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There were times when I wondered how my life would be different if she had been here. What would she have done in the aftermath of the lake attack? Would she have held me? Whispered her love to me as Adrian had done? Would she have felt just as vengeful as me?
Adrian brought me my cloak and clasped it at the front.
“Was Violeta right?” I asked. “Did we get more snow?”
Adrian nodded. “It is very cold, and we will be traveling to the Starless Forest.”
I did not ask why because I did not need to. I knew what Adrian intended—to hang those who had hurt me, hurt Ana, murdered Violeta, from the very trees my sisters had hung from two hundred years ago.
We left our room for the courtyard where a crowd was gathered—mostly people who would attend the execution with us: Tanaka, what remained of Adrian’s noblesse—Iosif, Vlad, and Iker—and Sorin, who did not look well. He was far too pale, the skin under his eyes too dark. I wanted to go to him, but he would not meet my gaze, and at our appearance, everyone bowed and remained kneeling until Adrian and I had mounted Shadow.
Then we made our way to the Starless Forest, and everyone waiting in the courtyard followed. Adrian did not rush, keeping a leisurely pace for which I was glad. The wind already stung without the momentum of Shadow’s gallop.
Adrian cut through the center of Cel Ceredi, and the street was crowded with villagers who knelt as we passed. I could not quite place how this made me feel. I almost did not trust the pageantry of it because, while these villagers had welcomed me, especially on the night of Winter’s Eve, they had also celebrated Solaris, the supposed witch-hunter, and fostered those who attacked us. More than anything, I blamed Solaris for what had happened at the lake.
Had the horror of Solaris’s resurrection of Efram changed anything?I wondered.
“What happened last night? When you left with Killian?”
Adrian shifted Shadow’s reins in his hand, and I took that as a sign of his discomfort.
“We found Efram and burned him,” Adrian said. He did not try to elaborate, and I assumed it was because he did not wish to revisit the horror, so I only asked the question I wanted answered most.
“Where is Solaris?”
“Awaiting punishment,” Adrian replied.
“Not execution?”
Adrian took too long to reply, so I spoke instead. “You still find him useful after what he did?”
“We should not speak about this right now,” he said.
“Do you still plan to turn him?”
“I said I will not speak on this right now.” His tone was firm, and it silenced me, but only because my anger was so great. I knew what he would say—the same thing he had before, that this was political, that he was being strategic,that this man had use.
We made our way under the eaves of the Starless Forest.
These woods carried the burden of hate. The trees were heavy with the memory of it, and unlike before when I could only feel it, today, I saw it—hundreds of spirits hung from these trees, hundreds of women of all ages. They were hardly visible, existing as ethereal, shimmering ripples of energy.
I wondered why I saw them now.
We passed beneath their feet, and I craned my neck to watch them, emotion gathering thickly in my throat.
“Can you see them?” Adrian asked after a moment.
“Can you?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “But I hear them.”
“What are they saying?”
“They speak spells,” he said. “That’s all they ever do.”
We came to a small grove, and Adrian dismounted, helping me down. My boots sank into the snow, the cold seeping beneath my skirt, as we took our place at the center of the grove.
Daroc and several guards had already prepared the attackers for execution. Among those already present was Killian. Seeing him stole what little warmth was left within my body. His expression was severe, and when he met my gaze with those haunted eyes, they turned glassy.
