Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker 3)

“Do you know what I don’t understand?” Rowan asked. Lily spun around, her hand clutching at her thumping heart, and saw him emerge from the shadows. “I don’t understand why someone as intelligent as you can’t seem to grasp that I always know when you’re going to sneak out.”

“What are you—?”

“What am I doing?” he interrupted indignantly. “What are you doing?”

“This is not what it looks like.”

“So you’re not going to the speaking stone?”

“I am, but . . .” Lily paused momentarily to gather her thoughts and Rowan spun away from her, growling with frustration.

“Why do we keep having this fight?” he asked the stars. He spun back around and faced her. “I know you think you’re saving a lot of lives by doing this. I know that it seems like the fastest, most painless way to end this conflict—you possess Toshi, murder Grace in her sleep, and the war never even needs to happen. Hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved. I know how tempted you must be. Hell, I’m tempted to counsel you to go through with it. But just think about what you’d have to become in order to do that. Ask yourself if someone who could do that is someone you would want in power.” Rowan paused, and a pained look crossed his face. “You’re trying to protect people. So was Lillian when she hid what she saw in the cinder world about my father from me. I’m pretty sure Grace was trying to protect people, too, when she developed the Woven. But look how Lillian and Grace ended up. They’re soulless.”

He drew in a deep breath as if he had set down a heavy weight. “I know you believe murdering Grace will save us, but you’d have to give up too much of yourself to do it. I don’t want you to end up empty like Grace and Lillian. I’d fight a hundred battles to stop that.”

Lily looked at Rowan with a funny smile on her face. The smile turned into a quiet laugh. “I’m not going to end up like Lillian. And I’m not going to the speaking stone to murder Grace,” she said.

“You’re not?” he said uncertainly. “Then why are you sneaking around?”

“Because I know you’re not going to like why I am going.” She sighed, accepting that she got caught. “I’m going to claim the Woven.”

Rowan stiffened, completely taken off guard. “The Woven?” he repeated with a blank look on his face.

“We can’t win without them. I’ve known for a while now that it was our only option, but you and Caleb and Tristan and pretty much everyone from this world wouldn’t even consider it, so I kept my mouth shut.”

“But Grace controls them,” he argued, still not accepting it.

“Not all of them. She doesn’t control the Pride or the Pack—their will is too strong for her to claim them remotely without their consent. She admitted as much to me in the redwood grove,” Lily said, shaking her head. “The Hive is hers—I know I’ll never be able to take them over because she controls the Queen—but I think I have a shot of pushing her out of some of the insect Woven’s willstones, at the very least. If we can get even half of the insect Woven on our side, we might win.”

“The insect Woven,” Rowan repeated. His face was still a blank mask.

“See? This is why I didn’t tell you,” Lily said accusingly. “You think I like keeping secrets from you? I hate it. But what choice do I have when you’re so prejudiced you can’t see the Woven for what they are?”

“And what are they?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Victims.” Rowan let out a surprised laugh, but Lily pressed on. “They are Grace’s slaves. They’re cannon fodder and they die by the thousands. Maybe I can’t save them. Maybe I can’t save anyone, not the Outlanders, not the kids in the subways tunnels, not even my own coven. Maybe it’s some giant cosmic joke that I’m even here, and I should go home and go back to not being able to save my own world.” She bent down and started tugging on the lock that chained the drake to the ground. “But I’m going to try first. I’m going to go to the Woven and I’m going to ask them if they want to fight with me, because if anything on this blasted continent should want to get out from under Grace’s boot, it’s them.” She gave up on the lock and started tugging at the spike. “And if you’re too pigheaded to see that they’ve been abused as horribly the Outlanders have, than you can just stay here.”

Rowan watched her heaving ineffectually on the spike. “What are you doing?” he asked, suppressing a laugh.

“I’m trying to get this dang thing off!” Lily shouted, at her wit’s end.

“Use your willstones,” he said. He moved her back. “Look. It’s a lattice. You just touch it and think open.” He

did it and the lock clicked.

“Oh,” Lily said.

“That was one of the first things I taught you about magic. In the cabin. Remember?” he asked.

“Now I do.” She looked at him and shifted from foot to foot uncertainly, remembering the cabin. Remembering claiming him. Every speck of her wanted to kiss him. “So . . . are you coming with me?” she asked, just short of pleading.

“Of course I am,” he replied. “I may not like the thought of running into battle alongside the Woven, but it’s certainly better than watching you sell your soul.”

“And easier than fighting a hundred battles,” Lily added cheekily.

Rowan laughed and looked down as a dark thought crossed his mind. “Yes.” His voice dropped. “I think this one battle is going to be quite enough.”

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