“I know.” His own voice was quiet, and he kept moving us back and forth, rocking us. “I know.”
“She had the combs. They should have protected her. My father said that the combs were meant to protect me, so why didn’t they protect her?”
“Maybe they’re only meant to be used by you,” Jesse suggested.
“Maybe but I still don’t understand. He didn’t have any reason to kill her.”
“They don’t need reasons here,” Jesse said as we both kept staring at the body. “They just hurt people and kill people because they can. They do it because they think killing is fun. Magic or not, the people here think of killing as a game.”
I let what he said sink in as we sat there and stared at the crumpled wings and lifeless body of the girl who’d bullied me every single day of our lives together in the World That Is. The girl I’d failed over and over again.
“What should we do with her?” I asked. “We can’t just leave her lying on the floor like some sort of squashed bug.”
“I’ll take care of it,” he said, his voice hollow.
“But…”
“I can do it. I should do it. She was my girlfriend, after all. Well, not really anymore since we ended up here, but we used to be together and she’d told me once that she loved me. It’s my job to take care of her now.”
He stood up and then went over to the basin in the far corner. He grabbed the small hand towel that had been left beside it. “She wasn’t always a nice person,” Jesse said as he came over and knelt beside her body. “She could be hateful and mean, and she didn’t always think about others, but deep down she was a good person.”
“I know she was.” I nodded slowly.
“She loved her little brother,” Jesse continued, “and she was nice to animals, and she never once doubted that you would come find us, Allie. She knew you would come. And when they’d let us talk to each other, she’d always tell me that if anyone was stubborn and stupid enough to save us, it would be you. She’d tell me not to give up hope because you were coming.”
“Oh.” I sniffed as he laid out the hand towel and rolled Heidi’s fairy body onto it before covering her with the other half. “We’re going to be okay, Allie,” Jesse said as he put the hand towel on the mantle and let his hand rest on top of it. “And when this is over, we’ll make them pay for what they did to Heidi, and to everyone else.”
“Yes,” I said quietly. He came over to sit next to me on the table, and we both stared into the fire. “We will.”
Chapter Twenty-four
The light outside faded; soon it was pitch black. I heard men in the darkness and saw the brief flare of torches being lit along the outer walls, the shadows of the crackling flames writing on the far side.
There was a dull thump of boots, the rumble of wagons and men moving forward. The sound of the army was even louder at night when there was nothing else moving on the other side of the walls.
I heard a long, low howl and then a distant shriek of dragons roaring to one another.
“What is that?” Jesse asked, standing up and hurrying over to the window.
“The dragon warriors,” I said, my head bowed. I didn’t even bother to lift my eyes. “They sound scary, and they look really scary, and well, long story short they’re pretty scary all the way around unless they like you.”
“And they like you?”
“I don’t know,” I answered. “I hope they like me…. They fight for me, at least. But because of me, their entire town was destroyed, not once but twice. The first time we only burned down a part of the town, but the second time—the second time it was entirely destroyed.”
“What?” Jesse asked.
“It’s a long, not very nice story,” I said. “Let’s just go with it’s been a very long year and leave it at that.”
“It’s going to be okay, Allie,” he said. “It will. I promise.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Maybe not,” he said, his voice soft. “But what I do know is that none of us is going to quit fighting until this world is safe again.”
The door creaked, and Jesse grabbed my hand, linking us together to face whatever was about to come. The door slowly opened, and I watched as Bavasama stepped into the room, two of her henchmen behind her.
“Hello, darling. Time to go meet your army and arrange their surrender.”
“I don’t care what you do.” I stood up and glared at her. “We’re not surrendering.”
“We’ll see about that.” My aunt smiled cruelly at me and then turned to her men.
“Seize her,” Bavasama said. They stepped forward, not giving me the chance to run before one of them grabbed me and the other went for Jesse.
“I’m coming.” The guy who used to be the most popular boy at Bethel Park High School held his hands up in front of him. “You don’t have to go grabbing me and crap. I’ll go along with you—just don’t make me smell your pits again.”
“Whatever.” Bavasama sniffed, and instead of pulling Jesse into a chokehold, the guard just clamped down on his arm and dragged him along behind us.
“Where are we going?” I asked, spitting the words out through clenched teeth.
“The place with the best view, of course,” Bavasama said, her voice high and cackling. “I thought you would want to make sure you could see everything.”
She glided up the stairs, and when we reached the top, I saw Rannock and the Fate Maker standing there waiting for us.
“Ah, Piotr.” She reached up to pat the Fate Maker on the cheek. “Are you excited to watch your little country fall? I’m sure you’re ready to return to ruling it. Aren’t you?”
He bowed his head before her. “Nothing would please me more.”
“Oh, I’m sure of that,” she said with a tinkling laugh as Rannock pulled down on a rope hanging nearby. A set of rickety wooden stairs appeared, leading up to the roof of the castle. “Unfortunately for you, once my niece is dead, I won’t need you anymore. I’ll be the legitimate heir to the Rose Throne.”
“But—” He looked at her, shock covering his face.
“You’ve been too weak for too long.” Bavasama shook her head and then turned to two more guards posted along the wall. “Seize them. Both of them.”
“What?” Rannock screeched as one of the guards came forward and grabbed him from behind, another doing the same to the Fate Maker. “But I’m your husband. I love you.”
“You’re a wizard,” she answered. “The only thing you love is power, and I no longer want to share.”
“You ungrateful shrew!” he screamed as they dragged him and the silent Fate Maker away, both of them glaring at my aunt. “You wouldn’t even be the empress of this country if it weren’t for me. The wizards would have overthrown you years ago.”
“And why do you think I’ve arranged to imprison the rest of the wizards beside you once I’ve handled the little problem massing outside my gates?” Bavasama turned to look at me and shook her head. “One piece of advice from me to you,” she said quietly. “Never share your power with a man. None of them can be trusted. Not that it’s going to matter much for you, since I’ll be cutting off your head soon.”
“You haven’t beaten my army yet,” I said.
“Not yet,” she said. “But only because I wanted to wait until I had you in the perfect position to watch all of them die.” She motioned to the guard holding me. “Bring her.”
Bavasama climbed to the top of the ladder and out onto the roof before peering back down at the rest of us. “Come along, Allie dear. Let’s go watch your army march to their death.”
The guard shoved me forward, and I grabbed the ladder, pulling myself up to stand beside her on the roof. My aunt held her arms out and to the sides, like she was taking it all in, and then turned to smile at me. “Isn’t it marvelous?”