Page 36 of The Stone Curse
“You want us to leave him here?”
“Yes.” She stared at me levelly. “I want you to leave him, and I want you to tell your council that he’s dead.”
“What?” Levi asked.
“You heard me. You tell them that he died along the way. Tell them that you buried him on the road, tell them whatever the fuck you want because there is no way I’m allowing my friend back into servitude for those motherfuckers.”
“Servitude? What are you talking about?”
She gave a small, incredulous exhale. “You think he works at the academy for free by choice? Because he loves being anerrand boy to your kind? No. He did it to be with the man he loved. He took an oath so that he could stay with him, and when that man lost his mind, they made them both stay. They refused to dissolve the contract. But he’s done. I won’t allow him to throw his life away any longer.”
Wait…Varsa? “Varsa was his lover?”
“Yes, and from what I’ve heard, the goyle is lost in his own head now.”
“Varsa is dead.”
She stared blankly at me. “What?”
“He died last night. Willowman only just found out before they…they did this.”
She looked down at Willowman. “And it all makes sense. Varsa’s death dissolves the contract. They knew he was free. That he could leave and take all their secrets with him. Those bastards.” She lifted her chin, eyes glittering with anger.
“No,” Levi said. “If that was true, they’d never have let us leave with him.”
“Unless…” I looked up at Levi. “Unless they believed he wouldn’t recover?”
Calista’s mouth twisted in a bitter smile. “But they don’t know me. They don’t know what I’m capable of. Leave now. They have no claim on him any longer, but if they ask, tell them he died. Trust me, it’s for the best.”
The last thing I wanted to do was leave Willowman, but if what she was saying was true, and there was no reason for me to believe she was lying, then he was safest here with her. Varsa’s funeral was tomorrow, and there was no way he’d be recovered enough to attend anyway. This was for the best, but my heart ached anyway.
“Please tell him…Tell him I’m sorry. Tell him I’ll miss him and that…just, thank you for being there.” I blinked back tears, and Calista’s expression softened.
“I’ll tell him. Now please, you should all leave.”
The man with the graying temples popped his head round the door. “Is everything all right?”
“It’s fine, Ivor. They were just leaving.”
Ivor’s brows went up. “So soon?”
“Yes,” Calista bit out.
Ivor smiled, and his kind eyes warmed. “Well, safe journey. Maybe we’ll meet again soon.”
I followed Levi down the stairs, my heart heavy with the knowledge that Willowman had effectively been a prisoner for such a long time. And now that he was free to leave, they’d decided to use him as a scapegoat. To placate the Arcadian committee that all the moles had been found and dealt with.
Calista was right. It was best if they believed him to be dead, even if that meant we would probably never see him again.
CHAPTER 12
“Ididn’t know,” Orix said, breaking the silence in the van.
I sighed, my eyes on the road ahead. “I believe you.”
Arcadia was several hours away, outside of the pockets of magic and in the rim that we knew and tolerated. There were no ports into the stronghold, not that regular goyles knew of, anyway, but I doubted that the Arcadian committee would have left themselves without a quick escape route. I’d always believed that the headquarters was also housed in Arcadia, but apparently it had a separate location, which, now I thought about it, made sense because humans also worked there.
We’d fueled up in the mundane half of Mistlegate before leaving, so we were good to go.
