I clutched the bars between us, staring at her. “You can’t give up.”
Tears dripped down her cheeks. “They took my brother,” she told me. “We were born minutes apart. I was away from the village that day, and I ran. By the time I got to the city, he’d already burned. I never got to say goodbye. Never got to thank him for being the best brother I could have hoped for. The king took him from me without a thought. Because if his people found out just how many of us have magic, and why, all his lies would begin to fall apart. You have a brother.” Her gaze drifted behind me in the direction Tibris had gone.
“I do. And my brother wouldn’t want me to throw your life away. Neither would yours.”
“I’m not. You’re going to free them, I know it. Promise me, Prisca. Promise me you’ll free them. And one day, you’ll come back and burn this fucking place to the ground.”
There was only one thing I could say. “I promise.”
A scuff sounded to my left.
My hand instantly went to my dagger, and I turned. Prisca stood in my room, her face pale.
“Using your power to sneak into my rooms, wildcat? How very scandalous.”
“I don’t have time to play.”
Her eyes met mine, and I experienced another jolt at the color. I loathed the change. But more importantly, those eyes were desperate. Desperate in a way that filled me with a strange disquiet.
“What is it?”
“You asked how I ended up as one of the queen’s ladies. I worked with a woman named Wila. She dropped a lamp on the queen’s dress. A lamp with fae fire. I froze time long enough for it to catch and for the queen to assume the people surrounding her did nothing.”
Her face had gone even paler, as if admitting to her deeds was sucking the life from her.
“And then you put the fire out, drawing the queen’s attention for your bravery and fast instincts.”
“Yes.”
I studied her. She’d glanced away with that word, shifting on her feet. “You’re not telling me all of it. From what I’ve learned of the queen, she usually keeps no more than six ladies at any one time.”
She stuck her chin out in that stubborn way she had, and I raised one eyebrow.
“You arranged for one of those ladies to disappear, didn’t you, wildcat?”
“I didn’t kill her,” she said quickly. “She’s traveling back to her village.”
“You’re a better schemer than I’d anticipated. Congratulations. That doesn’t explain why you’ve come to me so distraught, directly after we agreed to pretend the other doesn’t exist.”
“Wila…I’d thought she would be embarrassed. Maybe demoted. But they took her to the dungeon.” Her voice broke, and something in my chest wrenched.
I sighed. “They’re putting her to death, and you want me to intervene.”
“The king heard what happened and decided to use it as proof of his love,” she spat. “He sentenced Wila to death. She dies at sunrise, two days from now.”
“What exactly is it you think I can do?”
“Anything. Please, Lorian. I’m begging you. If I take her now, they’ll start an investigation and increase security. Then I won’t be able to get Asinia out. She’s still too weak to travel.”
My jaw clenched. She was asking for my help. Begging. And I couldn’t give her what she wanted. What she needed. A strange kind of powerlessness punched into me. “I can’t.”
“Lorian—”
I held up a hand. At some point in the past few weeks, dulling the hope in Prisca’s eyes had turned from an absolute necessity to a living hell.
“Let me tell you how executions happen here. The prisoner is led out the back entrance of the castle while blindfolded. Denied even the sight of one last sunrise. They’re surrounded by guards at all times, dragged to one of the many squares in the city that were designed exactly for this purpose. Even if I could create a big enough distraction to get her free, the city gates would immediately be shut. Every man, woman, and child who attempted to leave would be searched. The violence would become inescapable until she was found. Many other innocent people would die.”
I knew all about the prisoners in this castle. Knew what happened to them. Every excruciating detail. And at some point, this vexing woman had become too important to me. Important enough that the thought of her going ahead with such plans—and taking that long, lonely walk to her execution…
I would do whatever it took to make sure that didn’t happen. Even if it meant I had to tie her up and hide her in a closet.