Chapter 8

8

T he lights the guards used were extinguished, Barbara and I the only two prisoners this deep in the dungeons, and everyone was content to let us rot.

In the oppressive cells, time became impossible to track. It might have been two hours or it might have been two days.

There were no meals to mark the passage of time and no sunlight to indicate day or night.

Nothing, no one.

Only guilt and terror, which had to be the point. My swimmy-headedness increased, and more often than not I fell asleep and woke up sicker than when I’d dropped off.

Without Baldric to give me transfusions, I’d get worse. And worse. Not like it matters . At this point, the clock only counted down toward an inevitable end.

They were not letting us out of here, and by lying to Mike, I’d alienated the only person who might save me.

“That handsome blond boy is my daughter’s son, is he not? Why don’t you tell me what you’ve been doing with my grandson?” Barbara asked with an incredulous whisper. “The two of you seem mighty cozy.”

“It’s none of your business,” I snapped, sucking air in through my nostrils. Nothing helped the queasiness.

“Seems as though it’s absolutely my business. He’s my flesh and blood. I’m well within my rights to worry about him.”

“I’m not willing to talk about it, then. Mike and I are friends.” We were more than friends but like hell I’d tell Barbara.

“Friends, absolutely. That’s a fine word for it. I might not know about your life but I understand people, and that boy is my kin. He’s got the same kind of blood I do, hiding behind a thin veil of nobility. Makes sense you’d find each other. Given who you are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She laughed at me. “You’ll find out eventually, girl. They always do.”

I tried to answer her, to assure her of Mike’s genuinely good heart, and found my throat had closed again. I gasped, desperately trying to suck in enough oxygen.

“You’re not feeling well. What’s wrong?”

I slammed my palm into my chest, hard enough to dislodge whatever had congested my throat, and coughed until tears pricked the corners of my eyes.

The coughing only exacerbated the nausea until I found myself curled on the floor, dry heaving. There was nothing to puke up. Nothing in my system to come out.

My head spun around in endless circles.

“Tavi? Talk to me.”

Hearing my name come out of Barbara’s mouth centered me and I clung to it like a raft in an angry ocean. “I was…bitten,” I found myself admitting.

And in spits and spats, I managed to get out the entire story of raising Madam Muerte from the dead and having her zombie take a bite out of me.

Barbara waited until the end of my story to huff out a laugh. “You’ve been busy. Much busier than I gave you credit for, you industrious little wolfie. Now come here.”

“What?” I croaked.

“Come to the bars and I’ll assess what’s going on inside of you. You get bitten by a witch, only a witch can heal you. And your Madam Muerte? Before her untimely passing?” Barbara snorted. “Pure witch.”

She made it sound so simple.

I wasn’t sure about that, but I was either going to die of this illness in a prison cell or be executed. What was the harm? I might as well let Barbara do whatever it was she wanted to do.

“I thought you didn’t have your magic.”

“Did I say I ran out of power? Hell no, girl, I’ve got some magic. It just doesn’t do me a shit load of good in here. Now get over to the bars and try not to puke on me. I feel disgusting enough as it is.”

The last time I’d seen her in the real world, Barbara looked as thin as a rail and highly breakable. Not much had changed, apparently. Her slender wrists fit between the bars, and the moment I crawled over to her, she latched onto me, forcing my hand all the way through as well.

Her palms were dry, callused, her knuckles almost too large for the size of her hand when she took hold. But her witch’s magic rushed over me in a soothing wave. I swooned, eyes fluttering back into my head.

It felt oddly familiar.

The same sensation I’d once experienced when I walked through her barriers to reach her house. The heaviness, strange after so long feeling nothing but sickness, fell over me and disappeared in the next inhalation.

I breathed in deep, filling my lungs, and the air itself felt fresher, colored by a hint of her power. My senses tingled and everything smoothed out into a sense of serene calm.

Even my overheated skin began to cool.

I didn’t have a drop of witch blood inside of me. Right? Then why did I vibe so well with Barbara and her magic?

It made no sense and my head spun for a completely different reason: confusion.

Barbara finally released my hand and I held onto the bars until my system righted itself.

“It’s a kind of blood poisoning, from magic,” she said in the gloom. “So yeah, whatever transfusions the nurse gave you, they were helping to keep the poison at bay. But, girl, that’s only a temporary fix.” She sighed, the sound long and forlorn. “It won’t last forever.”

“Then what do I need to do?” I was desperate.

“Seriously? You have to get the antidote .” I practically saw her rolling her eyes at my stupidity. “There is a certain type of flower you will need to mix with dirt from the old broad’s grave. Once you mix the two, you ingest it. Yum, yum.”

My gorge rose at the thought and I gagged.

The last place I wanted to be was back at the graveyard. After what happened when Bronwen and I tried to raise the old gypsy woman from the dead?

Necromancy got me into this pickle in the first place.

