Falling for the Ashfather

Chapter 10

Clara’s hand was in mind. I didn’t even know when it had appeared there, I was too overwhelmed by the sudden roaring in my ears and the certainty that I was going to be killed right there in front of everyone. My mind was going around in circles, trying to figure out what I had done wrong. What I had left behind to tell them who I was. But, no matter how many times I circled, I couldn’t figure it out. Even if the Drakesworn had seen me last night, I had been in my dragon form. And no one even knew I had one of those. So, it couldn’t have been tied back to me.

The prince was still staring at the crowd, a brow raised, as if waiting for someone to say something. The panic his words had induced was already starting to rise as the surrounding whispers grew.

I watched as the smile on the prince’s face only grew as he watched the town fall further into the fear he had created in them. Some had even started to accuse others, though none pointed in my direction. My hand squeezed tighter around Clara’s, and she squeezed back. Both of us were sure they were talking about me.

Then the prince lifted a hand, calling for quiet, and shook his head. “Perhaps it is harsh of me to say I will burn the town. After all, this person has become quite good at keeping secrets. I’m sure many of you have fallen for them.”

My chest squeezed, and I took a step forward. I didn’t want the town to suffer for what I had done. It would kill me to know that I was being taken from this world when so many still needed my help, but I wouldn’t let anyone else suffer for my actions.

“Where is Lamier Woods?”

I froze where I was, foot slightly raised and about to take another step. That wasn’t my name. I knew Lamier. His wife had died only a couple of months ago, taking with her the child she had carried, and I had been treating the depression he had fallen into since then. It hadn’t been going well. Every day seemed to bring him further and further into the dark that had claimed the life he once knew.

The town went quiet and the name, and some of the panic died down. This town was small, with everyone knowing who everyone else was. They all knew about his wife, and they had all brought him food to help him get through it. They had all been coming up with ways to get him out of his house, to see the light again. I knew they had been planning a small get-together for him for the following day. So, nobody said anything at first, and I had to keep my eyes from tracking through the crowd to find his familiar face.

Eventually, though, the crowd started to move away from where Lamier stood. He had on stained trousers and a wrinkled shirt that was only half tucked in. His hair was longer than it had ever been and had clearly not been brushed. Dark bruises marred the skin under his eyes, and he was too pale and skinny. He didn’t move as his neighbours revealed him. He didn’t even look betrayed. His face was blank as he stared up at the prince, as if he had known this day was coming. I drew in a breath when I realized there was even a little bit of relief in his eyes.

Two Drakesworn grabbed his arms and dragged him up on the stage. They forced him onto his knees on the hard planks in front of the prince and my sister. Kami had her arms folded in front of her, and was staring down at Lamier with a smile on her face. A smile I knew well. She was going to enjoy this.

My stomach twisted as the prince stepped forward again.

“This man discovered he was married to a Wyvern,” he said. The crowd started to whisper, but Lamier just knelt there, still expressionless. He wanted this. I had known he wasn’t doing well, but I hadn’t thought it had gotten to this. “And instead of reporting her, as he should have, he tried to get her out of the country. Tried.”

The first hint of emotion hit Lamier’s face then, his brows pulling together as he processed what the prince was saying.

Clara let out a cry, and I had to tear my gaze away from a man I had started to get to know, only to see more Drakesworn dragging something up onto the stage. I jerked when I realized it was a person. Naked and beaten, covered in her own blood. Her hair had been shorn off, and one eye was swollen closed and so scarred, I was sure she had lost it.

Her stomach was swollen with child, and horror filled me as I realized this was Lamier’s wife. Still pregnant. Beaten to within an inch of her life. And clearly kept alive for this moment here. The prince had wanted Lamier to see this. He had wanted the man to know his wife wasn’t safe, and she had been tortured at his hands.

My feet started moving of their own accord, but Clara’s hand, still in mine, managed to keep me where I was and not make a mistake that would have me burning alongside them. All around me, mothers were pressing children’s faces into their skirts, and people were looking sick. A woman in front of me swayed, and I managed to catch her before she fainted, laying her gently on the ground at my feet. I didn’t bother to ask if I could bring her home. I knew they wanted everyone to see this. They wanted everyone here to be scared. That was what they always wanted.

Up on the platform, Lamier was being held back by the Drakesworn that had dragged his wife on stage. He was calling her name, over and over. Screaming it as he tried to get to her. Someone had slapped cuffs on him, keeping him from taking his dragon form. His wife was barely conscious. I didn’t even know if she was aware of where she was, or that Lamier was there, seeing her. It was cruel. To let him see her like this, to not let him near her.

“This is what happens to traitors,” the prince hissed at Lamier, and my sister’s smile grew. She drew a sword out of it’s holster on her hip and stepped toward Lamier’s wife. My hand flew to my mouth as my mind flashed with what was about to happen. But, I couldn’t stop it, no one could. In an instant, Kami drove her sword through his wife’s belly, stabbing directly through their child.

Lamier’s cry was one I never wanted to hear again. The anguish and torment in it. I could hear his heart and soul breaking as his wife and child were taken from this world in one swing of my sister’s sword.

The Drakesworn dropped him then, and he collapsed. Tears stained his cheeks, but he was utterly silent as he stared at his wife.

Every person in the crowd was silent as they waited for Lamier to be killed, too. Everyone wanted him to find the release he would find in death.

“Chain him to this stage,” the prince said, pulling my eyes away from Lamier and to the man my sister had sworn her loyalty to. “And not a single one of you will free him, or move the body.”

Kami had left the sword in the woman’s belly, so she was pinned to the stage with it. Blood was spreading out beneath her, the puddle slowly making its way toward Lamier, even as it began to drip between the cracks in the board.

“Three days he is to be here. Three days, and then my Drakesworn will return to finish it. If we find him freed, or dead. If he has been moved, the town will know my wrath.”