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Her voice cracked as she spoke. I placed a hand on top of hers, holding it to my chest.

“This is war, Jade,” I explained. “Men have gone to war overfarless. You don’t need to feel bad for anything, and you certainly don’t need to feel responsible. But I know what I’m doing. If I thought for even a second that Esther could help us win this battle, I would use her. But she can’t.”

“Why not?” she asked. Her deep, endless eyes searched mine. “She’ll rot in that dungeon anyway, Mal. Give her a chance. If anything, let her prove herself to you.”

Jade really didn’t see it. She didn’t see that my mother was just another wicked creature who would do and say anything necessary to achieve what they wanted. If Adeline and Jade were helping her out now, it wasn’t so she could fight on my behalf in battle.

I would be surprised if the woman didn’t try to kill me again.

But these two didn’t see that. They saw an old woman on her deathbed. They saw a witch with no way out.

“Can you even stand on your own?” I asked over Jade’s head. “How are you supposed to fight in battle?”

“I have other uses than fighting in battle, son. I know you don’t trust me. Neither of you do. But this is the end of the road for me. I’ve lived my life. I’ve had my chance. I was wrong to betray you, son. I know that now. If you let me help your soldiers in battle with whatever magic I may still possess, you will not regret it.”

“What I will regret is letting you free to betray my people again.”

Something like pain crossed Esther’s face. “The way I see it, you have nothing to lose.”

Saints. She was certainly right about that. Esther had grown weak in the dungeons. She was not the witch she was before.

“Fine,” I said after a few seconds. “But if you even think about betraying me, I won’t capture you as a prisoner. I’ll kill you right there. I don’t care how useful you claim to be to Jade and I.”

Esther nodded in gratitude. “Adeline, show Esther where to go. Then come back here immediately.”

“You got it,” she muttered. I waited until Adeline and Esther were far enough away before grabbing ahold of Jade’s arm.

“Ow!” she yelped. “What are you doing?”

“What you should have been doing this entire time. Hiding you.”

I began dragging her back toward the entrance of the dungeons. “Malachi, stop!” she yelled. She tried to dig her heels into the ground beneath her, but she wasn’t strong enough to stop me from pulling her along with me.

“You’re too valuable, Jade. Keeping you alive is the number one priority. Not only for me. For everyone on that damn battlefield right now.”

“I’m not useless! My power can help them all!”

“It’s too risky.”

“You’re not the one who decides that, Malachi!” she brought her free hand up and slapped me across the face.

Hard.

I let her go and she stumbled backward, hands covering her mouth.Did she really just hit me?

“Saints,” she muttered. “Mal, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking I just wanted you to–”

“It’s fine,” I said, unable to keep the amusement from my voice. “And you’re right. I’m not the one who decides that, Jade.”

I stepped forward and placed my hands on either side of her face, forcing her to look up at me. “I want you to be free. I want nothing more than for you to do whatever the Saints you want to do in this life. But you can’t do that if you’re dead, Jade. So please, if you have ever listened to me, Ineedyou to do this. I need you to stay safe.”

“They’re your soldiers, Mal! If I can help them, even a few of them, by using my powers while also staying hidden, what’s to stop us?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but was cut off by the booming sensation of a cannon hitting the grounds nearby.

Her eyes widened. “What was that?”

My blood ran cold. “They’re here.”