It wasn’t as though Barbara was asking me to try to raise Muerte from the dead again, but the idea of going back gave me the creeps. “Isn’t there any other way?”

“No.” That single word was knife-sharp in the dark. “I can do a small spell to take the edge off but it would be like a Band-aid on a bullet hole. Do you get what I’m saying? You need the actual cure. And I’m trying to give it to you if you’d pull the cotton out of your ears and listen to me.”

I sighed. “Yeah, well, the actual cure isn’t going to do me any good if we don’t get out of here.”

“So glum,” she chided acerbically.

“Of course I’m glum. Beyond glum.”

Barbara made a low sound of ridicule before saying, “Well, give me your hand back, and I’ll work my magic on you.”

“What's it going to cost me?” At least this time I understood how it worked.

“How about we say this one is on the house? It’s the least I can do…since you’re in here with me. Or if it makes you feel better to think I’m doing this for my grandson, since he’s moon-eyed over you, then consider it that way.”

“As much as I hate it, I’m going to take you up on your offer.” I slid my hand back along the bars until I knocked into her palm.

Her magic flowed over me and the dizziness cleared. Everything inside of me went sharp and focused, and for a moment the shock almost overwhelmed me, because I felt like my old self again.

The strong and assured self I’d been before my life took a crazy turn into terror and panic.

“Wow, I do feel better, thank you.”

Barbara released me again and I immediately missed the warmth of her callused palm. “Don’t thank me yet.”

Wind ripping through the passage echoed the ominous tone of her voice.

When would there be time to thank her, then? Because we both knew beyond a shadow of a doubt there was no getting out of this cell until the council and premier demanded our presence.

And then it would only be a matter of time until?—

The end .

We’d reached the end of the road, yet the journey felt so far from being finished I could barely put words to the sensation.

More time passed in the damp decay before the echoing thud of footsteps roused me out of half sleep. The lights popped on, blinding and dazzling, but this time I was ready.

I hid my eyes, ducking my head to avoid the flashing sensation of black dots.

Several guards strode around the corner with their shoulders squared and their attention on the bars. One of them stepped away from the others with a set of keys in his hand.

“Come with us,” he grunted. “The premier and the Elder Council will see you both now.”

Ice frosted over my heart.

Two more guards came into my cell and I didn’t need to look to know Barbara experienced the same rough treatment. They slapped a pair of magic-damping cuffs over my wrists and immediately the simmer of power always beneath my skin drained away, cut off without mercy.

I reeled at the loss, and in the adjustment period, they hauled me to my feet and out of the cell.

Barbara was dragged behind me, defenseless. Powerless in a way that neither of us had ever been before.

Except I’d been in the dungeon before, subjected to those cuffs, although the last time I’d been forced in front of a jury it had consisted only of the king. Now, the worry was no less severe and sickening.

There was no escape.

No way I’d be able to overpower any of these guards. None of them were recognizable, either, as they took us both into a separate small chamber down the hall from the massive throne room.

The door thudded closed behind us. The sound jolted me out of my skin but the guards didn’t stop pushing us forward until we stood shoulder to shoulder in front of Cosmo Foxfall.

Two members of the Elder Council sat beside him but otherwise we were alone in the room.

Alarm became a wave of fire inside of me but did nothing to thaw my heart.

“I’m sure you were both expecting a much larger crowd.” Cosmo flicked at the fabric of his trousers above his knees before he leaned forward and fixed me with a hard stare.

Barbara scoffed, but when I looked over at her, I was shocked to see a stone gag slapped across her mouth and glowing with magic to keep her silent. Regardless, she glared at the others with such ferocity I gulped.

If I were Cosmo Foxfall, no matter what kind of precautions they took I’d be scared of Barbara.

Her hair stood out on end, her wrinkles deeper than the last time I’d seen her, but her eyes were lit with an inner fire that was downright frightening.

“This is no ordinary case, as I’m sure you’re both aware. Thus there is no need for a public trial or the presence of the courtiers or the royal family,” Cosmo continued.

“This is a sentencing,” I said out loud.

They’d already reached their verdict, without us.

Cosmo nodded. “Exactly. The Council and I both agree that it is in the best interest of the royal court, Eahsea, and Faerie in general for the two of you to be eradicated as soon as possible.”

Eradicated. Not killed. Wiped from the face of the earth.

“You are both sentenced to execution for your crimes,” he finished grandly.

“That’s it?” I strained against the guards and they didn’t have to work hard to get me back in place. Despair and terror flushed my cheeks. “You’re not even going to ask me why? To listen to my side of the story?”

“I’m not interested in your side,” Cosmo replied with a sniff. “You stole from the crown. Your thievery resulted in a threat to the life of the king which put him in a coma. You have reached the end of the patience of this court. Above and beyond, Miss Alderidge. You are finished.”

He snapped his fingers, and we were taken away.