Trial by Fire

“In line?”


“With her doctrine. No science. No research. No inquiry. Witchcraft is the one true way.” Caleb laughed bitterly. “In a way, killing River Fall was the dumbest thing Lillian ever did. It left a lot of people with no choice but to join Alaric. All the Outlander tribes, city-bred teachers and doctors, and a lot of people who were just plain angry or scared, came from all over to pledge their lives to Alaric’s cause. Including Rowan, Tristan, and me.”

“Is that when the three of you touched stones?” Lily guessed.

“Right after Rowan had bonded with his second stone,” he said, nodding. “We became stone kin that night.”

Lily’s mind was still entangled with Caleb’s from their claiming ceremony, and she caught glimpses of Tristan and Rowan from over the past year. Tristan and Caleb had worked hard to keep Rowan from falling to pieces after losing his father and Lillian, and they were there for him when he smashed his first stone. Lily saw a skinny body sweating under a sheet as Rowan wasted away for weeks in agony. She saw Tristan helping Caleb as the two of them brought Rowan back to health slowly, lovingly. Like true brothers.

That time together had brought the three of them together quickly. Lily had always known the bond between the three men was strong, but now she understood just how strong. They would die for each other. And they had grown that close because of what Lillian had done to Rowan.

“How can Rowan think I’m anything like Lillian?” Lily asked. “She’s evil.”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed in thought. “You have her strength of mind, Lily. When you believe in something, you follow through, whatever it takes. He loves that about you. And it scares him to pieces.”

Lily rubbed Caleb’s meaty hand in hers and let her head tilt back and rest against the refrigerator, thinking about why Lillian had chosen her out of the infinite number of versions of them available. She decided that there was one thing Lillian must not have considered—that strength of mind works both ways. If Lillian would do anything to follow through with her beliefs, so would Lily. And what Lily believed now was that Lillian had to be stopped.

“She’s dying, Caleb. I’m sorry it wasn’t in time to save Elias,” Lily’s throat caught as one of Caleb’s memories of Elias, laughing on a summer day by a lake, flashed through her mind. Elias. He shone like the sun. Losing him cut into Lily as if she’d loved him her whole life. As Caleb had. “But trust me. It’ll be over soon.”

Even if I have to kill her myself.




“Slow down, Lillian,” Juliet said anxiously. She tried to take a hold of her sister’s arm as they flew down the dungeon stairs, but Lillian yanked it away.

“Don’t fuss, Juliet. I feel better than I’ve felt in ages,” Lillian said, her eyes gleaming.

The robe she’d thrown on over her nightgown was untied, and Juliet could easily see a red flush sweeping up her sister’s pale chest and the dewy sheen of a fever sweat forming on her cheeks. Lillian was too excited to realize that she shouldn’t be out of bed, but Juliet knew there was no stopping her now. Citadel soldiers had just brought in the three scientists Michael Snowshower had named, and they were waiting in the dungeon below the keep.

“This could be the end of it,” Lillian whispered hopefully.