To Kill a Wizard: Rose's Story (The Protectors of Tarak Book 1) (13 page)

I took a deep, steadying breath. Asher still lived.

Warmth gathered around Blair as her powers flared. “Now that we know what he is, you know that isn’t possible.”

“What I know,” Asher’s mom said, “is that you’ll send him back to me or suffer the consequences.”

Blair’s voice rose. “Have you forgotten your daughter is in my possession?”

Her arms dropped to her sides. “Nazar took her, not you. I know you’d never hurt a child.” But doubt had crept into her words.

“I’ll do what’s best for Tarak, no matter what the cost.”

The two women exchanged a look I couldn’t quite read; however, there was an unexpected familiarity to it. In fact, there was an unsettling familiarity to their entire argument.

Meisha shifted next to Blair, her keen eyes missing nothing as they darted between the two women.

“You’re impossible.” Brenna dismissed the Head Protector with a wave of her small hand.

Blair glared. “Let this go.”

“Rose,” Asher’s mom barked my name, “you’re responsible for what’s happening to my son.” She used her apron to wipe some of the dark blood from her arms, in a grotesquely matter-of-fact way. “I have The Protectors’ victims to attend to. And you, you’re responsible for returning my son to me.”

My gaze slid to the burn mark Asher had left behind. My throat tightened. Whatever Blair had done to him, it was my fault. And my responsibility to fix.

“I’ll find him,” I whispered to Brenna. “I’ll bring him back to you.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You better, or else you’ll fear my shadow for the rest of your wretched life.”

I stiffened, surprised by the violence in her voice.

“Come here,” Blair ordered me, her tone like the snapping of a whip.

I dragged my feet as I walked towards her, resisting the urge to look back at Brenna. An array of emotion weighed heavily on me, made all the worse by the strange sense that I’d escaped one battle only to step into another. How was I supposed to save Sirena, if I couldn’t even save myself? And how in all the world was I supposed to find Asher and save him too?

The only thing I knew for certain, in this moment, was that all paths led back to The Glass Castle. That’s where my friends were, and probably Asher too, and that’s where these women would take me.

When I reached Blair, she leaned towards me. “And if you should choose not to join our order, I’ll have to kill Sirena. I want you to be very clear about that. She appears to be a far more intelligent and reasonable girl than you, I would loath having to do it, but I would.”

Meisha hissed in a sharp breath and curled further over her injured side. “Let us go. She will join.” Her teeth chattered as she spoke. “She has no other choice.”

The air tingled around me, and a fierce wind of gray and black encircled me. When it faded away, I was no longer in the snow, no longer facing a woman who despised me. Instead, I stood in The Glass Castle’s great hall, my friend staring at me.

Somehow it was worse than where I’d been.

“Rose!” Sirena cried running and embracing me. “We feared the fall had killed you.”

“You’re covered in blood,” Yara squeaked from across the room. “Are you hurt?”

I shook my heading, squeezing Sirena as tightly as possible, unable to speak around the lump in my throat. As much as I didn’t want to be back with The Protectors, my heart swelled to know Sirena was safe.

“Have they hurt you?” I finally managed.

She squeezed me harder. “No, they’ve been busy searching for you.”

“Go see the healer,” Blair ordered.

I watched over Sirena’s shoulder as Meisha hobbled toward the servant’s hallway. Everything about how she moved spoke of pain. Something deep inside me felt disturbed that I’d been the one to do it. What else would these women make me do, before they were done with me?

Sirena released me and stepped back, relief mixed with fear reflected in her eyes. Her hair lay in one long braid down her back. She’d changed and showered too, wearing a shimmery blue dress. On the surface, she seemed to have enjoyed her time in the castle since I’d last seen her, but her face and eyes were red and puffy, betraying her outer calm.

“Are you sure you’re all right?”

She forced a smile, which made her look even more miserable. “I didn’t sleep well… I thought you were…”

Tears formed in her eyes, then gushed down her cheeks.

“Oh no,” I reached out and brushed a stray hair back from her face, “don’t cry. I lived.” My words came out awkward and unsure.

Using the back of her hand, she wiped at her nose as it ran. “But you could’ve died, and I just left you…”

Tears stung my eyes. “No. Don’t. Clarissa used her magic on you. It wasn’t your fault.”

She nodded, looking unconvinced as she brushed furiously at her eyes.

Yara appeared beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. “She’s been a mess since you left, even though The Protectors said they’d felt a rush of magic when you fell.”

“What’s everyone so upset about? If she’d have just listened to me in the first place, none of this would’ve happened,” Bethenny gloated, leaning back in her chair at the table. A goblet hung loosely in her hand.

Anger raced through me, but I forced down the urge to tear every hair from her head. “I hope you’re right, Bethenny. Because if
I
am, today we’re all going to die.”

“Enough!” The single word Blair spoke held a warning. “My patience with you is gone.”

I heard the sound of laughter and turned to see Clarissa emerge from the servants’ hallway. “I’d thought nothing would separate Blair from her new
pet
, but it seems even our leader has her limits.”

My fury boiled as the woman sauntered towards me, her unnatural pink leather outfit clinging to every curve of her body. The hilts of her dagger protruded out of the sheaths at her sides, reminding me of how she’d tried to kill me by shattering the glass bridge.

“I told you I’d get back at you,” Bethenny sneered.

Inwardly, I groaned. It was as if she was completely unaware of how little I cared about her existence. When we were in Duggery, she’d been my enemy, but life was so much simpler then. In the span of a couple of days, I had acquired far more dangerous enemies. I stared down a pack of wolves, and I didn’t need a fly buzzing around my head, demanding my attention.

