He froze. Dread trickled into his chest. He’d made promises to the people in the southern province. Galo and Mateo probably had most of the guard on his side by now. What would they all do if he died tonight?
He watched as a warrior wrapped a gag around Em’s mouth. If they wanted to kill her, they would have done it. They wouldn’t tie her up. He repeated it to himself as he sheathed his sword.
He stepped back, careful not to make any noise. Once he was a good distance from the warriors, he broke into a run.
“Go back to the fortress,” he whispered to Violet. He practically leapt onto his horse. “Don’t tell anyone but Galo and Mateo what happened.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get Olivia.”
THIRTY-TWO
THERE WAS A human in Olivia’s home.
Her eyes sprang open and she bolted upright in bed. Moonlight filtered in from the crack in the curtains. If August was in their house, she was going to enjoy removing his head. Em could deal with it.
She placed one bare foot on the floor, then the other.
“Olivia?” a soft voice said from outside her door. Not August. But she couldn’t place the voice.
“Do you want to die?” she called. The floorboards creaked as she walked across her bedroom.
“Please. It’s about Em.”
She swung the door open to find Cas standing before her. He held the candle from the living room in front of him, the flame casting a glow across his panicked face.
“What about Em?”
“August took her. He had a bunch of warriors with him and he tied her up and he took her. I don’t know where or … or …” The candle shook in Cas’s hand, flickering light off the walls of the hallway.
She grabbed it from him and darted across the hall to Em’s room. Empty.
Olivia spun around to face Cas. She stepped toward him. He stepped back.
“Why are you here? How did you see August take her?”
“We were meeting in secret,” Cas said, talking quickly. “We were halfway between here and the fortress. August must have followed her. I’ll show you where. If we hurry, maybe we can track them.”
She ran into her room, set the candle on her dresser, and tore off her nightgown without bothering to shut the door. She grabbed the first clothes she could find and pulled them on, shoving her feet into her boots.
Cas had moved into the living room, and she grabbed him by the sleeve as she sprinted to the door.
“How did you get past the warriors and Ruined on watch?” she demanded.
“There was no one. I came straight to your house.”
She whipped her head left, then right. It was quiet and gray, the first hints of morning light beginning to show in the sky. There was no one in the streets. She should have been able to spot a warrior at the end of each road.
“Did you come alone?” she asked.
“Yes.”
He must have known how incredibly risky that was. Em wasn’t here to protect him. A Ruined could have killed him as soon as he set foot in Sacred Rock.
She turned away from him, lifting her chin as she screamed for the Ruined to wake up.
“Yell,” she commanded Cas. He obeyed.
They came running. Mariana stopped in front of them, her mouth dropping open when she spotted Cas.
“Go with Mariana and saddle all the horses,” Olivia said, shoving Cas’s shoulder. “Mariana, don’t let anyone kill him. I need him.”
Mariana nodded, grabbing Cas by the wrist.
“But kill every warrior you see,” Olivia added.
Mariana gasped, but she nodded again before taking off with Cas.
“What’s going on?” Jacobo asked breathlessly as he ran to her.
“Make sure everyone is up,” she said, ignoring the question. “I’ll head east. You go that way.”
She ran down the street, banging on doors and yelling for everyone to wake up. Everywhere she went, there were no warriors. The front door of one of their homes swung in the wind.
She returned to the center of town to see Mariana and Cas running from the stables.
“They’re almost all gone,” Mariana gasped. “The horses. Most of them are gone.”
“I have one,” Cas said. “I tied him up over there.”
“I’m going with him,” Olivia said to Mariana. She quickly relayed the situation to Mariana, the Ruineds’ eyes growing bigger by the moment.
“Send some people south,” Olivia said when she was finished. “Find as many horses as you can. I don’t care how you take them. Everyone needs to be packed and ready to go by this evening. Got it?”
“Got it,” Mariana said. She turned around and ran away.
Cas led Olivia to the tree where he’d tied his horse. He unwound the rope from the trunk and jumped up, offering his hand to Olivia. She took it, swinging her leg over the horse. She grabbed a handful of the coat on either side of his waist as they started moving.
The sun was shining brighter when Cas brought the horse to a stop. He pointed to a clearing.
“There,” he said. “That’s where they were.”
The tracks in front of them were all headed west. “They’re going to Olso.”
“The border isn’t that far. Less than two days by horse.” He stood in the saddle and hopped off. “Take the horse. It’ll be faster if you go by yourself.”
She looked at him for a moment, trying to figure out if he was leading her into some sort of trap.
But his face was open and concerned, and he couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to think he could trap her.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I’ll walk back to the fortress. It’s not that far.”
It was actually a pretty long walk from here, but he must have known that.
“Fine.” She slid forward, grabbing the reins.
“If you find her …” Cas pushed his hands through his hair. “I don’t know how. Just figure out a way to let me know, all right? I need to know if she’s alive.”
Olivia nodded, simply because she was starting to understand there was no way to keep Em from Cas. She could tell her sister it was a bad idea until she was blue in the face. She’d never convince Em of it.
“Good luck,” he said.
She kicked the side of the horse and they began moving forward. She looked over her shoulder at Cas. He was watching her leave, a deep frown on his face.
She turned away, trying to erase the concerned image from her mind. She didn’t have the space inside to think about how maybe Em was right about Cas. She needed her rage right now. It was the only thing that was going to save her sister.
THIRTY-THREE
AUGUST TOOK THE gag off Em’s mouth as the sun rose. He smirked as he did it, like he was challenging her to scream. They both knew there was no one around to hear her.
She’d never been to this part of Lera before. They were headed west, to Olso, and the trees were thick, the dirt road barely visible beneath the weeds. It was not an area traveled often.
Warriors surrounded her on all sides. August had cleared all the warriors out of Sacred Rock, taking horses and supplies with him, and there were far too many to even think about evading them.