Page 132 of By the Flames of Her Fury

72.

My knees hit the stone floor. Something cracked, but I didn’t register the pain. All sound dropped away beneath the rush of blood in my ears, until all I could hear was the ragged, broken rhythm of my choked breaths. It wasn’t true. He couldn’t be dead. We were supposed to get out of here. We had a plan. A future.

A sharp, tearing pain split through my chest, so violent I doubled over with a gasp. My hands slapped against the ground, fingers digging into cracks between the stones as if that could hold me together. I stared at that scarred arm lying in the blood, and my vision went out of focus.

Mortep lowered to his knees, his mane of black hair blocking the view. “This is what happens to those who defy Lord Scarven, little bird.” He lifted my chin with a finger. “Now who’s left to make you sing?”

He moved, and I collapsed farther to the ground. My arms went numb. I tried to breathe, but my throat was too tight to take in air.

“Bring her,” Mortep said. Hands grabbed me, and I didn’t try to stop it. I couldn’t fight. I couldn’t scream. There was nothing left to anchor myself to.

If Swift was gone…there was no reason to keep trying.

62

Everett

My eyes slowly fluttered open, taking in the dim light through a blurry gaze. My head felt like it had been split open with a shovel. I lay on my side with my cheek in the dirt and my hands tied behind my back. I blinked to try and clear my eyes, but the fuzziness wouldn’t go away. It was as if there was a film over my eyes, and I couldn’t see beyond faint light and obscure shapes.

“...you have to bring him here?” a whispered voice said in the distance.

“Where else was I supposed to take him?” an older man said roughly. “He has seen the catacombs. Do you understand what this means?”

“Of course we do, Arcadia, but perhaps you reacted rashly. He cannot⁠—”

“Hush, both of you. He’s awake,” Julius’s voice said. A silence fell over the space, and the outline of a figure moved into my line of sight.

Vines sprouted from the ground and wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me upright into a sitting position. I squinted, but I could only see the vague forms of three people in front of me.

“Hello, Everett,” the one in the middle said in Arcadia’s voice. “We’re sorry to have to bring you here.”

“Where am I?” I snarled. “What did you do to my eyes?”

“A temporary spell to dampen your magic. A precaution, nothing more,” Arcadia said calmly. “Tell me, Everett, what did you see last night?”

I swallowed. I still didn’t know what I’d stumbled upon in his mind, but admittance of any kind would put all of us at risk. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He tsked. “I know you made an appearance in my dreams, young man. How you were able to overpower my defenses, I don’t know, but I saw your likeness.” He was before me faster than I thought the elderly man could move. He crouched to the ground, close enough now that I could make out the long, white beard. “How long have you been spying on us?”

“I wasn’t spying,” I spat. “I was sleeping. Sometimes dreams call to me, and I can’t help which ones I fall into. I left before I saw anything important.” The lie was bitter on my tongue, and I sensed he could taste it, too. The image of those bodies—the cracks, the burns, the charring—came back in a dizzying rush.

“Oh, Everett.” He sighed, then backed away. “I wish it had not come to this.”

“What did you do to Vera?” I thrashed against the rope binding my hands. “Why wouldn’t she wake up?”

“She will be fine,” Maeve said. Her voice came from the right. “We would never harm our Lightbringer.”

I tried to rise to my feet, but the vines around my shoulders kept me down. “Then what am I doing here?”

They paused. Everything was fuzzy. I desperately needed to see them, to understand what was happening. But the dread pressing in on me was answer enough.

“He has seen too much,” Julius muttered. “There is no other recourse.”

“But Vera will be suspicious,” Maeve countered.

“Not if we tell her it was the Fates.” Arcadia’s voice was hurried. “She believes they’re determined to stop her. She will be furious to learn they killed her lover.”

I jerked against my restraints again. “She’s going to figure out you’re lying,” I snapped. “Vera’s smarter than that.”