Tonight, I Burn by Katharine J. Adams

Author:Katharine J. Adams [J. ADAMS, KATHARINE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2023-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Tobias stands by the bedroom door, watching me as I sit on the edge of the bed, giving me the space I desperately need.

I want to put my head in my hands and scream. I just killed my cousin. I gave up my name. I submitted to the Warden’s demands. I should have chosen the safe house. Then they’d have just hurt me, not Haylea and the boy too. Maybe I should have turned the knife on myself and rid the world of a monster. No one should have the power to kill like that.

A gasp sticks in my throat. A sob chokes me. Panic rises and I want to run. But I can’t run far enough or fast enough to ever escape myself. For the first time in my life, I wholeheartedly long to cross the veil.

“Don’t, Penny. You had no choice,” Tobias says gently.

“I killed them.” My voice doesn’t sound like me.

“You set them free.” Tobias doesn’t move from the doorway, but he doesn’t leave either, and I wish I could find the words to thank him for it. There’s a lump in my throat and if I try to force words past it, the dam holding back my tears will break and there’ll be no stopping the flood it’ll unleash.

Tobias speaks quietly, softening a silence I can’t bear to hear. Even the horror hanging in his words is better than the quiet, than being alone. “Haylea would thank you for it. What was done to her…” He fades off, and I’m not sure if his next words are meant for me or if he’s reassuring himself. “I had no idea. I’d have tried to help her. And Charlie too. I should have known.” He swears under his breath and presses a hand into the wall. The joints in his gold gauntlets creak a protest at the pressure. “He was an ore witch, Charlie. He’d have done anything for Haylea, worshipped the ground she walked on. They met in the Resistance, didn’t so much stamp on the boundaries between covens as shatter them… Fuck!” His lips clench, and I think he’s trying not to cry.

“Can they… can they cross?” I ask weakly. Tobias looks at me, confused, silver eyes limned with unshed tears, and I want to hug him. I don’t dare. “The Horizon. I took their lifelines.”

Tobias nods, and some of the horror eases just a little. “They’ll find their way.”

“Promise?”

He nods. “Els is walking tonight. I’ll tell her what happened. She’ll find them.”

I swallow hard and a tear slips free, blazing down my cheek. “Toby, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I should have warned you this was likely. They caught a suspected black-crystalled witch in a village a few years ago and did the same. But it failed. Because he wasn’t really black-crystalled. And when he failed, they gilded him. He wasn’t much more than a child.” Tobias winces. “I just didn’t think they’d do this so soon.” He shakes his head and his eyes seem heavier, more worried than before, but I’m too numb to care or say another word.

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