Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker #3)(118)

Grace shifted on her knees, her shackles jingling softly. “Aren’t I supposed to get a trial first?” she asked, smiling.

“No trial,” he said. He pulled a knife out of his belt and her smiling face fell.

“Sachem? What are you going to do with that?” Toshi interrupted, edging his way forward uncertainly.

As Toshi frantically combed his mind for some kind of argument to present to Alaric, a small swarm of Warrior Sisters flew toward them and landed on the battlement. Alaric faced them, dropping into a fighting crouch and brandishing the long knife in his hand. Toshi felt Ivan push him back, protecting him, but the Warrior Sisters weren’t looking at any of them. They went directly to Grace.

Grace looked at her former claimed uncertainly as they stalked toward her. “Wait,” she said, holding out a tentative hand. “No—”

Before Ivan, Toshi, or Alaric could make a move, the Warrior Sisters snatched Grace up by her arms and legs, flew her past the edge, and let her go.

She screamed the whole way down. When she finally struck the ground and went still, the Warrior Sisters flew away.

“Grace is dead,” Lily said as she and Rowan scrambled out from the extinguished pyre. Clouds of steam still rose around them, filling the air with fog. Fatigue was taking Lily over, and turning her legs to jelly.

“Alaric?” he asked. Lily shook her head and showed him what Toshi had just shown her.

“The Hive did it,” he said, surprised.

“They had the most reason to hate her, I suppose,” Lily replied. She narrowed her eyes at Rowan. “You knew Alaric ran up there to kill her, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Yes.” Rowan met Lily’s eyes and held them. “And I was going to let him.” Lily nodded, accepting it, and pulled his arm even tighter against her body. The subject was closed.

Rowan helped Lily out of the blackened crater, but she wouldn’t let him carry her. No matter how much it hurt, she was going to walk away from this. As she minced through her claimed on her blackened feet, Lily passed Breakfast, still hefting his ax, his other arm draped over Una’s shoulder. Una stood next to a lion, her hand resting casually on her new stone kin’s back. Tristan grinned at Lily and Rowan and she grinned back. Beside Tristan, Caleb stood with Alpha. She noticed that they had exchanged knives and raised an eyebrow at him. Caleb shrugged to show he was as surprised as she was at this new alliance. Mary and Riley were there, scattered among the painted braves who still guarded Juliet. Lily even caught a glimpse of her mother, wandering among the stumps of the hacked-down trees. Samantha looked sad, as if she were mourning someone.

Lily leaned on Rowan’s arm, limping her way across the battlefield. She met Leto in the middle.

“We took the field, Lady,” he said, grimacing in pain from his broken leg.

“We did, Captain,” Lily replied gravely, surveying the heavy losses Walltop had incurred.

“Stay where you are,” Rowan told Leto. “We’ll send a stretcher.”

“There are few injured,” Leto said, despite his condition. “The Warrior Sisters don’t stop until either they’re dead, or their opponent is.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Lily said.

“Lady,” he replied, bowing awkwardly from his prone position as Lily passed.

Lily released Rowan’s arm and walked across the battlefield on her own. She summoned healers to the battlefield to tend to the wounded. She called to them in mindspeak, and then jumped them directly to those who needed help.

Her feet, always the first to burn on the pyre, screamed at her with every step. Blood dripped down her hands and off the tips of her fingers from the raw skin under her jingling shackles. Her crown dug into her scalp, heavy and sharp, and she lifted her chin under its weight.

Lily stood in front of the gates of Bower City, her coven—both human and Woven—arrayed behind her. At her feet was the split corpse of the witch she had conquered.

“Open the gates!” Lily called out over Grace Bendingtree’s dead body.

The heavy doors opened. Toshi stood on the other side with Alaric to his left, Ivan to his right, and Mala standing behind them. Mala’s mouth was smiling but her eyes were glowering.

“The city is yours,” Toshi said, relieved.

Lily walked through the gates and stumbled to her knees.





EPILOGUE


Former Special Agent Reba Simms switched her bag of groceries to her left arm so she could reach her keys.

She let herself into her Dorchester apartment already knowing someone was in there. She’d always known when there was someone behind a wall or just around the corner. That ability to sense things she couldn’t see or hear had saved her life more than once. Still, when she rounded into her kitchen, the gun she kept taped under the coffee table drawn and pointed in front of her, she was surprised to see who was waiting for her.

“Please, Agent Simms. There’s no need for that,” Lily Proctor said, gesturing casually to the gun.

She looked different. She was dressed in a spidery-black gown and her fiery-red curls were arranged carefully around what appeared to be a tiara made of some kind of twisted black metal. It was studded with white gems and Simms would bet anything they were real. Next to her sat Rowan Fall. He was dressed differently, more like a man than a teenager, in a crisp linen shirt and perfectly tailored jacket that hugged him with such devotion it appeared to be in love with him. Not that Simms could blame it. There was something about his eyes and the way he looked into people, never just at them, that was embarrassingly alluring.