One
Ransom
Treow was a tomb.
The commons were deserted. No guards were posted in the watchtowers. A breath of wind caught the rungs of a rope ladder, swaying it back and forth with a creak. The treehouse above was as empty as the rest of the encampment.
Where was Odessa? She should be here.
The panic coursing through my veins was making me dizzy. I lifted my fingers to my lips and whistled. The shrill call ricocheted off trees before it was swallowed by the forest.
And as it faded, there was nothing but silence.
A chill skated down my spine.
Something was wrong. She might have gotten lost in the dark after leaving Ellder, but she would have found her way at daybreak.
The thunder of hooves echoed from afar. I held my breath, hoping it was Odessa and Evie, except the rider sat alone and her hair was stark, sleek white, not wild red curls.
Cathlin slowed her dappled mare to a stop and swung to the ground. She tied the horse to the same tree trunk where I'd tethered Aurinda.
My stallion's black coat was still damp with sweat from the punishing ride from the fortress to the encampment.
"You should have stayed in Ellder," I told Cathlin.
She stood at my side, a tendril of her white hair lifting in the breeze. "You were angry. I was worried that…"
"That I'd harm my own wife?" My nostrils flared.
Yes, I was angry. Scared. Frantic. Confused. But I'd sooner drive a knife through my own heart than hurt Odessa.
"No." She pressed both hands to her flushed cheeks. "I was just worried. I don't know what to think, Ransom."
"Neither do I."
The image of the crux, a woman, was burned into my mind. How was it possible? What kind of magic was this? Or was my mind playing a trick on me?
I'd walked out of the fortress certain I was trapped in a nightmare. Even after I found Aurinda and saddled him for the ride to Treow, it had felt like moving in a fog. Going through the motions until I woke from the dream.
"Her hair," Cathlin whispered.
The crux had shifted from beast to beauty. To a woman who shared enough features with Odessa, from her hair to her nose to her delicate chin, that I couldn't unsee the resemblance.
And her blood…
"Do you think Odessa knows?"
"No." I refused to believe she'd keep that kind of a secret from me.
Reaching into my vest, I pulled out a lock of the shapeshifter's shorn hair. I twisted the silky curl around my finger, letting the orange and strawberry and copper colors catch the light. Then I released the strands into the wind.
"Did they burn the corpse?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Good."
"Where is everyone?" Cathlin asked, searching the trees. "The watchtowers were empty as I rode past."
"Gone. Treow is deserted."
Where are you, Cross? Where the hell are you?
I'd already lapped the encampment twice. I'd shouted for Odessa and Evie until my voice had cracked and my throat had gone raw.
If my father had taken them, if he hurt them, I didn't care what blood oaths I'd sworn, I would rip every limb from his body. And if a different kind of monster had found them in the night, I prayed Odessa had a safe place to hide.
"Odessa and Evie should be here," I said. "I sent them to the dungeons and told them I'd meet them here."
The color drained from Cathlin's cheeks.
"Where the fuck is she?" I dragged a hand over my face. "I never should have let her leave."
Cathlin put her hand on my shoulder. "We'll find them."
I would find them. Here, or in the shades.
"I saw these in the street on my way to the paddock." Cathlin moved to her saddlebags and took out two knives.
Odessa's knives.
Blood stained both blades.
Fuck. I hated that she didn't have them. That she was out there somewhere without protection. Without me.
The crack of a branch had both Cathlin and me whirling in the direction of the commons. My heart stopped, then sank when Mariette came walking through the trees.
"Guardian." The caretaker bowed. "Cathlin."
"Where is everyone, Mariette?" Cathlin asked.
"Gone." Her hair hung limp over her shoulders, the graying strands having escaped a severe knot.
Her dark-brown eyes were weary and bloodshot.
She wore a thick, gray cloak and carried a bag, stuffed full, on her shoulders.
"I was the last to leave. I was past the final watchtower when I heard a whistle and came back. The king and his soldiers rode through before dawn and warned us of the crux scout. We're following his caravan to Allesaria. "
"Were Odessa and Evie with him?" I asked.
She shook her head. "I didn't see them. The king didn't arrive with many. Only twenty or so soldiers. They gathered supplies but didn't stay long."
"Fuck." I clenched my jaw. "You should go. Catch up to the traveling party."
Get the hell out of Treow while she had a chance to escape.
Mariette hesitated a moment, her gaze lifting to the treehouse above my head.
Odessa's treehouse. She stared at it for a moment like she was uncomfortable abandoning Treow.
Like she wouldn't see it again. But the hesitation faded, and as quickly as she'd appeared, she hurried off, weaving past thick tree trunks until she was gone.
"If she's not with your father, then where?" Cathlin asked, turning in a slow circle.
Where? Where the fuck was my wife?
A terror unlike any I'd ever known settled deep in my bones. It chilled my blood. "How many people know of the crux?"
"Not many. Few survived the night."
"Go back to Ellder. Pay the guards for their silence about the crux, the woman. Anyone else if necessary." I walked to Aurinda and fastened Odessa's knives to my saddle with a spare length of leather.
"Stay with Zavier. Watch over him. If he wakes, send word. If he doesn't… bury him beside my mother."
Tears filled Cathlin's eyes. "And where exactly should I send word?"
I swung onto the saddle, turning away from the path where Mariette had disappeared. Turning away from the road that would eventually take me to Allesaria.
There was a chance Odessa would use the etchings on my cuff and go in search of the capital city. But I had a feeling she'd take Evie somewhere else. A place where she could hide my sister from our father. A place where she felt safe.
"Quentis."