sorceress, and I’d wondered if she’d put a spell over the village, making them unable to see she didn’t care one whit for them. So many followed her without question, as if she were the leader of a cult. They’d created excuses for her vile actions, reasons behind the madness—eventhough she never helped them.She helped only herself and her rich, corrupt supporters.
Since she’d come into power, she used it to gain more. More control, more influence, more land.
She’d even had the gall to proclaim herself queen. Her word law. There were rumors she was pushing further west now.
As for the rest of us?
Nothing.
We grew more destitute each day. Many had died from disease and fewer resources for basic healthcare. The rest of us struggled. As I walked along the western path, my feelings turned bittersweet. Yes, this village was home, but would I miss it? What was there to miss at this point? Still, it was the only home I’d ever known.
The path was easy to follow at first. I’d walked this section before, gathering herbs on the forest’s edge. The morning sun filtered through the canopy, dappling the ground with light and shadow.
But as the trees grew thicker, the forest changed.
The air grew heavy, thick with the scent of loam and decay. Moss hung from branches like tattered curtains. Roots writhed across the ground. The canopy thickened overhead, blocking the sun until even midmorning felt like dusk.
Something rustled in the undergrowth to my left. I froze, listening, but heard only silence pressing back like water.
La Forêt de Veillepierre felt alive. Watchful. Waiting.
I forced myself forward, disturbing leaves and breaking stems. By the time the sun reached its peak, or what I assumed was its peak beneath the dense canopy, I must have been walking for hours. My legs ached. My throat was dry. But I had to keep going.
The first dark silhouette caught me by surprise, and I gasped, pressing my hand over my racing heart. The stone gargoyle stood alone on a forest path, its head tipped up to the sky. I tiptoed by it, as if my footsteps might wake it, but it didn’t move.
The stone-watchers.
When I spotted the next one, I tried not to look at it, yet kept vigilant of it in my peripheral vision. Foolish, perhaps. Statues didn’t move.
Eventually, the trees began to thin and light pooled ahead, a beacon of brightness. My pulse quickened and I hastened my steps, eager for a break of sunlight after hours under this somber cloak. I pushed through a curtain of spiderwebs.
A clearing spread before me, and in its center rose a castle.
