Page 119 of Night of the Witch
“I do understand,” she tells him in a tone like a void. “I understand more than you. Hiding up here.Judging us. I was locked in a closet. Did you see that? I wastortured. You had the power to intervene, and youdidn’t.”
Rochus swallows, his throat working.
Philomena holds out her arms. “We saw, child. We saw, and we—”
“Abnoba is ashamed of you, I think,” Liesel says. “She’s ashamed. That’s why she sent me and Fritzi. To stop you. We came here for help, to stop Dieter, and you’re just hiding. You’re not even trying. You’re following your own rules so rigidly you’ve forgotten who those rules are even supposed to protect!”
“It is Abnoba’s will that we make the barrier impassable,” Rochus counters.
“She told you to do this?” Liesel’s face breaks, a flash of agony.
The silence that follows is brief but weighted. Liesel’s face is screwed up in concentration, and before I can interject, she shakes her head. “Abnoba is saying she let it beyourdecision. Not hers.”
She takes my hand, her palm is scorching hot, the only other testament to her capped rage. It’s offset by the way she trembles, the hollow exhaustion on her face, and my heart breaks.
“There are other ways to stop my brother,” I tell the room. “In the morning.For now, my cousin and I have been traveling for a very long time. I think we could use some food. Maybe a bath. So far we haven’t exactly been wowed by forest folk hospitality.”
Cornelia steps around the chairs. “Of course. Follow me.” She gives awithering look at Rochus and Philomena, and as she crosses to the door, Brigitta rejoins us and swings it open.
The four of us slip back outside, into the now blinding white light of the high, high sky, and as the door shuts behind us, I hear Rochus and Philomena hissing in low whispers at each other.
Something crashes to the floor, shatters.
Cornelia turns to me on the landing of the meeting room. Her eyes are all appraisal, but she bows her head solemnly. “I am sorry. You were ambushed. I told them it was wrong to rush you into it, but they feared exactly what happened—that you would reject their plan.”
“And you reject it too.”
Cornelia smiles. She motions at the flurry of activity below us, below the tree canopy. The forest folk poised everywhere, furiously working to strengthen the invisible barrier that Dieter has weakened.
“We’ve waited too long to act,” she whispers. “And now, all we have remaining are drastic options that are just as harmful as the problem.”
Liesel yawns so big that she staggers into me, barely covering her wide mouth with her hand.
Cornelia smiles down at her. “Come. You have done more than enough for today.”
“Have we?” My stomach tugs. Dieter was on our heels in the Black Forest. If he’s so close, and the barrier is so weak—
I spoke with confidence about giving us time to rest, but that was only in defense of Liesel; now, what options do we really have?
We came here expecting sanctuary, at the very least. But if all the forest folk have to offer is a cowardly retreat, then this will end just as I’ve begun to fear it will: with me facing my brother, alone. His terror is my burden to bear.
Otto won’t let me do that though. He’ll be there with me, his life at risk just the same.
My chest cramps, and I want to collapse right here, on the doorstep of this supposed haven, and sleep away the bad dreams.
Cornelia’s smile softens. “Follow me.”
Liesel stumbles a step forward, and Brigitta sweeps in, offering to lift her. Liesel agrees instantly, and I watch her eyelids droop shut the moment she’s in Brigitta’s arms.
We start back down through the trees, and as we near that bridge again, I eye Cornelia. There are about a thousand questions I want to ask.
But she looks at me, her copper hair even more fiery in the daylight, and there’s a watery sheen over her pale eyes now.
“Thank you,” she tells me. “I know it has not been the smoothest introduction to the reality of our world. I know you lost far too much to get here. But I am grateful for your presence.”
“When I leave”—when, not if—“to face Dieter. To stop him. Will you come with me? Back out into the world?”
Part of me growls that it’s too big a thing to ask.
