Page 4 of Witchsea

Rowe looks up at me instead. “Promise me you won’t die trying to save me?”

I kiss his forehead, because saying yes would be a lie. I can’t promise him that. “Be safe.” I turn and walk away before I change my mind, before the pain in my chest forces me to look back, forces me to run to him and tell him I’d never leave. We both know I can’t do that. He shouts for me to come back, for me to change my mind, and his shouts become desperate enough that I almost turn back. I almost spin around and run to him and tell him it’s all going to be okay. But it won’t be. If I don’t do this, I will have to watch him slowly and painfully die in front of me. The world isn’t fair, and it hurts, but this is a chance for something. I need this chance. I keep walking until I can’t hear him anymore, and the cold wind brushes my tears away.

Everything’s ablur as I try to focus, try to stop my heart from racing as I head towards the city. Towards the gate, but there is no line. It’s too early for most, and it looks like no one’s coming in. I was hoping that there would be at least a few more people around, even when it’s Lumina Day. I step up to the armored guards and pull out my card. They don’t look down at me. “The city’s closed until the afternoon to all.”

“My mistress Stone asked me to come in early. She likes me to do her hair and makeup. To make her look nice.” I clear my throat. “She didn’t think it would be a problem. I wouldn’t like to let her down and cause her to be angry today.” Thankfully, it is a big enough household that they recognize the family name. They look between each other, and after what feels like forever has passed but is likely only a few seconds, the guard to my left goes to the door and tugs it open. “Thank you,” I tell him. “May Noctaris be with you.”

I slide through the gap he made in the gate and into the city. It’s too soon to be confident that my plan is working, but I smile anyway. I keep to the back alleyways, trying to be as unseen as possible while I get to the Stone house. All the lights are off except for the kitchens, and I breathe a sigh of relief that they aren’t up early because of Lumina Day. I slip into the kitchen through the door, careful to shut it as quietly as possible.

“What are you doing here this early, Miriam?” I put my finger to my lips, begging Doll with my eyes to not say another word. She blows out a long breath, the silence echoing between us right before she turns away and pretends I’m not here at all. Before I leave, I place my hand over my heart and pray for a long life of peace for her.

I climb the stairs quietly, practiced steps where I know the floorboards don’t creak. I practiced for this day for years. I knew it was coming, my only hope, and I’m not letting a floorboard stop me. Hopefully, everyone is still sleeping in. It’s only seven in the morning, and the Lumina is at midday. They’ve always been a tad bit lazy with getting up in my experience, but I guess that’s a luxury they can afford.

My hands are shaking as I silently make my way across the carpeted landing to her room to push open her wooden door. The slight creak of the hinges makes my heart race, but I manage to get into the room and find her sleeping in a bed of plump cushions and thick blankets. Her blonde hair is splayed against the dark sheets, and she doesn’t move as I go to the wardrobe. Thankfully, it is flung open, clothes thrown all across the ground like she always leaves it, ideal for me because I don’t have to open the doors.

I grab the rag from where I hid it, the heavy smell of the potion burning my nose. This feels wrong…almost. I picture Rowe as I climb onto her bed and press the rag against her nose and mouth. Her eyes open, her initial alarm rapidly shifting to a glare that cuts through me with such hate as she struggles under my grip. She makes a slight whimper, but the potion is stronger than her, and she’s out within a minute, her body going limp and her breathing heavy. I leave the rag on a little longer to make sure she stays asleep for the rest of the day.

“I would say I’m sorry about this, but you’d do the same for your brother,” I whisper to her. “It’s a choice between knocking your spoiled, bratty ass out and my brother’s life. This isn’t personal, but truthfully, while you’re not awake, you deserve it for the mess you purposely make me clean every single fucking day.”

Sliding my hands under her shoulders, I begin to pull her off the bed. Gods damn, she’s heavier than I thought she would be. I drag her across the floor into the wardrobe, covering her with a pile of her own messy clothes so she’s not cold. Her outfit that she left out is hanging on the back of the door, and I cringe. It’s a ridiculous dress, all pink and pompous, with big skirts, a tight corset, and everything I’d never wear.

It takes me ages to get into it, far longer than I want, and I know if I try to run in this thing, I’m going to trip. Eventually I’m done, and I quickly spend a moment washing my face and pulling back my hair into a low braid. When I’m done, I grab the final part—the expensive black cloak with the sign of the Stone house embroidered beautifully into the fabric to look like seams, and across the back too.

I know exactly where the invites are, and I just need to grab hers before I leave. They are on the side table by the door, right in view of everyone that comes in or out. Tugging the cloak hood up, I sneak out of her bedroom and quickly get down the stairs. I pick up hers, a black invite with the king’s crest on the top of it, and go straight to the front door to leave.

“Hey, where are you going?” Wyatt. Fuck. I don’t answer him, knowing he’d recognize my voice in a heartbeat. He’d stop me. “Fine, if you want to go early, you could have just said. I’ll tell mother and father, and we can meet you there. I won’t mention that you are clearly sneaking out to meet your lover!” Thank the gods he is so oblivious. His laugh rings out as I open the front door and shut it behind me, slamming it in a way that she would have done in a huff.

My breath comes out in clouds of fog as I pocket the invite and stare across the city to the castle, to the sky above it that is still orange from the sunrise. Every sunrise is for him, for Rowe. This is all for him. I think of him being well and running around, a dream, and make my way straight towards the courtyard. I have to wait around for a few hours in the busy streets with the rest of the early birds before the tall metal courtyard doors are opened by royal guards. The crowd is huge and there are so many dresses, so many people, and every second I stand in the crowd, I wonder if they can sense I’m not one of them.

