He let out a breath. “Ah. And you believe he will do well?”
“I do. He is a natural leader.”
A small silence stretched while Anna lost herself in the depths of the crystal once more, its smooth glowing surfaces pulsing quicker than before.
She felt a tug on her instincts, almost like a warning.
“A natural leader,” the man repeated.
“Yes, I believe he is.”
He hummed. “Some could say the same about you,” he said in a low voice before adding, “Princess.”
Anna’s heart jolted. Before she could turn, then man grabbed her by the hair, wrenching her head back and ringing an arm around her upper body to restrain her.
A burst of terror exploded from her emotional core, deadening everything else.
“Though it’s said you’ll be leading on the wrong side,” the man said into her ear.
She tried to fight back, but weeks of illness had weakened her and he’d caught her so off guard. Escaping his grasp proved futile. She stomped on his foot but landed on boots thick enough that he probably barely felt it.
He released her hair. “This is for the Savior,” he said, and bright electric pain lanced through her stomach—once, twice. She looked down in time to see him withdraw a dagger coated in her blood, its hilt studded with glittering red jewels. She gasped at the pain, at the debilitating fear spiking through her overwrought emotions. His abrupt release had her falling to her knees, clasping at her abdomen. Her hands met something warm and wet.
Blood pulsed from one of the wounds in time with her rapid heartbeat, and she knew without examining it any closer that he’d hit something vital. People didn’t survive bleeding like this.
This is it, she thought.I’m going to die here cocooned by the Mother.
“Long live Caden Sidera,” the man said.
His footsteps treaded away, and then the door clicked, and she was alone. Anna pressed her hand to the wound, trying to stop the bleeding, but there was already so much blood staining her hands, her clothes, the floor.
She pushed herself to her feet, crying out at the sparks of pain it caused. Two steps and a swoop of dizziness caused her to stagger. She fetched up against one of the benches, disoriented.
Her vision turned gray.
“Please,” she whispered, trying to stand again.
Anna’s foot slipped on her own blood, and she landed hard on one knee. She forced herself to stand despite the dark spots in her vision, but once she was upright, her body succumbed to the blood loss and her world went dark.
CHAPTER 44
DAVID
David stood beside Sean, utterly still other than his steady breathing. His gaze had frozen on the burning pyre in the middle, the one with Kywyn’s body, now engulfed in flames that glowed with Luster far brighter than any he’d ever seen. It was the Great Mother, Nish had said, returning the Light to the ether for redistribution.
It was hard not to believe him when it shone so brightly that David couldn’t see the figure beneath the flames. When it was done, apparently nothing of the body would remain. Everything was given back to the Mother.
“I keep wondering if there was something I should have done differently,” Sean murmured.
“You did what you could,” David answered, still mesmerized by the Luster floating into the air.
With a heavy sigh, Isobel turned away from them. “I can’t listen to this any longer.” She bade goodbye to Nish, who stood at the other end of the dais, and left in the direction of the Tree.
“She’s just upset,” Autumn said in the wake of Bel’s departure, her tone defensive.
Sean side-eyed her, unsmiling. “I caught that.”
“These past months have been a rough transition for her, Sean.”
