“It would accomplish nothing in the long term. So, we will place you in a wagon cell and drive you into the woods. You will stay there for three days; we hope that if you are a changeling, they will sense you and see that you can’t help them anymore. If the past is anything to go by, tonight they will seek to take another child, but instead take you, or at least take our treatment of you as a warning to stay away. With any luck they will move on, leaving the children of this village in peace.”
I gaped. Disbelief and panic rippled through my body. “I’ll die,” I said stiltedly, struggling to remain upright. “The cold will kill me before any fae can.”
Baird sighed through his nose. As if irritated. “You’ll have blankets, provisions, and a bucket to last you the three days.”
A bucket?
Viola’s chin rose an inch. “What happens after three days?” she asked, her voice smoldering with repressed anger.
“We haven’t been able to agree,” Baird replied in an annoyingly calm voice. “But while the council have voted guilty, we are not murderers. If you are still in the cage after three days, we will bring you back to face judgment.”
Gus scoffed, “You’ve all gone soft?”
A small furrow appeared on the Chief’s wizened brow, but his gaze did not move from my own. “Although, I must warn you, Serena, that given the mood in the village, exile may be the only judgment left to us.”
The tattered ruins of my life caught fire. My stomach roiled in horror at the thought of my fate: locked in a cage for three days, and if I was lucky enough to avoid attracting the fae, I faced separation from the only family I had left.
I’d crawl and beg to avoid that fate. “Please, have mercy! I know some of you don’t agree with this.” Gertie’s lips tightened, confirming my theories. “I’m no changeling. You’re throwing me out into the woods to die! And why? Just because I’m an orphan with no father or husband to protect me, you’d throw me to the wolves in the place of another? This is a sacrifice, not justice!”
Nathan bent over a little and hissed, “Be grateful that we’re dragging you into the woods and not to your execution, changeling.”
I recoiled. No surprises who’d voted against me, then.
“Hear, hear!” Gus cried. “What of the families of the lost children? Don’t they deserve justice?”
Baird shot a sharp look in his direction. “Silence.”
No one breathed. The Chief turned to Nathan and said in a low rumble, “I make allowances for you because you are in pain. But you will not go around riling up the villagers, do you hear me? I won’t have a mob on my hands.”
Nathan appeared mutinous. Castiel’s cool, even voice rang out. “If Serena is a changeling, what do you think would happen if we executed her? The fae may not welcome half-breeds, but executing one of their own is something they might find hard to ignore. They could slaughter us, or gods forbid, take all the children.”
Nathan’s mouth shut tight at this, his face a picture of resignation.
“Serena Smith,” Baird called.
Recognizing it as a summons, I clenched my fists and let the pain from my biting nails take the edge off my mounting hysteria.
“Castiel and I will drive you into the heart of the woods.”
Trembling, I breathed, “Now?”
“Yes, for your own safety if nothing else.”
“Safety,” Viola echoed bitterly.
Gertie explained. “The families of the abducted children may let their grief get the better of them,” she said, angling her body toward Nathan.
Baird nodded once. “Indeed. As long as you are here, you will be in danger. Now, say your goodbyes.”
He stepped out of the line of elders with Castiel beside him. They waited for me.
I turned and hugged first John, then Viola who whispered in my ear. “You’re stronger than you know. You will survive, d’you hear me?”
There was nothing more to say. I glanced between them, trying to paint their images into my memory. “Take care of each other.”
I got two very strained smiles in answer.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Castiel inch closer, so I forced myself to pull away from them.
Gertie snorted and snapped, “Elain, as you are so fond of reminding us, Serena is your daughter—have you nothing to say to her?”
“Of course, I’m terrified of what might happen to her, but the lies she’s told today are hard to forgive.”
Baird’s mouth thinned into a disapproving line, and Gertie looked as if she’d swallowed a lemon. “You betray yourself. I realize now that you’ve never felt any affection for your stepdaughter. There you sit, content to watch her be exiled without so much as a teary farewell, when her true mother stands beside her.” Gertie gestured toward Viola.
I watched as she struggled and failed to hold the apologetic, simpering demeanor. Brown eyes met mine, and that angelic face hardened. Eager to put distance between us, I spun and nodded at Castiel to show the way. Viola let out a strangled noise, and tears filled my vision, but I didn’t look back.
Baird joined Castiel in leading me toward the warren of back rooms. I kept my spine straight and shoulders stiff as I followed. It took all my strength to stop from flinging abuse or falling to my knees and begging them to reconsider. What would be the point?
Castiel held the door open for me while Baird disappeared around the corner. Anger washed through me: nice to know he still observed the niceties while sending a girl off to her doom.
I entered a narrow hallway with dark paneling, and the sounds of Viola’s muffled sobs vanished as the door closed behind me.
Castiel pointed to the far end of the corridor. “That’s the way out.”
Baird had gone through. Castiel was obviously staying behind to guard me. I almost laughed. There was nowhere to run to.
We came out into a side alley where a prison wagon and two heavy horses waited. Gods, when had they set this up? Had they decided on the verdict before the trial even started?
The cage was made of dark iron bars, with a flat roof. I breathed a little easier. Snow and rainfall were common this time of the year, and a roof would limit my exposure to the elements.
“I believe Timothy should’ve gotten you everything you need,” Baird said while grabbing the horses’ reins and jumping into the driving seat of the wagon.
Should have. My rage trembled and blew out, leaving behind a cold, sick feeling.
Castiel drew out a key from his smock and walked to the back of the wagon. He opened the door to my prison.
Numb, going through the motions, I stepped up into what would be my home for the next few days. I flinched as the key turned, locking me in. The cell hadn’t been made with tall people in mind. Wanting to avoid the inevitable crick in my neck, I sat down and did a quick inventory: a pile of moth-eaten furs, a bundle of woolen blankets, food packets wrapped in brown paper, twelve skins of water, and, of course, the aforementioned bucket. I shot it a reproachful stare.
Were they really expecting me to squat in that? Bastards. Old, senile bastards.
I watched through the bars as Castiel went to jump up next to Baird.
“Walk on!” Baird commanded.
With a snap and a flick of his wrists, he swished the reins down onto the horses’ flanks. The wagon creaked forward.
That jerking movement had the angry, sad, hopeless tears I’d been suppressing rolling down my cheeks, staining them with salt. I curled up into the blankets, hiding from the people who, despite knowing me their whole lives, had just condemned me to being trapped in a stinking cage in the heart of the forest under a full moon. I probably wouldn’t even last the night. Because if the fae didn’t get me, the cold, or the spirits rumored to roam the forest might. My morbid imagination raced forward to three days from now. Someone from the village would come to check on me, but there would be nothing but clean-picked bones, or a frozen corpse. The council had lied: no matter what the charges, this wasn’t punishment or exile. I was the bait on the end of a stick—a nice juicy pound of flesh. To the villagers convinced of my guilt, it must’ve been a blessing. Spare the innocent children by offering the orphaned oddity instead.
The only question left was if the fae found me … what would they do?
Chapter 5
The Cage