The crowd moves quickly and guards check every invite of those who pass them. I pray they don’t look too closely at me, they don’t see the dirty glimmer to my skin, my broken nails from all the cleaning and how my cheekbones stick out because I’m too thin to be a noble. Don’t let them look too closely. Please.

I finally get through the crowd and it’s my turn, but I shouldn’t have worried. The guard doesn’t even glance my way; he just takes the invite, looks at it, nods once, and crumples it up into a ball, dropping it at his feet with the others. I’m through. This is really happening. I step into the royal courtyard for the first time in my life, where the silver tiles under my feet glitter like diamonds and shine so brightly in the morning sun. I don’t get to admire the tiles for long because it’s chaos and there are too many people. I’m pushed and bumped into. My dress is stepped on and ripped from too many people standing on it, and I struggle to see through them. The sound of my heart beating floods my senses, and I desperately look for something to stand on, to get higher, but there is nothing but people everywhere. Too many people. How can anyone get the map in this madness?

A whistle cuts through the air, through my senses, like a knife, and everyone stops moving. The crowd goes deathly silent, and seconds later, the bell tower in the distance rings loud for nine chimes.

But nothing happens when the final chime echoes through the air. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as I feel someone staring at me, and I turn, searching the crowd behind me, but I don’t find anyone. Just a crowd of nobles looking up at the sky.

The seconds tick by, racing alongside my heart, but there’s nothing until a rumble echoes around us. Not from below, not from the ground that sometimes randomly shakes, but from above. I look up and see a giant fire-covered rock plummeting down towards us from the sky, from the gods. It’s burning blue and red, and it’s moving so fast. I barely get a chance to scream before it slams straight into the crowd, and a blast sends me flying into the air, while I think of nothing but Rowe as I topple into darkness.

My ears are ringing when I wake up, and I can taste metal in my mouth. No, not metal…it’s blood. I wipe the ash out of my eyes to see, coughing on the thick smoke that fills the air, and I immediately throw up every inch of nothing in my stomach as the world spins before my eyes. My dress is on fire. The reality makes me scream and rip at and stomp on the fabric until I can throw away the bits that are still aflame. What happened?

The glitter of a broken tile on my leg brings the memory of the meteor that crashed from the sky, and I want to scream, but my throat is red raw and hurting with every breath of the hot air I take. I’ve seen rocks fall from the sky before. The royal scientists study them, and there is a reward for anyone who finds one of the rocks…but this was bigger than a small rock from the sky. It crashed into the crowd, into me… How am I still alive? I am alive, right? I touch my chest, feeling my heart racing, and the beat of it reminds me that I’m still here. I’m still alive and I need to move.

I push up off the ground, but it’s soft…and I turn to look at what I just touched. My eyes widen as I see I’m lying on a gray-haired man, and he’s very dead. His eyes are wide open like he died screaming, his mouth parted, blood pouring out of it, and too much of his body is burnt. My stomach turns and I cry out as I crawl away, only to knock into another body. Another dead person. I can’t breathe, I can’t think straight as I spot more and more bodies as the smoke clears in the wind.

I keep going, crawling over the bodies of the dead, until my hand hits something like hot metal, and I scream as I realize it’s a guard uniform and it’s on fire. The flames burn my palms, and I stumble away, finally finding some ground, and I manage to rise to my feet. The smoke dances around my ruined dress as I look at what is left of the courtyard. There’s an enormous crater, a hole in the ground where the courtyard once was, and most of it is on fire. Red flames lick up the sides and edges of the crater, and broken silver tiles are scattered everywhere, embedded into people, into greenery.

My ears are still ringing, but I can hear people screaming and crying. I can hear them begging for the gods to save or end their lives. I take a step forward and my foot touches nothing but air. A scream rips out of my throat, and I fall forward, right into the crater of death. My hands burn as I try to stop my fall by grabbing anything I can, but it’s pointless. The dirt is boiling to the touch, and there is nothing to grip to stop me. My body rolls to a stop, flinching as I pull my hands up off the boiling hot ground and look up.

The crater isn’t empty. There’s something glowing in front of me.

It’s not a map, but a light. Magic. A beautiful light hovers in the air above the fires. It’s the darkest shade of blue, like the depths of an ocean, and something about it makes me reach my hand out without thought, without worry. The light slams straight into my fingertips, and I gasp. Warmth spreads over my hand, and I watch as ink appears all over my fingertips, then my hands and up my arm. I pull my sleeve up to watch as it paints my skin until I can’t see it anymore. I feel the magical warmth of the ink spreading all down my back, across my shoulders and down to my hips. The longer I stare at my hand, I begin to realize it’s not ink. It’s not random. It’s a map drawn in ink across my skin like markings from the gods.

I stare at it for too long until suddenly, as if I were in a bubble that burst, I feel people watching me. “Where is the map, girl?” I jump at the shout of a man high above me. I need to get out of here. I have the map…I am the map. I stare at it for a dangerous moment longer, seeing the mark of our island right in the center of the back of my hand, and a drawn pathway of dots leads to another island right up my arm.

I climb out of the crater on the opposite side of the man, each grip on the burning dirt hurting my hands, but I push the pain away. I know I’m in shock or I’d be screaming from the pain and frozen to the spot, but I think of Rowe. I use Rowe to keep going. I knew getting the map wouldn’t be easy, but I never expected this. I bite down on my cheek to stop myself from crying out. When I finally get to the top, I breathlessly look around until I can see the west coast and the line of ships there. I smile, my shoulders dropping with relief. I can get on the ship I booked, and I can⁠—

“Kill the map bringer on order of the king. Kill anyone that saw her too.” My gaze shoots across the crater to see a royal guard cut the head clean off the man who shouted for me, and the guard looks my way. He lifts his sword. “There she is.”