—sparks of light on a dark field: torches, amid the massing dark of an army, and at its head a figure that at first he could not make out, but he somehow knew. It was turning towards him as the Lady had turned towards him, but he didn’t want to see, didn’t want to meet those eyes burning with black flame. No—
He gasped, panting, coming back to himself in a rush to a throat full of blood, as though something had ruptured. In the next second, James’s fingers gripped his chin – James’s real fingers, lifting his head up. James’s eyes were blue, not black; he was looking down at Will with pleased satisfaction. Will felt James’s fingers slip in the blood flowing sluggishly down his face, and he had the absurd thought that he was going to mess up James’s jewelled rings.
‘You’re supposed to be the fighter?’ said James. ‘You’re no match for the Dark King.’
Will let out a breath of laughter, dizzy with echoes of the past.
‘Something’s funny?’ James’s voice was dangerously mild. Will looked right at him, in the moment before the swing.
‘I’m not the fighter,’ said Will. ‘I’m the bait.’
It was James’s turn to topple, Violet standing over him with the weighted knapsack she’d swung at his head.
‘I’m the fighter,’ she said as James hit the ground, going utterly still.
It worked. The ruse worked! The invisible pressure on Will collapsed. Beside him, Cyprian drew in a shuddering breath – alive, thought Will with a rush of relief. Cyprian was alive. But there was no time to cheer. Will was pushing himself up desperately, seeing James already starting to stir on the muddy ground.
‘Get the manacles on him!’ said Will. Violet quickly shoved down the sides of the knapsack and pulled out the two heavy sets of Steward manacles that had just impacted with James’s temple. They were the same manacles that she and Will had been forced to wear by the Stewards. As soon as they were out of the knapsack, Will could feel them, like an unpleasant taste in his mouth. But they didn’t seem to take full effect until they enclosed someone.
Violet snapped Will’s set of manacles around James’s wrists. After a second, she snapped her own set of manacles on him as well.
‘Just in case,’ Violet said, a bit defensively. Will let out a breath. It was part laughter, part hazy relief. On James’s sprawled, boyish body, the manacles looked oversized, big and heavy. James might not even be able to stand up while wearing two sets of them.
‘Do we have him?’ Cyprian was blinking his way back to himself. One hand to his temple, he had forced himself to stand up, though he still looked disoriented and unsteady.
‘We have him,’ said Will.
His plan had worked. James had taken the bait. James had followed him out after Devon had recognised him, thinking him unguarded. James had attacked him. And he had held James’s attention while Violet had gotten into position.
But as he looked down at James, Will couldn’t help feeling that what they had captured was a dangerous creature they didn’t understand and had no idea how to contain. He drew in a shaky breath.
‘Now we take him back to the Hall.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THEY DECIDED TO put James on a horse with Violet.
‘You’re the strongest,’ Will said to her. But it was more than that. ‘You ought to be the one who hands him over to the Stewards.’
Violet nodded; Will knew she understood. She was the one who had risked her life to learn James’s whereabouts from her family. She was risking more now, going back to the Stewards after they had thrown her in chains. The Stewards should have no doubt who to credit for James’s capture.
Violet dragged James up without much effort, just as he started to come around. Will got to watch the entirely satisfying moment when James reached for his powers and found them blocked by the manacles.
‘What is that?’ said James, blinking at odd intervals and unsteady on his feet.
‘The power of the old world,’ said Will as James shot him a killing look. ‘I suppose neither of us are a match for it.’ In fact, Will was relieved. There had been a chance that James might have been simply too powerful to contain. This felt precarious and exhilarating: for the moment, they had him.
Pushed forward towards the horse, James appeared to notice the identity of the Steward he’d almost killed. He let out a breath of contemptuous familiarity.
‘Cyprian. You must be loving this.’
‘You two know each other?’ Violet’s hands tightened on James’s body.