No.
No, no, no.
This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t be the reason my friends were locked up. I craned my neck backward to look at them. They were being dragged the same way I was. Eve looked pissed as hell, but Meria’s expression could melt iron. She glared at King Fionn with a look that made a chill run through me.
Behind them, the destruction of the maze was horrible evidence of what I’d done. Of what I was capable of.
The guards dragged me down into the depths of the palace and tossed me in a stone cell. The room was barren and cold, echoing with despair. There wasn’t a single window or piece of furniture, and the door was thick wood with only a tiny window.
The bigger guard turned to me before he left and said, “It’s enchanted, so don’t try anything.”
I just stared at him, horrified as the door closed in my face.
20
Lore
* * *
“Sia is responsible?” I stared at Dain, dumbfounded.
Last night, I’d stormed away from Sia and found more whiskey in the library. I’d drunk myself to sleep in quick order, and spent the night passed out on the couch. The dreams had been the most intense of my life. Over and over again, I’d relived the time with Sia. The feel of her. The taste of her.
It had been incredible but letting my guard down like that was one of the most shameful things I’d ever done. I was supposed to protect my people. Instead, I’d been with the woman who threatened them. While I’d been unconscious, Sia had revealed herself to be the witch with the deathly magic.
Dain had just found me on the couch and told me the news.
“It can’t be true.” I shook my head.
“I saw it myself.” Dain said. “Her magical signature matched that at the greenhouse and the maze.”
“But it doesn’t. I know her magic, and it wasn’t present at the greenhouse.” I hadn’t seen the maze yet, but I was sure it couldn’t be her.
“Her magic changed, Lore. The dark clouds have all gone, and her magic has changed.”
My head spun as I put it together. “We thought the clouds foretold the arrival of the witch. But perhaps they followed her, storing her magic so we wouldn’t suspect her.”
It made as much sense as anything. It was rare magic, but not unheard of.
But could she really have done that? Could I have been so enamored of her, so lost in my own desires, that I hadn’t noticed she was playing a game with me?
She’d attacked the greenhouse and the maze, two of the most important places at High Court Palace. The two most important, in fact. The greenhouse with its potion ingredients and the maze with its ancient magic. “She was striking at our arsenal and the symbolic source of our power.”
“That’s what the other fae believe.”
“Do you?”
Dain dragged a hand through his hair, his brow creased and his eyes dark. “I don’t want to. But her magic is unmistakable. She was the cause of both explosions.”
Had she really tricked me like this? Had I been so caught up in her that I hadn’t seen it coming?
Yes.
She’d been hiding things all along, asking me to trust her while lying through her teeth.
“I have to go see her.”
“It’s possible none of this is her fault,” Dain said.
I drew in a ragged breath. He was right. But the more I thought about it, the less likely it became. I was a fool.
I stood. “She’s in the prison?”
He nodded. “The high security cell.”
Of course. If she truly was the witch with the deathly magic, then her power was outrageously strong. The clouds themselves had been horrific. If they really contained her magic, and she’d claimed it once more, she wasn’t who I thought she was.
My heart thundered as I made my way to the prison. I passed several fae on the way, and though I could feel their pitying stares, I didn’t give a damn. I could only think of Sia.
The guards at the entry to the prison stepped in front of the door, barring my path.
“I will tear you limb from limb if you don’t allow me to pass.” My voice was so cold that I saw their hearts freeze.
They stepped aside.
I pushed through the door and descended the stairs to the prison. The high security cell was at the back. As I walked toward it, I heard Meria and Eve’s voices.
I turned to find them each staring back at me out of identical cell doors.
“She didn’t mean to do it,” Meria said.
“She had no idea,” Eve added. “It’s not her fault.”