Trial by Fire

Everyone wants to use you. But don’t think for a second that I don’t care about what Rowan feels. Loving Rowan is what made me who I am now.

How dare you blame your evil on him? You killed his father.

No one can lie in mindspeak, Lily. Everything I did, I did for Rowan. Everything I am doing to you now is to save Rowan by saving the world he lives in. You will stay here and finish what I started—for him. You may as well accept it, Lily. You’re stuck here. There’s no one left to teach you how to worldjump.

How can you know that? You killed the shaman didn’t you?

I left him to die.

You failed, Lillian. You killed his body but not his spirit. He taught me how to spirit walk. Sooner or later I’m going to figure out how to worldjump, and I’ll leave this place. Your battles are yours to fight. I don’t belong here.

And what happens when Gideon or Alaric comes to your magicless, mind-blind world to pillage it for resources? Will you still sit on the fence then?

Alaric? He wants to help me. He would never come to my world to pillage—

What did I tell you? Everyone wants to use you. You think Alaric would allow you to claim three of his braves out of the kindness of his heart? Or did he plan on you claiming them, loving them, so you would join him? I was seduced by that dream once, too. I started down this path looking for a way to rid my world of the Woven so no more Outlander children would have to grow up in fear as Rowan did. Have you experienced his night terrors yet? Have you woken up next him when he’s sweating and crying out?

No. But I can feel the shadow and sadness inside him when he looks up at the trees in the woods. I hate it like I’ve never hated anything.

I know. I hate it, too. The Woven are Rowan’s sad shadow. That’s why I begged the shaman to teach me how to worldjump. There are an infinite number of universes. Somewhere out there is a world that figured out how to eradicate the Woven. I was going to go there and learn how to free all of the Outlanders. I was going to save the man I loved from the monsters that hunted him in his nightmares. And look at me now. I was a fool, but I was powerful fool. And so are you. Ask Alaric what he really wants from you. Open your eyes. Get angry. Your fight has only just begun.




Someone was hitting Lily hard on the chest. Thump, thump, thump. It was almost like a heartbeat, except it came from the outside. Her eyes focused. Carrick was pounding on her chest like he was trying to crack her in two. Hot liquid surged up the back of her throat and spurted out of her mouth and nose. Carrick grabbed her by the neck, twisting her head to the side. As the water poured out of her, she found the strength to fight him. She pushed at his hands and kicked her legs, her hoarse voice pleading for him to stop.

Oh God. He’s really going to kill me this time.

“Enough! You’re scaring her!” Tristan yelled. He pushed Carrick aside.

“Tristan,” Lily gasped. She reached out her arms to him, her best friend. A big man came and helped Tristan pull Carrick off of her.

“He comes down every day,” she continued through hiccups, scrambling hysterically to get away from her tormentor. “He’s been hurting me. He’s been—” Lily couldn’t find the right words to describe what Carrick did to her. She thought it instead and saw Tristan recoil for a moment before he pulled her close to him.

“Caleb, she thinks he’s Carrick. Get him out of here,” Tristan ordered.

Carrick looked sad. He went sort of limp, and Caleb didn’t have any trouble dragging him away through the snow. The last thought Lily had was that Carrick was wet and nearly naked. He might freeze to death if she was lucky.




Lily felt Tristan’s arm, heavy and smooth, draped over her shoulder. They were lying on their sides and he was tucked against her back.