Page 154 of A Reign of Roses
“Of course. Who do I send for?”
“Hearken Sadella,” I answered.
“No,” Kane bit out, rage roiling through him like a torrent.
“There is no other way.” I held Kane’s eyes with sheer, unbending certainty. “Do you hear that?”
Kane fell silent. Agonized cries sounded off the trees, the clash of metal on metal, the toppling of sentry towers…
“That is the end of this war. That is the end of Evendell. Beth told us as much. Wehaveto make the deal.”
“Arwen.” Kane’s brows pulled together in anguish.
“We won’t bear children anyway,” I whispered, smiling through my grief at the wretched, twisted irony. “Because we both cannot live.” More tears spilled down my cheeks. “And while we have no control over our lives, we can at least try to save everyone else’s.”
Kane said nothing, his mouth a grim, furious line.
I wasted no time waiting for a rebuttal. “Send word to Hearken,” I said to Eardley. “The fastest raven we have. Tell him we agree to his terms. Tell him…to send them all.”
Eardley nodded once and took off through the snow-packed forest. His urgency—and the death toll yawning before us—was at odds with the late-afternoon sun that glinted softly off his jet-black armor and warm, dark skin as he disappeared into the blur of snow and branches. I hoped for all our sakes that he’d find a weapon fast. He’d never make it to the keep without one.
Raising my head to the winter sky, I tried to brace myself. I’d never be able to take that decision back. I offered a quiet prayer that it had been the right one.
A single arrow whizzed through the trees behind us and we all ducked instinctively.
Briar coughed, fishing with a frail yet still elegant hand through our bodies until she grasped the hem of Mari’s skirt. “You,” she guttered.
Mari nodded, guilt already gleaming in her eyes. “I know, I shouldn’t have followed after you all and I’m so—”
“You werespectacular, little witch.”
Mari’s mouth quivered until she couldn’t hold in her tears aminute longer. She laid her head across Briar’s chest. “Tell me what spell to do,” she pleaded. “Tell me how to save you.”
Briar’s chest rose and fell too slowly. “One last lesson.”
Mari sat up and clutched Briar’s hand in both her own. “Tell me.”
“FindAdelaide.”
“Who is she?”
“You will free them,” Briar said on a rattling inhale. Wet and waning.
Her pulse was slow under my fingertips as I held her wrist. My lighte ricocheted off the inner walls of my hand, the need to heal so great I worried it would slip out of me against my will. Out, with nowhere to go.
“Free them—?” Mari’s brows pulled together.
“They won’t know…” Briar’s eyes dimmed. Another pained breath.
Mari gripped her shoulders. “Briar…What are you saying? Who?”
But she just reached for Mari, fingers settling on her arm.
More tears slipped down Mari’s freckled nose. “Yes. I’ll find her. And free them. It’s all right, Briar…” Mari started to weep in earnest. “Thank you for teaching me so much. Being so patient with me…never making me feel—”
Without warning, a booming sound tore through our shadowed alcove, shaking the snow from the trees above us.
Cannons—