“Yes,” I said, but my gaze sought Blair rather than the frivolous girl. “I embarrassed you in front of our village, and you betrayed our trust by telling these
witches
of our plan.”

Yara gasped from beside me, but Blair responded calmly. “Call us whatever you like my dear, but it’s time for The Choosing ceremony.” She crossed to stand beside Clarissa in the center of the room. “Line up girls.”

But I wasn’t done yet. “I heard you say only one of us would survive this ceremony.”

Blair raised a brow. “No one dies from the ceremony, but it’s true that it can be very difficult for those with weaker powers.”

“Why?” I prodded, wanting to know the truth, even if it meant scaring the girls even more.

She took a moment to answer, the anger fading from her face before she spoke. “This ceremony is not like the one back in your village, that one is simply for show. To give the villagers something to be excited about and to ease the fears of the girls. This one is different. It requires a sacrifice and binds you to The Protectors.”

“Are we to be the sacrifices?”

Clarissa rolled her eyes. “Goddesses, you’re dumb. Didn’t she just say no one dies from the ceremony?”

“Like I told you before,” Blair’s voice held a warning, “no one
needs
to die tonight.”

My stomach twisted, and I glanced at Sirena. Her eyes were filled with fear. If I put up a fight, Sirena would be killed, here and now. But if I simply complied, she might be allowed to live. They’d said one of us would, after all. There was no reason to think Sirena couldn’t be that one.

It was a small chance, but a chance all the same.

Yara touched my arm. “Can we just get this over with?” Her expression told me what I hadn’t wanted to admit to myself, we really didn’t have a choice.

When I didn’t respond, relief reflected across Blair’s face. “All right, the time has come. Stand in line.”

I didn’t move, and reluctantly, the others came to stand beside me.

“I’m afraid,” Sirena whispered, her round eyes full of tears.

Forcing a smile, I held her hand. “I’m right here next to you.”

Her small hand clutched mine more tightly.

Blair raised her arms and whispered something too quietly for me to hear.

The stones in the floor shifted in front of us, groaning with their movements. After a moment, a large space opened between the women and us. Out of this space, a large, deeply grained wooden table rose.

On its surface, two silver basins surrounded by golden goblets caught the light from the many fires blazing in the great hall, momentarily dazzling me. But then my gaze caught the vibrant purple stone in the center of the table, and everything else faded away.

It was perfectly smooth, and four times the size of my head. And as I gazed upon it, a familiar feeling washed over me. A feeling I imagined most people felt when coming home, like I’d found where I belonged.

“It’s time at last,” Blair announced, snapping my attention back to the ceremony. “You’ll make the choice whether to join our order or gain your freedom.”

Blair made it sound like such a simple thing. We could decide not to join The Order, and we’d be released.

Only, they’d never really let that happen.

“Think your choice over carefully,” Clarissa added, fiddling with the leather bracelet on her wrist, as if it were far more interesting than any of us. “It’s the most important decision you’ll ever make.”

I hated them both. Clarissa for her thoughtless cruelty, and Blair for her absence of emotion.

“Before you make your decision, you should know what you stand to gain and what you stand to lose.” Blair paused, meeting each of our gazes. “We aren’t the monsters some people make us out to be, but neither are we simply a group of women who live a privileged life.”

A look of pain crossed her face before vanishing like a trick of the lights. “We were girls, just like you, not so long ago. We had two paths in front of us, and we chose this one, although the choice was not an easy one… not for all of us. We, however, decided to sacrifice a normal life for one of wealth and freedom. Now we have that,” she gestured at the castle around her, “but nothing in this world is free. And the price for such a life? Danger. Uncertainty. And a life of servitude, to both our kingdom and our queen. As the most powerful force protecting all of Tarak, we serve Queen Guadias herself. What she commands, we must obey.”

Her last sentence was tinged with something… resentment maybe?

She took a deep breath, and a softness stole over her silver eyes. “I was once a slave and look at me now.”

Of all the things I thought she might say, that was not it. My gaze ran over the woman before me. A slave? With the way she held herself, and the way she spoke, I’d thought she’d been a lady before joining The Order.

And then another thought came to me. How old was she? Slavery had been abolished from Tarak for quite some time.

She seemed to be waiting, allowing us to process our thoughts. Because when my gaze met hers, she continued. “But also notice, there are no husbands or children here. It is not that it is forbidden to us, but we must put our years of service first.” Her arms dropped to her sides. “And this is just one of the ways we sacrifice.”

“As for the ceremony,” she continued. “It’s not all pomp. You’ll choose a goblet. One will open your powers… allow us to teach you to use them, and one will seal you off from ever joining us again.”

“So decide. Will you join us or walk away from this life forever?”

Silence descended over the room, and I could almost hear the other girls thinking. For a moment, I thought too. Blair was so convincing, so sincere. Could I have misunderstood her as I spied?

No. What she’d said was clear. Only one of us would survive this ceremony. Nor did I misunderstand what she did to Asher or his village.

This woman was a liar. A very good liar, but a liar all the same.

“I’ll join,” Bethenny said, stepping boldly forward.

My gut clenched as I looked wildly about. Was there nothing more I could do to stop this ceremony?

“I’ll return home,” Yara whispered. And then, much to my surprise, shuffled forward. “I wish to return to my father and to Duggery.”

“Yara, no,” I said, and all eyes turned to face me, but I saw only hers. “Think about it. No one has ever returned. Do you really believe in all the history of our village no one has ever wished to return?”

Her brown eyes glistened with unshed tears, and my heart constricted. “I just want to be back with my father.”

I wanted to argue with her, but beneath her childish tears, was the resolve of a woman twice her age.

“I’ll join,” Sirena whispered, tears welling in her eyes as she pulled her hand free from mine and crossed to stand beside Bethenny and Yara.