Page 48 of To Wake a Kingdom

“Where have you been?” she asked.

“Picking up supplies.” I didn’t tell her about my conversation with Maida, not wanting to upset her any further. “She needs a name.” I gestured to the horse.

“Elinor,” Kianna said, and I smiled. That was my mother’s name.“And yours?”

“How about Curse?” I asked with a dry smile. She spit out a derisive laugh.

A moment later, Ronan and the others arrived, leading their own horses. Not making eye contact with him, I watched his gaze dart between me and the new horse at my side. He looked disappointed, but I didn’t let the thought settle. I was done with whatever this was.

“You bought horses,” Em commented.

“You are observant,” I replied, hoisting myself on Curse. “Once you all are gone, Kianna and I need a way to get to the city.”

Not waiting for anyone to respond, I kicked Curse into step and made my way down the street. The others fell in line behind me. As we rode, Ronan attempted to spark conversation, but I kept my answers short and curt enough to dissuade him. Eventually, he gave up and left me alone.

Kianna and Gideon rode with their heads bent, whispering about something. They glanced at Ronan and then at me, quickly looking away when they saw I was watching. I sighed. They were up to something again. I wondered what convenient excuse Kianna would come up with this time to keep them all here and why she was trying so hard to prevent them from leaving.

When we entered the forest, I noticed the tingle of magic in the tips of my fingers, and I frowned. It stole through my skin as it prickled over me with heightened awareness. But it felt wrong. Tainted. Like it had been bent and broken.Premonition dropped a burning coal in my gut as I nudged Curse, urging him to move faster. Too impatient to wait, I kicked him into a full gallop. I burst through the tree line, the castle’s ramparts forming a jagged line across the horizon.

And then I saw it. Bodies.

Not just bodies, but parts of them. Legs, arms, heads, torsos. Ripped apart. Shredded and torn and defiled beyond recognition. Crimson streaks painted the pristine snow like an artist channeling her rage.

It was impossible to tell how many had died—the pieces of them scattered as if a giant hand had shaken them like dice and tossed them across the ground. I counted at least a dozen heads as my gorge rose, sour bile burning a line down my throat. Kianna and Ronan stood on either side of me, silent, staring, and in disbelief.

There were faces I recognized, and my heart ricocheted in my chest, thrashing against my ribs. My skin grew hot and cold all over, sweat breaking out on my forehead. “The throne room. They came from the throne room.”

On wobbling legs, I dismounted from the horse as I kneeled in the snow, my hands pressed to the ground.

“Thorne, don’t,” Ronan said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

I shook him off with a glare and forced myself to bear witness to the massacre. Eyes open, their faces gaped at the sky as though they’d died in shock. As though they’d died in pain, screaming against the void. A sob erupted from my throat as my forehead dropped to the snow.

“How could she do this?” Kianna whispered, sinking to the ground and stroking the back of my head.

Kianna and I exchanged a look. Only one person could have done this. Only one Fae, with a heart so black that light could never find a way in.

Large, clawed footprints circled the area. The same ones we’d seen before. My blood went as icy as a windswept tundra.

“It’s a warning,” I said. “She’s showing us what she can do and that we’re powerless to stop her.”

Andthat she had some kind of monstrous creature at her bidding.

Darkness took root inside me, sinking into my tissue and bones. These people had been innocent. They’d done nothing but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing but align themselves withmyfamily. I might have bought myself and Kianna some extra time with my bargain, but I’d cost these people their lives. I was going to get more people killed if I didn’t figure out how to break this fucking curse.

Tears broke through, sliding down my face and landing on my hands that were pressed to my knees. I wrapped my arms around myself, curling into a heart that was slowly cracking, slivers of it shedding away. I didn’t know how to stop any of this. Mare was coming for us, and there was no way to stop her.

“Thorne.” A large, gentle hand rested on my shoulder. But I didn’t want this. Ronan wasn’t for me, and this was a waste of my precious time. I shook him off, getting up and whirling on him.

“Get your hands off me.” I was wild with rage as it burst out in a torrent of sorrow and confusion. It slammed into me, an axe biting into bark. I needed to be alone. Anywhere but here.

Before anyone could stop me, I dashed back to my horse and kicked him into a gallop. I raced to the trees, tears streaming down my cheeks. I needed to get away.

Find a way to separate myself from this.

Go back in time, to a riverbank deep in the forest where a childless mother begged for a gift attached to more strings than a marionette.

It was a bargain my mother should have never entered.

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