The mob quieted in disbelief, children clutching their storybooks tighter. (Red-haired Radley gaped goonishly at Agatha. “Must be slim pickings in the Woods,” he murmured.)
“A real-life prince!” The Elder stepped back. For the first time, he looked unsettled by Tedros, as if forced to acknowledge the possibility of a world bigger than his own. “And to what do we owe this honor?”
Agatha squirmed against her binds, trying to get Tedros to look at her.
“I’m taking her to my castle in the Woods,” Tedros testified, eyes fixed on the Elder. “We pose absolutely no threat to you.”
“And yet we were attacked only months ago by assassins from the Woods,” the Elder said, masses clamoring behind him. “Attacks from which we are still rebuilding.”
“Well, the attacks are over,” retorted Tedros. “Your town is safe.”
Agatha dug her heel into his foot. Tedros shook her off.
“Oh really? Do your princely powers come with foresight?” the Elder scoffed, the audience echoing his laughter. “How would you know anything about the fate of our town, let alone the attacks?”
Agatha shouted into her gag to stop him—
“Because I ordered them,” Tedros fired.
The crowd went still. Agatha slumped against the rope.
The Elder stared at Tedros . . . then broke into a slow grin, color growing in his cheeks. “Well. We’ve learned all we need to know about our dear guest, haven’t we?” He smiled wolfishly at the prince and walked off the stage, passing Stefan with a glare. “Do the witch first.”
Roars detonated from the mob, flocking closer to the pyre.
Tedros spun to Agatha and saw her face. “But he promised us!” he cried.
The Elder glanced back as he descended the steps. “Every story has a lesson doesn’t it, young prince? Perhaps yours is that you’re too old to believe in fairy tales.”
Agatha felt Tedros gush into a sweat as the guards regagged him. Frantic, the prince thrashed at the rope, trying to free his princess, but his flailing only made the rope cut tighter. Choking for breath, Agatha hunted wildly for her mother, but still couldn’t find her. She whirled to Stefan, knowing she was about to die—
But Stefan hadn’t moved from the side of the stage, his gaze fixed on her.
“Is there a problem, Stefan?” the Elder said, now at the front of the mass.
Stefan kept staring at Agatha.
“Or should we replace our prisoners with your new family?” the Elder said.
Stefan turned sharply. Guards held Honora, Jacob, and Adam in the crowd.
Stefan’s teeth bit the inside of his cheeks. Then his expression darkened. He moved towards Agatha, no longer able to look at her. Body close to hers, he reached up and took a flaming torch from the scaffolding. Agatha cowered from the wrath of the flame as he drew it down, blinding her with smoke. She could hear Tedros’ muffled yells, the echoes of the shouting hordes, but they were drowned out by the raging torch fire, hissing like a demon snake. Eyes watering, she caught flashes of Stefan’s heaving chest, his quivering grasp on the torch, the red splotches across his cheeks . . .
“Please—” Agatha gasped into her gag.
Stefan still couldn’t look at her, the torch shaking so much that embers scattered onto Agatha’s dress, burning tiny holes.
“Stefan . . . ,” the Elder warned in a menacing voice.
Stefan nodded, tears and sweat mixing. The crowd went dead quiet, seeing him bend towards the stake. He raised the torch to the sticks over Agatha’s head, the flames about to lick onto the wood—
“Take me!” Callis’ anguished voice pierced the silence. “Please, Stefan! Let me die with her!”
Stefan froze, his flame so close to Agatha it scorched the gag in her mouth. Heart stopped, Agatha watched him deliberate a moment, his face calcifying into a mask . . .
Then he backed away and turned to the Elder.
“It is a mother’s last request,” said Stefan, adding a snort. “Shove her in with her traitor daughter and watch the flesh melt off ’em. They deserve to writhe together, don’t they?”
Even the most bloodthirsty spectators looked flummoxed, deferring to the Elder.
The Elder’s pupils raked Stefan over, before his lips pursed in a flat line.
“Quickly then.”
“No!” Agatha shrieked, her gag breaking away.
Guards wrenched Callis from the crowd onto the stage and shoved her next to Agatha, binding her waist to the pyre. Helpless, Tedros ripped at the rope, his bicep veins about to burst.
“This is my fault . . . ,” Agatha sobbed. “This is all my fault—”
“Close your eyes, dear,” said Callis, trying not to cry. “It will all go fast from here.”
Agatha looked up and saw Stefan’s hand wasn’t shaking on the torch anymore. With an eerie calm, he advanced towards her and her mother, the dancing flame reaching for the wood sticks between them. He finally met Agatha’s eyes, a strange sadness in his face.
“If you ever see my daughter again, beyond this world . . . tell her I love her.”
“Now, Stefan,” the Elder commanded.
Petrified, Agatha seized Tedros’ hand as she leaned into her mother’s shoulder. She saw Stefan looking at Callis, his lips trembling.
“I’m s-s-sorry,” he whispered.
“You saved me once upon a time, Stefan.” Callis smiled mournfully at him. “I owe you a debt.”