I sat down at her side, staring at her face beneath the shroud.
“She died for nothing,” I said. We never even managed to finish the spell. “I should have never asked her.”
“You cannot blame yourself for her choice to help.”
“Perhaps I should blame myself for thinking we could cast a counterspell at all,” I said.
“Or you could honor Violeta and acknowledge that it was an incredibly brave thing,” Adrian said.
I took a shuddering breath, and I lowered the veil.
I could not describe the physical pain I felt once I could see her injuries in the full light of her room. She did not look like Violeta at all, her eyes swollen shut, her cheeks cut and bruised, her mouth sunken and torn.
I thought I could kiss her goodbye, but I only had the strength to cover her face again.
I rose quickly and faced Adrian, brushing the tears from my face.
“She was brave,” I said.
And while we had hung those responsible for her death today, the two I blamed most remained free—Solaris and Ravena.
“You said Solaris is awaiting punishment?”
“He is,” Adrian replied, his expression growing hard. I knew he was preparing to argue with me.
“Let me execute it,” I said.
Adrian stared at me, assessing. “Are you going to punish him or kill him?” Adrian asked.
I glared, and my anger burned my skin. I pushed past him and left Violeta’s room.
“Isolde!” Adrian followed close behind and reached for my arm, turning me toward him. I jerked away.
“When will the value of our people exceed the value of your agenda? When will my value exceed it?”
Adrian flinched.
“Solaris might as well have been in that grove himself, striking and beating and murdering us. Will you stand aside while he inspires another witch hunt?”
Adrian closed the distance between us, his hands on my shoulders. He spoke between his teeth, eyes flashing with fury.
“How dare you,” he growled. “How dare you.”
They seemed to be the only words he could manage to speak.
Then he released me and took a step away, vibrating with his rage. “If it will make you happy, I will kill him today,” he said. “But if what he claims is true, if he is a creation of Dis, you should know that I will suffer.”
I studied him, his face red, the veins in his neck and forehead popping.
“What are you saying?”
“You seem to forget I was created by Dis,” he said. “I am not completely free to do as I please without consequences. I do not want one of those consequences to be you.”
I studied him and then narrowed my eyes. “How much control does she have over you?”
His chest rose and fell heavily, and I knew he did not wish to say, but after a heavy pause, he spoke. “More and more each day.”
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
He said nothing. He had not wanted to admit this—he saw it as a weakness.
“How do we free you?” I asked, my voice a whisper, as if I could hide it from Dis.
He looked away, swallowing hard, and ignored my question. “Come, it’s time for Solaris’s punishment.”
***
Adrian escorted me to the dungeons, into a chamber furnished with torture devices and weapons. I studied each, curious. There was a box lined with spikes, a triangular beam supported by two columns, a rack with straps for the wrists and ankles. Then there were smaller tools—a collar of spikes, metal bridles, and various sharp scissor-like instruments.
“Did these belong to Dragos?” I asked.
“No,” Adrian said, though he did not elaborate.
When I turned to him, he was placing an iron rod into the fire.
“What is that?” I asked.
“A cauterizing iron,” Adrian said.
“Are we cutting something off?” I asked.
“You are,” he said.
“What am I cutting off?”
Before Adrian could answer, we were joined by Daroc and Sorin. They walked with Solaris between them, one gripping each of his arms, and they forced him to his knees in front of a round, flat piece of stone.
I expected him to look far angrier, but there was a resignation within his gaze. He stared up at us, waiting.
“You have used your power blindly,” Adrian said. “You came into my kingdom and offered aid, but you inspired a witch hunt that nearly killed my wife, my cousin, and resulted in the death of a young girl. You used resurrection to present as a savior to a man who should have stayed dead. Now his entire family, and those who were brave enough to try to stop him, are dead.”
As Adrian spoke, Solaris’s head lowered in shame. Once again, I found myself surprised by his reaction. I had expected him to fight, to be defiant in the face of his punishment.
“For this,” Adrian continued, “you must be punished. Do you have anything to say?”
Solaris lifted his head, his eyes widening a little. “I can only express I did not mean for any of this to happen,” he said.
“Then what did you mean?” I asked. “Because from where I stood, your decisions looked very intentional. You came to court and announced you were a witch-hunter amid panic.”
“It was wrong of me,” he said. “I sought to be valuable, if not to you, then to your people.”
“Why?”
“Because I want revenge,” he said. “And not even against Ravena, though I would like to see her die. I want revenge against Dis. This hand… I did not know what she bestowed upon me when I begged for the lives of my wife and children.”
I did not need to ask what he had done. I knew he had resurrected them.
“If you knew the horror of resurrection, why did you do it here?”
“I thought it might be different this time. It was dangerous and foolish.” He paused, and then spoke through his teeth, voice shuddering. “But why? Why would this be the gift she bestowed? When all it brings is horror?”
“Your mistake was thinking it was a gift,” said Adrian.
Solaris let his head fall; his eyes glazed.
“It might be hard to believe,” he said. “But I had no wish to see that man turn into a monster.”
“Intention does not matter here,” Adrian replied.
Solaris nodded. “You asked when I first came, what I would have to offer if you cut off my hand. I have tried. It only grows back.”
“Dis is a cruel mistress,” Adrian replied, and then reached for an axe which hung among several weapons on the wall. It had a crescent-shaped blade and an iron handle.
He handed me the weapon, and I was surprised that it was so light.
“Take his other hand,” Adrian said.
Daroc and Sorin cut his bindings. They did not have to force Solaris to lay his right arm upon the stone. He did it himself, though he shook. I admired his willingness to accept his punishment, and there was a small part of me that hesitated to go through with it, but sorrow did not atone for what he had knowingly done. I considered giving Adrian the axe to follow through, but given what he had said, I worried Dis might retaliate.
So I moved into position and let the axe hover over his wrist, adjusting my stance. Solaris’s body was rigid, and air filled his cheeks as he tried to prepare for the pain.