Page 93 of A Deception of Courts

“What have you done?”

“Everything required of me.” Kayne caught my pesky tear and cleared it away with his thumb. “You don’t even know who it is you cry for, do you?”

From stubbornness and fury, I refused to answer him. I dared not speak aloud Elinor’s name for fear it would curse it. Selfishly, I wasn’t prepared to know that Aldrick had pushed at the Oakstorm borders and killed her when she had not long found her freedom.

“You’ll pay for this. All of this,” I sneered, no longer able to see him through the goblets of tears that filled my eyes. “Elinor didn’t deserve…”

“Elinor?” Kayne barked a laugh, one his Hunters echoed back at me. “You believe Elinor Oakstorm is the one who has fallen to our cause?”

My mouth dried as I saw the deranged joy in his eyes.

No. No.

Kayne narrowed his eyes on me. “You’ve just worked it out, haven’t you?”

I couldn’t speak – wouldn’t.

“Robin, if it wasn’t for your wish to visit Cedarfall, it may well have been Elinor who was dealt with first. Butyouwanted otherwise. You drew us to the Cedarfall Court, and we simply took the opportunity to ambush it when it was least expected. Queen Lyra Cedarfall’s death is because of you. Now, time to get up.”

Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t move. What Kayne had just revealed had me refusing even myself.

“You’re lying,” I whispered, silently pleading that my accusation was right.

“Actually, for the first time I’m being rather honest with you,” Kayne said, his chest puffing out as pride spread across his face. “The Cedarfall Court is dead. And you shall be the next to follow.”

CHAPTER 26

My wrists burned as the rope binding them rubbed viciously and without peace. But the agony was nothing compared to knowing I’d left behind Duncan, Althea and Rafaela to their promised end at the Hunters’ hands.

I tried to focus on counting my footsteps but couldn’t reach the count of ten before my mind trailed back to their bodies. Kayne had ignored my attempts at pleading, which left my throat dry and sore. Then he had a cloth knotted around my head and stuffed between my teeth, stopping me from making much more than a muffled gasp.

There was no distraction from my truth of failure I’d been forced to leave behind.

Night had fallen upon Cedarfall, blanketing the sky with impenetrable obsidian. Still, I looked to the starless sky and prayed to anything or anyone that listened. Because there was one person Kayne had not found yet – Gyah, and I had to believe she’d return.

I focused, trying to discern her fearsome body among the cloak of night. But time passed, and she never revealed herself. I soon added her name to my list of grief, wondering what kept her from us.

Had she fled in time, or died just without us knowing.

It didn’t take long for us to reach Aurelia, the Cedarfall city which lingered beneath the monstrous golden-leaved trees. And it wasn’t the same as it had been the last time I’d seen it. Once a city of fey, it was now overcome with the enemy. As the band of Hunters, led by Kayne, paraded me into the fey city, I knew it had been lost from the amount of humans I saw filling the streets.

Cedarfall had fallen, just as Kayne said. And the city now belonged to the enemy.

With each footfall, I ground the golden leaves to dust, itching at the sound my destruction made. Everywhere I looked, I witnessed what had become of Aurelia.

The streets were empty of life, the ground now littered with the bodies of fey. Beneath the sweet kiss the trees graced the city with, I could smell death lingering. Pungent, the scent smacked into the back of my throat and stung my eyes.

Hunters, marked clearly by the stark white handprint of their leader upon their chests, swelled throughout the streets, ransacking homes and buildings, even so much as burning them down. I watched as some kicked at the bodies of the fey, whilst others buried swords through them, over and over, just to ensure they were truly dead.

And for so much death, I sensed the atmosphere of excitement.

The rope at my wrists relaxed. I tore my gaze from the destruction to Kayne, who spoke with another at the barricade that had been erected at the city’s entrance. At first, I thought the barricade was constructed from mounds of silver until I noticed the horrifying truth. Cedarfall soldiers, dressed like the Hunters who’d tricked us, lay in heaps. Blood oozed from the piles, creating rivers of red that spread far beneath the Hunters’ boots. They didn’t care.

“Halt,” Kayne announced.

I stared daggers through his head, wishing to slay him in a thousand different ways.

“Before we proceed further into the city, have our enemies been dealt with, and I mean all of them?” Kayne asked a willowy blonde Hunter. Her face was stained with dark smudges of brown that matched the gore she cleaned methodically from the sword outstretched across her lap.

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