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CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT

Ryker

“Are you fucking crazy?” Ianto demanded.

“They can’t stay like that,” I stated. “I won’t let them be paraded and tortured throughout the towns and coastal communities.”

“How do you plan to stop it?” Ianto inquired.

“We’ll find a way. There must be a weakness somewhere in what they’re doing. I suspect we’ll find that weakness at night. I didn’t return to the green to see what was happening before I left, but I’ll return tonight. I have to know how many guards they have on the prisoners.”

“You can’t be serious,” Ianto said.

“I am,” I told him.

Across the clearing, a portal opened and Ellery emerged. Scarlet must have decided to remain with her family for the night.

When Ellery looked around for us, I started toward her. She smiled as she approached me, but it didn’t light her eyes in the same way it used to. She was forging ahead, keeping it together, and doing what had to be done; she was also suffering.

When I opened my arms to her, she stepped into my embrace, and I clasped her against my chest. I breathed a sigh as the missing piece of me finally fit back into place.

“That was awful,” she said with a shudder.

I didn’t have to ask what she was talking about; I already knew.

“Word of the money is spreading through Nottingshire. It’s giving the amsirah some hope,” I told her. “We’re making progress.”

“Good.”

When she stepped back a little to survey the others, I released her and placed my hand on the small of her back. When her eyes settled on Ianto, her brow furrowed as the giant still looked about to shit his pants.

“What’s wrong?” she demanded.

Ianto finally closed his mouth, but he didn’t respond. A ghost drifted through the clearing. The woman kept her head down as she bobbed across the ground.

When a poltergeist dove out of the trees, ripped off her head, and threw what had now become a skull at us, the woman stopped floating while the poltergeist zipped away. His laughter mingled with the noises of the night as he vanished into the trees.

After a few seconds, the skull lifted off the ground and floated back to the ghost, who remained in place, waiting for it. When the head settled back on her shoulders, she didn’t look at us before floating into the trees.

Ellery rolled her eyes before shifting her attention back to me. “What is going on?”

She wasn’t going to like my response, but there was no way to soften it. “We’re going to free the prisoners.”

Her jaw dropped. “Are you crazy?”

Ianto snorted. “That’s what I asked.”

I shot him a look before clasping Ellery’s upper arms. “No, I’m not out of my mind, and neither is Tucker. I won’t stand by and watch them be paraded around and endlessly tortured throughout Tempest. There’s no hope that, once the tour ends, their suffering will also come to an end. I doubt they’ll kill them outright; while I’m sure he’ll have grown bored with The Show by then, Ivan will keep them, and he might do it all over again. By then, there won’t be any pieces left to cut off. I won’t let that happen.”

The color drained from her face. “What they’re doing is awful , I know it is, but those prisoners are heavily guarded; they’re the king’s prize, and he’s never going to let anyone take them from him.”

“I’ll find a way.”

“ How ?”

“I don’t know, but I will find a weakness in what they’re doing, and I will blow it open.”

“You can’t do this, Ryker. I know what happened to you—” Her gaze flicked to Tucker. “—to both of you. I understand what you endured was… was… horrific but… but… you can’t risk your lives for them. We have too much going on, and we’ve worked so hard to risk losing it all now.”

“They’ll become soldiers for us once we free them,” Tucker said. “They already hate the king and aristocrats, but they’ll hate them more after what’s been done to them. We’ll train them to focus their rage until they become deadly soldiers who will help us win this war.”