Page 108 of The Iron Hex

Maeve caught Rhona’s eyes, fury glittering behind them. “My visions are never wrong, even when I wish they were,” she said firmly.

If it wasn’t Princess Evangeline... who had they burned beside King Arthel and Queen Mariana?

“Evangeline is alive,” Maeve said. “I hadn’t looked for her in my visions for years because I was there that day. I saw her burn beside her parents. I thought she was dead, but Rhona... my visions, they show you and her... and two others. One of them, I swear, is the viscountess, but she’s less prominent in the flashes I saw, so it’s hard to tell. Rhona—” Maeve grabbed Rhona’s hand, pleading. “You have to go. They’re coming, and your window to get out is closing. Please, I can’t lose you.”

“I can’t leave without you.” Rhona couldn’t do it, her feet rooted to the ground where she stood. She had finally found someone who wanted to be around her, who trusted her, and she was supposed to just leave her here in danger? It went against everything Rhona believed in.

“Then you will die, and you’ll never see me again. Please, Rhona. Go to the princess, and I promise I will do my best to bring us back together,” Maeve begged.

This wasn’t what Rhona wanted. She wanted to make the Iron Empire better, she wanted to stop Dr. Balet and save the people in that damned testing dungeon, and if she didn’t leave she would just become one of them. Dead but alive, unable to do anything but the bidding of those around her, no feeling. Noanything.

“Fine,” Rhona whispered. “Fine, I’ll go.”

“Thank you.” A tear rolled down Maeve’s cheek. “It’s for the good of Astra.”

“Where, though... where do I go?” Rhona asked, hating this. Every fiber of her being wanted to stay, even as every logical part of her brain knew she needed to run.

“She’s somewhere warm in the vision... I think Corisia. It looked like Corisia.” Maeve looked to the door, panic in her eyes.

“You have to go,” she continued. “There’s less time for you to get out than you think.”

Rhona grabbed Maeve and kissed her again before pulling away. “I will come back,” Rhona said.

“I know you will. I’ve seen it,” Maeve said, knowledge and certainty and truth ringing in her statement. The witch had seen more than she was telling Rhona, but Rhona trusted that she was telling her what she needed to know now.

54

Hugo

As the sun set, Hugo and Evangeline stepped away from the room where Willow sat with Eira, the spell taking even longer than Hugo could have imagined. They ended up in the kitchen of the tavern itself, with scarred wooden countertops and a soup on a low simmer on the woodstove. Hugo helped himself and Evangeline to a bowl of the creamy broth, and he dug around the cupboards to find a loaf of bread for them to pick at.

“You’ve been nothing but a bundle of nerves since she went under,” Evangeline said, her voice quiet and exhausted. Her bowl of soup sat on the counter, her remaining hand holding the spoon that she gingerly swirled in the bowl.

“I’m worried this won’t work, or that the witch will somehow take away more memories,” Hugo said plainly, the soup warming him as he took a slow spoonful.

“The Iron Empire propaganda really did work on you, huh?” she said. “You’re in love with a witch, and still can’t shake the idea that witches are inherently evil and willing to harm us and each other. What makes you think Willow would benefit from hurting Eira?”

Evangeline was right. His fear was grounded in nothing apart from what Lord General Kerrigan had taught him. Witches were dangerous, their magic brought harm to Astra, and for that, they needed to die.

But how could he have believed that when his own daughter was a witch? Hugo hadn’t known Eira could do magic but... Lord General Kerrigan had admitted that he had known, that potions witches were exemptforEira’s safety. Before the uprising, before Eira disappeared, Hugo had heard the viscount say that all of this was to protect Eira, but then the power had gotten to him. It was the only explanation that made sense.

“Did you fall into the rebellion because the viscount was leading it?” Evangeline asked. “He was one of my family’s most trusted advisers... I couldn’t believe it when I found out what he’d done.”

“One day I caught him leaving the house at an odd time. I followed him, worried he was going to put himself in danger, and then... he simply went to a meeting spot. A dozen people were already supporting him, and the way he spoke... I didn’t grow up in a good place, you know?”

Evangeline watched, slowly eating her soup as Hugo spoke.

“He talked about a world where everyone in Astra was successful based on merit and not on who they were born to, and... he’d become like a father to me. He’d taken a chance on me in his home, a poor orphan that had had to claw my way out of the hell I was raised in. It was hard to not believe him.”

“Charisma gets you far, that’s what my mother always told me,” Evangeline said as she looked at Hugo, the silent part as loud as could be.I’d still haveboth of them, if you hadn’t helped, rang through Hugo’s head loud and clear. He knew what she wanted to say, what she had stopped herself from saying.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I may not have killed your father with my own hands, but it was me who kept him in his chambers for Lord General Kerrigan.”

“I don’t forgive you,” she said after a long pause. “But I am glad you’re with us now... because right now we’re three people against an empire, and we need all the help we can get to win Corisia over to our side.”

“Agreed,” Hugo said.

He didn’t expect Evangeline to forgive him; he didn’t expect anyone to. He had so much more work to do before he deserved any sort of forgiveness.