Page 48 of The Iron Flower

“Yes, she did! Her whole family is responsible. They’re going to come for us all!”

Fern starts to cry. I turn to find her slumped on the floor nearby, hugging her doll. My heart twists, and I drop down to my knees beside her.

“Sweet one,” I say, putting my hand gently on Fern’s heaving back.

“Get away from her!” Iris seethes.

Rattled, I glance up to find Iris glaring at me with such hate, I wonder if she would actually attack me if we were alone.

Iris breaks down, sobbing, and Yvan goes to her. He tries to touch her arm, but she pushes his hand away, white-hot accusation in her eyes. “She’s the granddaughter of a monster!” she lashes out at him. “How can you evenlookat her without retching?”

A stinging flush suffuses my neck. I immediately sense this is part of a deeper argument between them.

“I’myour kind!” Iris rages. “Nother! They’re allmonsters!Allof them!”

A faint scream sounds outside. “What’s that?” I ask nervously, rising to my feet.

The scream grows in volume. A girl’s scream. Agonized and piercing. Then the door slams open, and the kitchen devolves into instant chaos.

Rafe strides in, splattered with blood and carrying Olilly in his arms. Blood is on his face, his neck, his hands. My breath stops in my throat at the sight of them. Olilly is screaming over and over, her blood-soaked hands pressed tight over her ears.

Pointed ears that used to be too large to cover with her slender hands.

Horrified tears fill my eyes as I realize what the mobs have done to her. Olilly’s amethyst eyes are huge with abject terror as she wails unceasingly. Blood covers her lovely violet face, and her beautiful hair is all gone, brutally shorn off.

Trystan runs in behind Rafe and Olilly, his dark cloak streaming behind him, wand drawn, gaze raptor-sharp. Tierney trails them in last, her face stricken. A turbulent black cloud forms and circles around her as she shuts and bolts the kitchen’s back door.

Yvan and Fernyllia swoop in toward Olilly as Iris looks on with horror, and Rafe gently lowers Olilly onto a table. Yvan leans down close to try and assess her wounds. Bleddyn staggers over toward Olilly, while little Fern starts to cry convulsively. Trystan begins locking doors and setting spells on them, the door before him momentarily glowing a deep blue.

Olilly is completely hysterical, her body rigid as she sits on the edge of the table, her hands tight over ears, her eyes unnaturally wide and unblinking.

“Olilly,” Yvan says, his deep voice gentle, “you need to lower your hands.”

“No no no nono!” Olilly cries, shaking her head, closing her eyes tight, recoiling back from Yvan.

Rafe moves away from them, giving Yvan space to try and help Olilly. He comes over to stand by me, his eyes lit with rage.

“They should be arrested,” I tell him, my voice shaking with fury.

Rafe’s whole body is bunched like a fist. “There are too many of them,” he says, his voice pitched low. “There are mobs running loose all over the city. There’s no way of even knowing who did this.”

Yvan has finally coaxed Olilly’s hands away from her mutilated ears and replaced them with his own. Bleddyn’s muscular arm is around Olilly’s shoulder as she holds tight to one of her hands, and Iris holds Olilly’s other hand, tears streaming down her face. Fernyllia stands facing Olilly and is murmuring a stream of gentle consolation in Uriskal.

Olilly’s convulsive sobbing subsides slightly, her eyes locked on Fernyllia, her chest heaving as she cries. Yvan’s head remains bowed for several long minutes in concentration. Finally, he lowers his bloodstained hands.

Olilly pulls her hands away from Bleddyn and Iris and reaches up, fumbling over the tops of her ears, the points completely gone. Her expression wrenches with despair.

“Myears!”

Bleddyn falls down on one knee before Olilly.“Shush’onin.”

“Donlookatmeeeee! Donlookatmeeeeee!” Olilly sobs in a keening wail, palms pressed tight again over her ears.

“Olilly—”

“I’m souuugly!”

“No. You’re not,” Bleddyn says with ironclad firmness.

---