Page 42 of Thornbound
My students held the blazing light spell steady, working together with linked arms. My gaze darted from one determined young face to another, watching for any signs of tiring. My captor’s clawed grip on my arm tightened with every agonizing minute that passed, until the deep pain numbed into a steady, constant pulse as faraway and insignificant as my own heartbeat.
Jonathan would be safe on this trip. I told myself that, again and again as we waited. Mr. Luton had gone back to the house with him to serve as a magical guard along the way—and as far as I knew, nootherfey in these woods held a special grudge against our family.
There still hadn’t been a single rustle of movement from the tree where Wrexham was bound.
I tried not to look out of the corner of my eye.
I looked again and again. I couldn’t help myself.
If he was—
No. She’d planned to kill him before my eyes, which meant he was still alive now. I was certain of it.
...Almost certain.
“Annabel Renwick,” I said at last, my voice hoarse with pain. “The one you took. Where is she?”
There was no body to be seen apart from the one tied to the tree—andthatwas too tall to be anyone but Wrexham, even beneath all those layers of obscuring vines.
My captor shrugged irritably, her gaze still fixed in the direction that Jonathan had gone. “I did as I was bid, to fulfill my bargain. I sentthatone through the bluebells. She won’t find her way back to your world again.”
Ohhh.I took a deep, steadying breath as those bluebells bobbed in the night air before me, wild and fey and eerily beautiful, much like the woman who held me in her clawed grip.
Annabel would no longer be the most powerful tormentor in her new home...and when I thought of exactly what she’d threatened for Lady Cosgrave’s own beloved, I couldn’t find any regret for her punishment. But I couldn’t restrain a reluctant shiver of empathy, either.
I would never willingly walk by bluebells again.
After an endless amount of time, Amy took a deep breath of her own and shook out her shoulders, turning away from the darkness where her husband had disappeared. “Well, ladies,” she said briskly, “there’s no point wasting this time, is there?”
My captor let out a low growl. “If you think you can—”
“I beg your pardon,” said Amy gently, “but I was speaking to my colleagues. The rest of you may manage the magic here, butwe”—she looked from one Boudiccate inspector to another—“are here for the more traditional womanly arts of government. I believe this is an excellent moment to resolve them. Honoria?”
Lady Cosgrave slanted one reluctant glance at my captor and grimaced. “Oh, very well,” she said, straightening her shoulders and smoothing down her dress unnecessarily. “You all know what I did, and why I did it. But if you imagine, any of you, that you’ll ever get away with revealing my secrets to the world yourselves—”
“Honoria.” Amy sighed. “You are standing in a circle of women who haveallmoved away from the expectations we were born with...including our hostess.” She nodded politely to my captor. “Do you truly imagine that any of us would cast aspersions on you for whom you loved? After everything that you’ve heard tonight?” She gestured to the circle of women who held the spell, and then to me and to Wrexham beyond. “Do you thinkwecan’t all understand doing whatever it takes to keep them safe?”
A deep sigh lowered Lady Cosgrave’s shoulders. “Of course not,” she said quietly. Sorrow etched deep lines on her cheeks, making her look suddenly ten years older, as she looked directly at Amy for the first time since our arrival. “I do know better, Amy.Youwould never resort to blackmail.”
“No,” said Amy, “and I don’t need to. Do I?”
Lady Cosgrave didn’t answer—but her cousin, frowning, edged closer as if in preemptive defense.
“Honoria Cosgrave,” said Amy, “you are the most principled politician I know. So,” she finished gently, “you already know what you need to do. Don’t you?”
Lady Cosgrave’s fingers flexed into fists by her side. She didn’t speak. Miss Fennell frowned harder.
“I know you,” said Amy, “so I know exactly what you would say of any other politician who conspired toward the fey abduction and disappearance of another member of the Boudiccate, no matterwhather justification might be. Could such a woman ever be safely left in charge of the nation, once she’d broken our oldest laws and escaped punishment?
“Moreover...” She gestured once more to my students. “Tell me, Honoria: what would she owe to the young women—andtheir partners—whom she’d recklessly endangered for that illegal purpose, no matter how justified her reasons may have been?”
She looked at my captor, and at the steady trickle of blood that dripped from my captured arm onto the bluebells. “I think we’veallseen tonight what truly happens when we cling to outdated social rules to the detriment of our own dreams.”
Standing behind her older cousin, Miss Fennell bit her lip, looking agonized...but then she nodded in agreement, even as she took Lady Cosgrave’s arm in a supportive grip.
Lady Cosgrave, who had helped to rule the nation from the time I was a little girl, closed her eyes for one long moment as we stood exposed in the magic-bright woods.
Then she opened them. “I suppose,” she said quietly, “my consolation will be knowing that another woman of principle will be ready to take my place.” Her lips curved into a small, wry smile. “You may never accept my friendship again, Amy Harwood. But you’ll have my parting vote, nonetheless. So will this school.”
