Even if I have to kill her myself.
* * *
“Slow down, Lillian,” Juliet said anxiously. She tried to take a hold of her sister’s arm as they flew down the dungeon stairs, but Lillian yanked it away.
“Don’t fuss, Juliet. I feel better than I’ve felt in ages,” Lillian said, her eyes gleaming.
The robe she’d thrown on over her nightgown was untied, and Juliet could easily see a red flush sweeping up her sister’s pale chest and the dewy sheen of a fever sweat forming on her cheeks. Lillian was too excited to realize that she shouldn’t be out of bed, but Juliet knew there was no stopping her now. Citadel soldiers had just brought in the three scientists Michael Snowshower had named, and they were waiting in the dungeon below the keep.
“This could be the end of it,” Lillian whispered hopefully.
Juliet had no idea what her sister was talking about, but she didn’t bother asking. She was too worried that the flickering torchlight would make one or both of them miss a step and go tumbling down the spiraling granite staircase to spare a thought for her sister’s obsession. And obsession was the only word for it.
Since the three scientists—Hakan, Keme, and Chenoa—had been named, Lillian had hunted them with every resource at her disposal. She’d claimed Michael Snowshower and dug through his mind for any information about the unlucky three. She’d sent out spies, restricted access in and out of the city, and raided every known Outlander caravan from Salem to Richmond. She was so consumed in the hunt she’d even seemed to have forgotten about Lily, although Juliet hadn’t. She thought about Lily all the time.
“Lady,” chorused the soldiers. They stood at attention when she swept into the guardroom at the center of the
star-shaped passageways that radiated out to the prisoner’s cells.
“Captain. Where are they?” Lillian asked, barely containing her eagerness.
The captain led them to a nearby cell. Lillian waved her hand at the wall sconces and they burst into flame, revealing two men and one woman behind the bars. She smiled with relief. She’d seen their faces in Snowshower’s mind and knew that her soldiers had found the right scientists.
“Hakan, the builder,” Lillian said, her eyes trained on a dark man in his early thirties. “Keme, the problem solver,” she said, turning her gaze on a frightened young man. Despite the fact that he had an old Outlander name, he was fair-haired and light-eyed like a citizen. Juliet guessed that he couldn’t be much older than her twenty years. Lillian repositioned herself and made one of the sconces flare more brightly for a moment, illuminating the woman. “And Chenoa, the dreamer.”
Lillian stared at Chenoa the longest. She was the most important. She was older, and looked close to fifty. Her cinnamon-colored skin was creased with thick lines around her eyes and mouth, and her black hair was shot through with white. She was a little thing, but her presence seemed to fill up the whole cell. She looked back at Lillian, her eyes narrowing as she assessed the Salem Witch.
“Have them separated, Captain,” Lillian ordered, suddenly turning away. “Put them all on different levels of the dungeon and make sure their cells are on opposite ends of the passageways—as far away from each other as possible.” Lillian looked back at Chenoa. “She goes on the lowest level.”
Juliet hurried after Lillian, feeling relieved. “So you’ll have your Coven make the medicine for the Outlanders now?” she asked. Lillian remained silent. “Would you like me to get word to Nina to start work on that, or do you feel strong enough to do it yourself? I know yours would be better than hers, but maybe you need to rest?”
“Juliet,” Lillian said, stopping on the stairs and turning to look down at her. “You know I can’t do that.”
“What are you talking about?” Juliet said, her voice dropping. A knot was forming in her chest. “You promised.”
Lillian’s face was as smooth as glass. “You think that medicine will go to heal children—and some of it will—but you must know that some of it will also go to warriors. Alaric’s savages are going to try to get Chenoa, Hakan, and Keme back. The more of them that die of fever, the fewer of them will be left to kill my soldiers.”
“But, you said—”
“Stop it, Juliet. You can’t possibly be that naive,” she said impatiently. “What I’m doing will save the lives of the men and women who defend this city.”
“At the cost of how many innocent Outlander lives?” Juliet fired back. She stared at her sister, as if seeing her for the first time. “You’re a liar.”
“I’m much worse than that.” Lillian looked away for a moment, and Juliet saw that flicker inside of her again—that inner turmoil that Juliet could nearly hear even without mindspeak.
“Do these three scientists mean so much to you that you’d allow tens of thousands to die? They’re children,” Juliet said, choking on the word.
Lillian didn’t respond.
“Who are you?” Juliet swept past Lillian, leaving her to struggle up the treacherous staircase alone.
* * *
They had to spend the next few days hiding out at the safe house. Since the fight in the alley, Rowan’s apartment had been crawling with Citadel soldiers, and they’d had to abandon it and move in with Esmeralda. She brought them supplies and even gave Lily a few of her own dresses to wear. Lily tried to reach out to her, feeling badly about how she had treated her on their first meeting, but Esmeralda was slow to thaw and never really warmed up to her.
Every day, they went down into the tunnel to rebuild the collapsed passage as carefully as they could. They brought candles and Lily sat close to their lambent light, channeling energy into Caleb and Rowan. With Lily’s assistance, they could pick up huge boulders with one hand and carry them out silently, one by one. It was slow work, not because the earth was difficult to move with so much strength flowing into them, but because they didn’t dare do anything that would disturb the seismic wards above. They couldn’t even talk aloud or tread heavily while they were underground.
For Lily, it was like living in a grave. There were many times she felt panic steal her breath and she’d have to rush out—back up through the hatch and into the sunlight. Fear of the dark, confined space wasn’t the only thing Lily had to contend with. She was more exhausted every day. The guys got their energy from her, and even though she was the one sitting while they worked, Lily was the one who ended up feeling drained by it.