Page 60 of A Touch of Poison
Once upon a time, we’d marched through, victorious, so pleased with ourselves to be so close to the capital. Two days’ march and we’d be there. True, the combined armies of the Dusk and Dawn Pretenders stood in our way, but we had new weapons my beloved had told us about. He hadn’t seen them yet himself, but they were going to be unveiled here at Innesol, and they’d help us journey east and take Tenebris for the rightful queens.
My happily ever after was shame that bowed my back, dragging on each step.
I tried to tell myself that I hadn’t been here, it wasn’t possible, but I couldn’t logic away my feelings or the memories that haunted each view of the town.
We hugged what remained of the buildings, and I had to help Kat cross debris strewn into the road where belongings had been dragged out of houses along with people. I placed Kat’s feet on the floor, gripping her waist and squeezing my eyes shut.
Whole families are forced outside. Adults, children—we round them all up now the new weapons have arrived.
The weapons that give me nightmares.
When we’re alone, I beg my beloved not to use them, to send them back. I know from the way he’s bitten his lips raw and rough since their arrival that he shares my horror at the things, but he insists. Both the Day Queen and Night Queen have sanctioned them. We have no choice.
The night the monsters arrived, one of the younger recruits tried to flee. She was caught and taken to the pens. I know nothing more than that about her fate. I haven’t seen her since.
“Bastian?”
Something warm touched my cheek. Like light glimmering through water as I rose from a deep, deep dive, I fixed upon it and emerged, gasping for air.
Green eyes on me. Her hand on my face. A warm body pressed against mine. These things were real. Here and now.
I pressed Kat’s palm into my skin, like I could imprint it there and make her a permanent anchor.
“Something’s very wrong, isn’t it?”
I swallowed, unable to answer when the only answer I wanted to give was a lie. I wasn’t fine. Not at all.
She glanced along the road. “We should go back.”
“No.No.” I squeezed her fingers and tried to smile. “I’ve just been here… before it fell.”
The crease between her brows deepened. “But you said this place was destroyed in the Wars of Succession. Weren’t they a thousand years ago?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled away. “You’re right.” Every thing I saw made it harder to remember logic.
I drew a deep breath. There was barely any aroma of magic left here, but Kat’s springtime scent filled me. The air in my lungs was cool. My chest rose and fell, under my control.
Iwas in control. Not whatever madness the Horrors left in the air.
I had never been here before. I couldn’t have memories of this place. It wasn’t possible.
“Come on.” I took her hand and led her deeper into the town, Elthea’s instructions ingrained in my head. We turned one corner, clambered over the rubble of a fallen tower, then turned another corner.
No sign of Horrors, save for the depleted magic. Perhaps they were feeding elsewhere—they tended to move in packs, leaching one area of their territory before moving to the next.
A scrape sounded ahead.
23
Kat
Bastian pulled me behind a tilted pillar, caging me in with his arms. We stood in tense silence, breaths held, listening. I gripped my magic tight—or tried to. If I let go, the Horrors might smell it.
Something scraped over rock, followed by the clack and thud of stone hitting stone and a heavy object landing.
Bastian’s moonlight eyes fixed over my shoulder for a long while before he peered out. He eased back into our hiding place and ducked closer. “There’s one ahead,” he breathed in my ear. “We’ll cut through this building. Keep quiet.”
Hand-in-hand, we picked through the debris. Sweat slicked his palm, though the day was far from warm. Still, I clung to him. Heart pounding, I tried to place my feet exactly where he did, but my legs were considerably shorter than his, and at times I had to find my own path over fragmented wood and fallen granite.
