Page 91 of Dance of Stars and Ashes

She didn’t know why this hadn’t occurred to her. They would need a place to sleep tonight, and there was nothing else out here.

There it sat, visible between the trees. Its white walls and thatched roof. Its border of greenery protecting it from the blight.

That day, when she’d felt the wind in her hair and the taste of freedom burning like coals on her tongue, she had vowed never to set eyes on this place again.

Her seaside prison.

TWENTY-FIVE

Every memory she’d been suppressing for months came rushing back with the force of a tidal wave, knocking the breath out of her lungs.

Everything was exactly as she remembered it. The crash of the ocean on the shore. The bright flowers in bloom. The weighty sense of oppression that made it feel like she was trying to inhale sand while she was drowning.

She brought her horse to a stop as she stared at the line of rune-marked trees—the glowing etchings that had been the source of her protection and the limits of her cage. Row’s magic had continued to hold the blight back through all these months.

Sliding off her horse, she clutched the saddle as she watched the others approach the house, her heart galloping in her chest.

Rabin looked over his shoulder and pulled his horse back around, dropping onto the ground beside her.

“This is where he kept you, isn’t it?” he asked.

She nodded and pointed to a spot nearby. “And that was the spot where I’d black out if I wandered too far away.”

Rabin growled low in his throat as they watched Row’s retreating back.

She was cemented to the earth, too numb to move. What if she were somehow trapped here again? Now that she knew what lay beyond this place, she would die if the world was ever taken from her again.

Rabin moved closer to Zarya. “Do you want to spend the night somewhere else?”

She turned to him, wondering at his motives, but only found sincerity and the obvious desire to protect in his fierce gaze. “Where? With the swamp monsters?” she asked.

Zarya shook her head. “No, I can do this.”

She straightened her shoulders and willed her feet forward.

As the house came into clearer view, she thought of the day she’d leaped on Row’s horse and escaped into the forest—that first moment of freedom so bright and sparkling and clear.

“I thought I’d left this place behind forever.”

Her voice was as wooden and hollow as the space behind her heart.

Rabin’s hand settled on the small of her back, her heartbeat instantly settling. She frowned at him. Did he do that on purpose?

He bent his head and whispered in her ear. “No one is going to keep you here against your will ever again. If Row tries anything, I’ll slit him from ear to ear with a fucking smile on my face.”

A snort burst out of Zarya’s mouth, and she covered it as her body shook. She had no idea why that was so funny right now. His eyebrow arched at her reaction.

“Something amusing, Spitfire? That’s not the usual reaction when I threaten to kill a man, though I have to admit your obvious taste for violence is kind of hot.”

He winked, and she smiled. He was so damned sure about everything that it was easy to believe everything he said.

“Thank you,” she said, meaning it. “That helped.”

“I’ll tie the horses up.” He paused and then added, “But I’m here if you need me.”

He shook his head as though he wasn’t sure why he’d said that before he walked away. She watched him and then approached the front door.

With a hand on the doorknob, she watched as everyone settled themselves, some claiming the sofas, others unfurling bedrolls on the floor. Food was taken out of packs and passed around.