Page 78 of Last Rites

“Penny’s warning,” I corrected him. “I had nothing to do with it.”

His mouth pressed a thin line.

“I’m sorry for bringing Forstford into my trouble,” I said. “Please let me make whatever amends I’m able.”

Ben drew in a long breath and let it out in a rush before he nodded.

“Widow Thatcher insisted on packing her things.” He pointed to the east side of town. “Avelyn Wright is with her, but she’ll need help getting the old lady to actually leave. Galen should be waiting at the edge of town by the mill to take the last few people to safety. Get them to him, and then meet me back at the well.”

I took off to the east, and Ben headed west. Across town, I made it to the Thatcher house as Avelyn was hauling the elderly homeowner through the front door. They were both heavy-laden with sacks of Widow Thatcher’s belongings.

“Let me take those,” I offered.

Avelyn jerked in surprise, but a smile of relief quickly followed.

“Oh, Kit, it’s good to see you.” She eased the sack off her shoulder and held it out to me.

I wanted to tell her that I was a harbinger of destruction. Maybe I always had been, and this was where it was always going to end. But there was no time.

I took the other sack from Widow Thatcher and slung both of them over my shoulders.

“We need to move,” I said. “Quick as we can. We’re heading for the mill.”

No one spoke again while we hurried along the deserted street. It was a relief, because I spent most of the trip looking back over my shoulder to make sure there were no familiar faces waiting with torches and lamp oil to light the town up around us.

At the mill, I passed the women and their belongings off to Galen, said my goodbyes, then set off for the square. Anxiety quickened my steps and made my heart pound. My gut was a mess of knots, and when I rounded the corner into the market, it clenched so painfully I thought I might vomit.

There in the center of the square, barely illuminated by the waning moonlight, were Klaus and Violette.

I ducked back into the shadows beside the inn before they could spot me, though I found myself thankful that they’d turned toward me anyway instead of away. Because behind them, down the lane by the butcher shop, were Penny and Rosie.

My stomach hit my feet.

What were they doing here? Any of them?

Klaus and Violette should have been back in Ashpoint, and Penny and Rosie had been asleep when I snuck out of camp. They weren’t supposed to be here. They were supposed to be safe. But here they were, seconds away from being discovered.

I swung back around the corner and into the light, then pounded on the door to the inn as loudly as I could. The racket drew the Sentinels’ attention, and a moment later, hands seized me by the arms and yanked me off the stoop.

“This was unwise, Kitten,” Violette crooned in my ear. One of her hands slid down from my shoulder and around my waist to tug the knife from my belt and hand it to Klaus. “And you weren’t meant to have this. Naughty, naughty.”

They hauled me around, and I nearly collapsed in relief to find the lane across from us deserted. Wherever Penny and Rosie had gone, at least they were out of sight. I just hoped that Rosie wouldn’t let Penny come after me. That she’d keep him here, get him to safety. Save his life the way I never could.

“You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?” Vi clicked her tongue and loosed a coil of rope hanging from her belt. “I was hoping you’d do something stupid like this so I could drag you back to Ashpoint in chains.”

Klaus wrenched my arms behind my back and held me still while she cinched the rope around my wrists.

Once they were secure, she pressed flush against me and rested her lips on the shell of my ear. “Now, where are Rosie and your Pretty Penny?” she whispered.

A shiver of disgust traced down my spine, but it only made her giggle.

“Out foraging,” I lied. “They went out before I left camp. They’re probably out in the woods.”

She stepped back and yanked on my bonds, making me stagger and stumble into her.

“You expect me to believe that?” she snapped as she shoved my shoulder to right me on my own two feet, and Klaus gripped my bicep again.

“Believe what you like,” I replied, “but I planned this alone. Penny had no part in it.”