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“Theo?” Viviane’s voice shook. “He’s caught?”

“That one seems to think so,” Ivan said, jerking his thumb at the door. “I’m not so sure.”

Viviane heard the words, but she curled over her knees. She thought she remembered him being captured once before, the first night they’d been taken, but that had turned out to be wrong. She wouldn’t think about him being captured again.

Because if he was, the hope that had bloomed inside her would be crushed.

CHAPTER 22

Kandra Gus looked quite normal,if you couldn’t see the net over his head and shoulders.

Theo kept looking at him in quick, suspicious glances, as if he couldn’t quite believe his level of cooperation, but Melodie could see the net, and she never forgot they were using this man.

He would have used them. He would have delivered them to Marchant for money, and she held that thought firm in her head every time she felt guilt at his willing agreement to everything they said.

He had walked out of town with them, down the road to Nena’s farm, and then Theo stopped, stepping close to her and bending his head.

“You stay back when he goes to the clearing, Melodie. You keep well back.” He reached out and gripped her shoulder fiercely. “I’ll be waiting for him, but I don’t want you in his sights.”

She could say that she’d agreed with him when they planned this, that she knew what she had to do, but he looked so worried, she simply inclined her head. “I will.”

“It’s not just because you’re the only one who can see his traps,” he said. “That’s part of it, but you will not fall into his hands because I don’t want him touching a hair on your head.”

She found no words for that. He squeezed her shoulder, and then turned, vaulting the fence and getting past the web before leaping back into the road.

“Give me twenty minutes,” he said, still looking unhappy. He hesitated. “I don’t like splitting up.”

“This is the best way,” she reminded him, and he gave a curt nod and walked backward for a few steps before turning and jogging away.

Melodie watched him go, and when Gus started after him, she touched his arm and asked him to wait with her awhile and chat.

“How many people have you brought to Marchant over the years?” she asked. She might as well find out as much as she could.

Gus rocked back and forward on his heels. “I really don’t know how many he’s taken, but it’s nothing to do with me.” He seemed agitated. “I’m not getting involved in his slave trade.”

Melodie felt as if someone had run a handful of snow down the back of her neck. “Slave trade?” She tried to keep her voice steady.

“He looks for travelers with lots of magic and he sells them to powerful people.” Gus lifted his shoulders, then gave a shiver. “Gives me the creeps. I won’t be having it. I told him I draw the line there.”

“How did he take that?” Melodie asked.

Gus twisted his lips. “He didn’t kick up as much of a fuss as I thought. I actually think it made him trust me more. Besides, it’s hard to take people. Steal too many, and people start coming to look for them. So he only does it if they can do something really spectacular, and that isn’t often, he tells me.”

“But he has to take them first, to work out what they can do?” she asked. “What does he do with the ones that aren’t any use to him?”

“That’s the interesting thing. He sends them into the forest. Dumps them somewhere, he’s never told me where, but a lot of them end up in Warven a day or two later, sort of confused and babbling. He’s got a couple of the town guards in his pocket, and they spin stories of a strain of mushrooms which release spores that cause fever dreams.”

“That’s actually pretty clever,” Melodie said. She tried to keep her tone upbeat. The clearing in the forest with the magic box had obviously served double-duty. He used it to entrap his victims, and, if they weren’t of enough value to him, he used it to befuddle them into thinking it had all been a bad dream.

“Better than killing them,” Gus said, lifting his hands. “That would get as messy as taking too many of them.”

But hehadtaken too many. A lifetime of caution, and he’d suddenly grabbed four children all at once. Melodie wondered what was going on.

“And the people in the town don’t raise an eyebrow at all these lost souls wandering in?” she asked.

“The people in this town are a little . . . off,” Gus said. “I’d almost believe the spore story, if I didn’t know Marchant made it up.”

“You said you don’t get involved in taking people, but you were going to grab Theo with the net, and I’m assuming use Nena to help take me along, too.” Melodie thought it was almost time to go. Theo would be in place by now.