inwardly.
“If any of you are willing to help us get the wounded home, we’d be much obliged,” Annalie said. “Otherwise, you should leave us. Get warm.” The words were kind enough, but her tone was threatening. I wiped my eyes. If Annalie could stand up to this entire crowd of men by herself, I could pull myself together at least long enough to get home.
“I’ll take Celestina home,” said the wiry man. “But we’re not touching the… that.” He waved to Erris. I almost broke down again, but at the same time, I was furious. I couldn’t stand here another moment. Erris was much too heavy to pick up, but I grabbed his arms and started to drag him through the snow.
The man took Celestina and rode away, with the other men following. Annalie tried to get Erris’s feet, but we couldn’t reasonably lift him and move with any speed. We had no choice but to drag him all the way. His body was wet, with the fragments of fallen leaves clinging to his clothes and hair.
But it didn’t really matter.
His spirit was gone, and his body had been gone much longer.
THE WOODS, LORINAR
Ifra clutched Violet tight against his chest, ignoring her shouting and crying and questioning. He rode just long enough for the light of the torches to fade through the trees, and he could no longer hear the men, the horses, or Nimira’s sobs. But he couldn’t erase the vision of the destruction his own hands had caused.
He stopped the horse, scrambled off its back, and retched. There had been nothing in his stomach but melted snow and a handful of dried apples, but there it went.
He looked at his hands. They were free of marks and blood, which seemed wrong. He covered his face and wept.
“Ifra?” Violet said. “Why are
“Are you stupid?” He grabbed her arm. “I’m a jinn. I told you. I have to do what my master asks of me. No matter what it is. I’m not a man, I’m a vessel for
“B-but… do you have to be so cruel?” Violet started sobbing into her scarf again.
He took a deep breath and stroked the nose of his dear, patient horse. The simple sweetness of animals had always been a comfort to him, even at the worst of times.
“I don’t mean to be cruel,” he said. “No. I’m sorry.”
She sniffed. “Then… please… is Uncle Erris okay?”
He shook his head slowly.
“Is he dead?” Her voice sounded hollow.
“He’s… Well, I guess it depends on whether he was alive to begin with.” Ifra trailed off, knowing it hardly mattered what Erris really was. That dark part of his mind that was no longer his own had taken over more often than not this past day, gathering the townspeople as a distraction, attacking the scarred girl to break the concentration of the woman in the black dress. With his goal so close, he became relentless and cruel. Now that it was over, he was left alone with the consequences.
“I think… Celestina will be all right,” he said. Even as he said it, he wasn’t sure. It was hard to give them names, these people he destroyed.
“Why did the king want you to hurt him?” Violet said, her voice very small. “Before… you said he wanted you to bring him unharmed.”
“Now it’s you he wants. As soon as he found out you were a Tanharrow too, he wanted me to destroy Erris.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. But I do know there are many people in the fairy lands who want to see a Tanharrow on the throne. They don’t like Luka. There’s a group called the Green Hoods, waiting for you or Erris to return. I presume Luka wants you so he can calm down the people who want to follow a Tanharrow. He wants you to marry his son Belin. Make you queen… control you.”
“I don’t want to become a queen to someone’s king,” Violet said fiercely. “I want to be queen on my own.”
He gripped her arm in what he hoped was a reassuring way. “Maybe you have an opportunity. There are people behind you. People waiting for you. And you’ll have me. If you sit on the fairy throne, I can answer to you.”
She looked curious. Cautious, but he sensed she found him attractive. His heart was racing. If he managed this right… if Violet was on the throne… he might finally gain control of not only his own life, but a kingdom as well.
Running beneath his ambition to be free was a dangerous undercurrent of interest in this girl who could become his secondary master. It was never wise to care for a master.
“How?” she asked.
He briefly explained the nature of his enslavement.
“But I don’t want to marry this Belin,” she said. She shivered a little. The only light they had was the half-full moon reflecting on the snow. Violet, looking tiny and cold, clutched the handful of books she’d been holding on to for dear life even as he swung her onto the horse.
“Think of it not as a marriage, but as a strategic move,” he said. “Like a game you’re trying to win. I’ll help you.”
Her breath came in soft, frosty puffs. “Ifra?”
“Yes.”
“When you attacked us… you kept saying you were sorry. But you didn’t sound sorry.”
“I’m not really myself when I grant wishes. I can’t be. Trust me… there is no pleasure in it. Quite the opposite, in fact; it’s-it’s awful.”
She looked at him for a long moment, and whispered, “I’m sorry I shouted at you when you were crying.”
“No. Don’t be.”
He mounted the horse, putting his warm arm around her again, trying to be protective and comforting. It wasn’t really hard to think of falling for a young woman like Violet. He yearned so deeply for a loving touch with another person, and her own loneliness was so palpable, so easy to understand.
“If we’re going to meet the fairy king,” she said, “I want real clothes. Clothes for a lady, not a girl, so they’ll take me seriously.”
“We can get you some clothes.”
She was quiet, then, and a few minutes later she started to cry quietly into her scarf. She cried herself right to sleep, while he rode on through the night. Jinn could go days without sleep, which was just as well when there was no welcoming bed for miles, but unfortunate when dark thoughts chased his waking mind wherever he went.
Chapter 20
Celestina was in considerable pain when she woke. Without proper care, we could only guess at her injuries. The man who had examined her-I didn’t know if he was a doctor or merely someone with a talent for bonesetting- said she had no broken bones, and she could move her fingers and toes, but she couldn’t do much else. She could only lie on her back, and she couldn’t get out of bed.
I was hardly prepared to take care of anyone.
“I’ll see to her,” Annalie said. “Why don’t you get some sleep?”
“I’m not going to be able to sleep.”
“I know. Just rest.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone to handle all this.”
“We are never really alone.” Annalie smiled just a little. She had always reminded me of the Queen of the Longest Night herself-something about her seemed much older than her years or her smooth skin implied.
