Page 191 of The Black Witch

Rafe spits out a bitter laugh, like the question is horribly ironic. “To the military base in Rothir.” His jaded grin falls away. “To wage war on the Lupines.”

I feel a sickening drop of my gut. “What will you do?” I ask.

Rafe bares his teeth. “I’ll use it for target practice.” He flicks the edge of the notice. “Right through the Mage Council Seal.” Defiant humor hardening to anger, Rafe looks toward the windows searchingly, then toward the door to my lodging. “Where’s Diana?” His voice is uncharacteristically brusque.

I gesture loosely toward the northern wilderness. “Somewhere in the wilds.”

His mouth set in a tight line, Rafe takes back the notice from me and hoists his bag.

“You’ll never find her—”

“I know where she goes,” he spits out, making for the door.

“What are you going to do?” I call after him, worried.

“Join the Lupines,” he growls before leaving, shutting the door behind him with a hard thud.

I stare after him. Force myself to take a steadying breath. Attempt to beat back the thin line of panic as Rafe’s heavy boot heels clomp down the stairs, the tower door slamming shut. Silence descends.

“They won’t take him in,” Trystan says with calm, terrible assurance.

Trystan’s voice is muted, his head still in his hands, fingers clutching at his hair in tight fists.

“He’s the grandson of the Black Witch,” Trystan continues, tone deadened. “They willnevertake him in.”

Thoughts spinning, with nothing solid to latch on to, I take a seat next to Trystan and put my hand on his shoulder to steady the both of us. His breath catches then stops for a moment. His slender body shudders, his hands coming down to tightly cover his eyes as he starts to cry. My heart catches in my throat—the silent way Trystan sobs is always more devastating to me than if he keened and wailed.

I put my arm around him and he falls against me, bending in, eyes pressed against my shoulder as I hug him and pull him in tight.

“I don’t want to be part of this anymore.” His voice is constricted almost to a whisper. “They’ve got me filling metal discs with fire power. Anyone who steps on them will be blown to pieces. I’m filling arrows with fire. And ice. Forwhat? To killwho? I don’t want to be a party to what’s coming.” He pauses, growing still. “And it’s only a matter of time before they find out what I am.”

Panic rears its head. “They don’t have to find out.”

He shakes his head side to side, hard against my shoulder. “Of course they’ll find out. When I don’t wandfast—”

“You’ll have to wandfast.” I firmly cut him off, brooking no argument.

Trystan goes very still. He’s quiet for a moment, breathing against my shoulder. He raises his red-rimmed eyes to me. “How?”

The question hangs in the air like a tunnel with no escape. “You just will! You’ll hide it. You’ll hide what you are.”

His calm deepens. He looks at me with unflappable incredulity. “Could you fast to a woman?”

“What?” I spit out, thrown. “Of course not!” A stinging flush rises on my cheeks along with a sudden wave of understanding. My mind casts about, desperately searching for a way out for him, but there’s no clear way to escape this.

After wandfasting comes the sealing ceremony. And consummation is expected the very night of the sealing, the fastlines flowing down the couple’s wrist as proof of consummation. The whole point of our joinings is to create more pure-blooded Mages.

It’s impossible for Trystan to even attempt to pull off a charade of normalcy.

We’re both quiet for a long moment.

“I could go to Noi lands,” he finally says. “They accept...my kind there.” His mouth twists in a cynical half smile. “But I’m the grandson of the Black Witch. Who will ever accept me?”

Incensed on my brother’s behalf, I stamp down my panic, mutiny rising. “I don’t know, Trystan. You might be wrong.”

He looks to me with surprise.

“The grandson of the greatest enemy they ever had,” I darkly muse. “A Level Five Mage. Trained in Gardnerian weapons magic. And disastrously at odds with Gardnerian culture.” I shoot him a defiant smile. “Maybe taking you into the Vu Trin Guard would seem like perfect revenge against the Gardnerians.”

---