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“Personally, I don’t see how it could have worked out better,” Lily replied under her breath, just low enough so Juliet could pretend she didn’t hear it. At least this way Lily knew that Juliet would be kept safe, no matter what happened to her.
I’m claiming Alaric, Lily told Rowan in mindspeak.
How’d you manage that? Hang on. We’ll be right there, he replied from the perimeter where he and rest of the coven were on patrol duty. Rowan, Caleb, and Tristan arrived a moment later with grins on their faces.
Lily stared at Rowan, caught in one of the rare moments when she could admire him from afar. He was dressed in light wearhyde and he carried a tomahawk in an absentminded way. A feather was braided into his hair at the back and he looked wild and pure, like a piece of the forest turned human. He gave Alaric an I-told-you-so smile that stopped well short of smug, and Lily could see how easy it was for anyone to love him. He never pushed too far, especially when he was right.
Alaric faced Lily with an uncertain look on his face—something Lily had never seen before.
“It’s okay,” Lily said, reaching for the willstone at the base of his throat. “I won’t take anything you don’t give to me freely.”
Lily didn’t see full memories from Alaric—his internal barriers were too strong for that—but rather she saw impressions that he swept aside as quickly as they surfaced. She saw her sister—then, dreamlike, Juliet morphed into another woman with the same sweet smile and huge doe eyes. Then the smile was blotted out by driving snow. She felt helplessness that was bigger than drowning as she watched an infant turn blue and go still. She heard weeping as if it’d come from a distant room in a labyrinthine house. She tasted nothing but ice and ash and felt nothing but a sinking anger that was almost like falling. She saw the sweet smile again as Juliet scratched at a bug bite.
The streak of impressions ended. Lily let go of Alaric’s willstone and let out a shaky breath. His anger still yawned inside of her as if she stood on the edge of a great cliff. He looked so calm. Lily marveled at his ability to hold so much rage and not shake with it. She met his eyes and nodded, finally understanding him.
There aren’t enough bodies in the world to fill up that hole, she told him gently in mindspeak.
He startled, and considered it. “There’s only one scalp I’m after now,” he replied softly. They moved away from each other, both of them needing to put a little distance between them. “What can we take with us?” Alaric asked, changing the subject.
“Unfortunately, only what each of us can carry,” Rowan said. “The armored carts, horses, extra food, and weapons will have to stay behind.”
“And
Bower City is surrounded by walls, you said?” Rowan nodded and Alaric frowned. “That doesn’t leave a lot of options if we have to lay siege.”
“The land is rich there,” Caleb added.
“Lots of farms,” Tristan said, meeting Caleb’s eyes.
“We’re not thieves,” Lily said warningly.
“We’ll need to eat, Lily,” Rowan said plainly. “Anyway, this is all if there is a siege. The Hive may not give us the chance for that.”
They all fell quiet, thinking of the Hive.
“Don’t we have to meet up with Lillian first?” Juliet asked, breaking the long silence.
“Yes,” Lily replied. “That’s our next stop.” She looked at Rowan. He didn’t meet her eyes, even though she knew he felt her stare.
“The sooner the better,” Tristan mumbled. “I don’t know how much longer the ceasefire between the tunnel people and the Outlanders is going to last.”
Caleb snorted. “It’s only going to get worse where we’re going.”
“What do you mean?” Lily asked.
“Lillian’s army is mostly Walltop soldiers,” Caleb replied with a grimace. Lily looked at him blankly. “You’ll see when we get there,” he assured her.
“Walltop soldiers are . . . different,” Rowan said, looking at Alaric’s stony expression cautiously.
“If by different you mean a bunch of unfeeling, inhuman bastards,” Caleb grumbled.
“You need to rest,” Rowan told Lily, changing the subject. “We’ll build your pyre in the morning.”
The group broke apart and started drifting in different directions. As Lily headed for her tent, followed by Rowan, Lily saw Alaric approach Juliet to speak to her privately.
“What does Alaric have against Walltop soldiers?” she asked, turning to Rowan.
“You know he had a family before?” Rowan said. Lily nodded. “Walltop soldiers refused to open the gates to Alaric and his family during a blizzard because it was after dark.”
