“Oh. Hi, Riley,” Breakfast called down to the young man standing at the entrance to the Citadel gates. Riley saw Breakfast and waved back.
Mary stood next to Riley. When she saw Lily come forward between Rowan and Tristan, she crossed her arms.
“Is this a big enough army for you?” Mary yelled up.
Lily looked at the masses filling the streets, reckoning their numbers in the thousands, and tried to pull her flimsy nightgown more tightly over her. She felt Rowan’s arm wrap around her as he tilted his bare shoulders to cover her from one too many covetous stares. The crowd below was not the most respectable-looking bunch, but there were scores of them, and they looked like they were spoiling for a fight, which was exactly what Lily needed.
“It’s a good start,” she yelled back. Mary actually laughed at that.
“Gavin.
Arrange to have the Witch’s guests meet her in the main hall,” Rowan instructed.
After Gavin rushed off, Rowan led the coven back downstairs. He started throwing open the doors to closets and pulling out clothes. He rifled through Lillian’s dresses until he found the one he was looking for and passed it to Lily.
“Here, put this on,” he said absently before crossing to a closet on the other side of the room. This closet was filled with his wardrobe, which he started passing out to the guys. “Una, you might like Juliet’s clothes better,” he suggested while he dug through his things.
“Yeah, these aren’t exactly my style,” Una said, laughing at Lillian’s collection of tiny scraps of gauze that were barely held together by jewels.
Lily looked at what Rowan had chosen for her and decided not to argue. She understood why he wanted her to wear a proper witch’s gown. If she was going to drag these people into a war, they had to see her as a leader. She had to become the Salem Witch in their eyes.
“I guess someone should explain to the new recruits where we’re going and how Lily’s getting us there. Make sure they’re all signed on for this,” Breakfast said.
“I nominate you,” Una said, dropping a peck on his cheek as she passed him on her way to Juliet’s room.
“Any objections?” he asked hopefully, but everyone begged off. “I’ll find Riley,” he said with a sigh, and went off to spread the word.
Lily freshened up in the bathroom before she slid into the black silk dress inlaid with rubies. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw her red hair, which seemed to have grown three more inches overnight, billowing down her shoulders, and her pale skin glowing even whiter against the black silk.
She came out of the bathroom and saw Rowan waiting for her, dressed all in black and looking brutally beautiful. The collar of his shirt was open to show off his huge willstone, which danced with light and power. He held something sparkly in his hand.
“Turn around,” he said, his voice catching as he stared at her.
Lily felt him place something on her head. He angled her toward a mirror and she saw that it was a spiked crown of iron and diamonds. The Salem Witch’s crown. Lily remembered it from Lillian’s memory. It was a cruel-looking thing, twisted and sharp. The metal was burnt black where it wasn’t shining with white diamonds. Rowan opened a case and showed her what was nestled in the velvet inside. Matching shackles. Lily smiled wryly at them, remembering Lillian and how she had balked, refusing to wear them. She wouldn’t even look at them.
Rowan put the matching iron-and-diamond cuffs on her wrists and locked them shut. The cuffs came complete with rings ready to chain her to the pyre.
Lily turned her wrists over and heard the metal clink. Every gesture she made would be accompanied by the sound of iron chains. She watched a slow smile spread on Rowan’s face as she realized that she was a prisoner as much as she was a queen.
“So this is what it is to be a warmonger witch,” she said, breath fluttering.
“You are chained to your claimed as much as they are to you,” he replied. “And if you fail, you burn.”
Lily looked up at him and knew he would never let that happen. He’d pulled her from the fire before, and he’d do it again because he loved her.
Tristan appeared in the doorway, sensed that he was interrupting, and dropped his eyes. “They’re ready for you, Lily,” he said.
Rowan and Lily took a guilty step back from each other.
“We should go down first,” Rowan said to Tristan and then turned back to Lily. “Wait five minutes and then come down.”
“You’re not coming with me?” she asked, her voice piping with nerves.
“This is your moment,” he replied with a little shake of his head.
Instead of going to the door, Lily crossed farther inside the room.
“They’re expecting you,” Rowan said, not understanding what she was doing.