Page 25

I sang that single verse over and over again as my body began to shake with sobs.God keeps you safe, and so do I.I wanted more than anything to believe it. But it was just another awful lie.

Mary’s breathing grew quicker and more shallow. She shivered in my arms as her life’s blood flowed from her side, running slick along the dungeon’s stones.

“Sing it with me,” I begged.

The redwing sings a song so sweet

There is no sorrow when you sleep

“I can’t,” she gasped.

I bent down and rested my head on her chest. Her heart was beating as fast as a bird’s. I kept singing as her breathing slowed, and as it began to come in ragged, irregular gasps.

“Mary, Mary, stay with me,” I begged.

She didn’t answer. Her little body strained against itself, and her spine arched. She was fighting with all her strength, but she couldn’t win. She let out a tiny, halting cry. And then she died in my arms.

CHAPTER 24

The sound of my grief ricocheted against the cold stone walls. I screamed until my throat felt raw, and then I slumped down over my sister’s body. “You can’t leave me,” I whispered. “I won’t let you. I’m older, and you must do as I say!”

Something thudded against the door. “Shut your damn mouth, or my fist’ll shut it for you!”

His threats meant nothing to me. The worst had already happened.

“Mary,” I cried, “come back to me, come back—”

She didn’t obey. Her skin was already growing cold. I felt my heart shattering into thousands of pieces. I clutched her limp body and screamed again.

More banging came from outside my cell. One of the guards growled to the other, “I say we just take her to the gallows now.”

“And have him hang us, too? You bloody fool, we’ll stay here with her until we’re summoned.”

“If she don’t shut up, Iwillkill her before the hangman does.”

“I beg you, do it!” I said.

The second guard gave a mirthless chuckle. Heavy footsteps struck the stones as he walked to the door and pressed his mouthclose to the bars. “Scream as much as you like,” he said. “Personally, I like the music.”

I was still crying, cradling my sister’s body, when they came for me. One brute grabbed me by the armpits and lifted me, pulling me from Mary’s side. Her stiff little hand was in mine, but when he dragged me away, her arm fell to the ground with a soft, sickening sound.

“Come like a good girl, and I won’t hurt you. I’ll leave that to the hangman.”

I kicked and struggled against him. “Leave me here with her!”

He cuffed me hard on the side of the head, and the pain made me go limp. He snarled, “Now you’ve gone and made me hit you already, stupid girl. Quit your whining. You’ll be seeing your sister soon enough. You can hold hands again in hell.”

“In the meantime,” the other said, “you’ll go where the baron tells you to and you’ll die when the baron wants you to.”

And they pulled me out of the cell and into the underground hall. The flickering light of pitch torches turned their faces into demons’ masks.

I yelled in protest, but it didn’t matter. They hauled me away like I was already a corpse. My last view of Mary was of her bare feet, glowing pale and small in the terrible dark.

CHAPTER 25

“How long will she sleep now?” Jordan asks. He isn’t outside Hannah’s door anymore, but he can’t stop thinking about her. Worrying about her.

Nurse Amy is busy logging everyone’s vitals from the morning. She shrugs. “No telling. She was agitated again last night.”