Page 1 of Blackwarden

Rosalin

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I couldn’t let them take my sister to the Dark Fae monsters, not when I was a childless widow burning with hatred.

The moment I heard Renee’s name from the Magistrate’s lips, I knew what I had to do.

She had so much of her life left to live.

And the life I’d always wanted had been taken from me, all because my husband was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I stood and took confident steps to the dais before Renee even had the chance to acknowledge her name had been called.

She was likely too shocked for the words to sink in.

I would have been, if I’d just found out I was being sent to the Dark Fae—the terrifying creatures we’d read about in children’s stories.

The same ones that had spent the better part of a hundred years systematically slaying humans during the Fae Wars.

Dark Fae, like the one who’d killed my husband.

“The name I called was Renee Stormbeck, not Rosalin Greene,” Magistrate Thompson said, voice stained with impatience. I pretended not to hear him. “It was your sister I called.” He reached a hand forward to stop me .

I couldn’t ignore him anymore. Mostly because my resolve was crumbling, the terror of what I was choosing to do sinking into my flesh like dark claws. By the time I’d taken the final step I was trembling, my confidence blowing away in the bitter, winter breeze.

“Pretend I’m her. Let me go in her place,” I hissed, hoping not everyone in the crowd heard. Not that most of these people didn’t know who my sister and I were already. Fennigsville was a small village.

“The person whose name is selected, is who must—”

“Please. My sister has her entire adulthood ahead of her. I’m a widow. No one wants me.” I hated the pleading in my voice, the way my heart raced faster with every word that tumbled out of me. “I fit the age criteria. I have no children. Let me go in her place. I beg of you.”

Thick silence had fallen over the crowd.

I tried to ignore how their eyes burned the surface of my skin.

I stood a little straighter, wiping sweaty palms on my dress.

I hadn’t exactly prepared for the choosing of our town’s sacrifice.

Instead, I’d worn my old brown work dress and a simple woolen cloak, my hair pulled into a loose braid.

Most of the girls wore their finest gowns, with elaborate plaits and gaudy makeup, as though they were attending a formal ball.

They all knew there was a chance they’d be taken away and without knowing what would become of them, they wanted to be prepared.

My name hadn’t even been included in the choosing. I’d escaped the archaic requirement when I’d married Bastion. I had only come to support Renee, because I knew, if her name was called, I couldn’t let her go.

“Rosalin!” Renee yanked at my arm. “This is my burden. You’re—”

“My life is spent. Yours is just beginning.” I pushed her back as two men in dark leathers stepped forward on either side of the Magistrate. “Besides, one of these Fae monsters killed my husband. Maybe this will give me a chance to find some closure...or you know, put a knife in someone’s gut.”

A sad smile tugged at her lips at my attempt at humor. It was fleeting. She stared at me, her eyes growing glassy as she clung to my arm .

“Say your farewells, Ms. Greene. These men shall escort you to the Gatehouse.”

I willed a shiver of terror back down into the pit of my stomach. “Can I grab a few things from my—”

“Anything you should need shall be provided to you.”

“But I—”

“Say your farewells,” Magistrate Thompson spat, turning away as the other two men stepped forward, all frowns and folded arms.

I’d made my choice. I had to go with them, or my sister would be dragged away—and I refused to let that happen.

I turned to Renee and immediately wished I hadn’t.

Tears streamed down her cheeks, and I struggled to hold back my own sorrow.

I needed to be strong, for her. For me. I pulled her into my arms and held her as tightly as I dared, her shoulders shaking as she cried.

I choked on a sob as I gripped the back of my baby sister’s head.

This would be the last time I’d get to hug her, and I’d make it count.

“It’s going to be okay,” I whispered, even though I knew it was lie.

“It’s not going to be okay,” she said, between snivels. “I’ll never see you again!”

“We’d never see each other again anyway, whether it was you or me going.”

She refused to remove her face from my shoulder, holding me tighter than she ever had, and I refused to let go. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.

Not yet.

“It should be me. He called me,” she whimpered.

“You still have so much to live for. I’ve had nothing since Bastion was killed.” I pulled her back, holding her at arm’s length before cradling her face between my hands.

I couldn’t help my lower lip from quivering.

She was my little sister. As far as I knew, she’d never even held a boy’s hand.

Never been kissed. Never made love. She hadn’t lived, not really.

And now I wouldn’t get to see her fall in love, or braid her hair on her wedding day, or hold my nieces and nephews in my arms. But at least I knew she’d have a chance to have these things.

“Let me do this,” I said, with as much authority as I could muster.

Her blood shot eyes glared back at me before she finally nodded swiping at her tears with the organza sleeves of her gown.

This is how it had been, me, protecting my precious little sister, and no matter the cost, I would always pay it. Renee was ten years younger than me. She had been my entire world before I met Bastion and she’d been my light through the darkness of losing him.

We had a brother between us. His name was slashed into the fabric of my sorrow.

I was four, and I’d been so excited to be a big sister the day Romie was born.

When my mother found him cold in his cradle, I thought she’d died too.

She didn’t speak or eat for days. My father and I did our best to continue on, as if the cruel world hadn’t just dealt us our greatest misery.

Then one day, she picked herself up, smiled at me, and became my mother again.

To this day I don’t know how she’d overcome such grief.

Six years later, Renee blessed us with her squeaky cries.

They’d been the best days of my life—holding her as she squirmed in my arms. I cherished every moment, every adventure we embarked on through our village.

Every time I’d braided her golden hair. Every time we’d sneak away and steal an apple from the neighbor’s orchard to pass between us, taking monstrous bites and giggling until we were both in tears.

And now, I had to tuck those memories away before my world collapsed again, like it had the day I lost Bastion. I had to be strong a little longer, even though everything I knew was being ripped from my fingers.

I didn’t know what would happen to me. No one knew exactly what happened to the human girls taken to the Gatehouse every five years.

We only knew that it had been a century since our village had been required to provide a maiden, and that the names were drawn from a collection of unwed women ages eighteen to thirty, with no children.

Girls married as soon as they could to escape the choosing—myself included.

The two guards stepped forward before grasping me by my upper arms, my spine stiffening at the callousness as I was quite literally torn from Renee’s grasp.

“Hey, I’m not going to run,” I said, but their grip only tightened. “For the Mother’s sake, I’m choosing to go.”

Renee crumpled into a pile of chiffon and organza, wailing like a toddler, as the two men yanked me toward a carriage waiting at the base of the dais.

“Renee! Pick yourself up!” I swallowed back the first of my tears, desperate to keep them at bay a tiny bit longer.

I needed to be strong and apparently, she needed her big sister to yell at her one more time.

“I love you, Renee. You have to live your life. Live it for me!” I tried to pull myself free from the guards long enough to turn back to her.

“Tell Mother and Father, I love them. Now, get up!”

Before I could say another word, I was crammed into the carriage, the door slammed in my face.

For a long moment I could do nothing but stare in disbelief at the wood grain that surrounded me, my sister’s tear-streaked face burning into my memory.

I promised myself I’d never forget it. I had sacrificed myself for my miracle sister.

The one who pulled my little family from the depths of our darkest despair and made everything whole again.

I’d done it so she could have the life that had been stolen from me.

I’d done it for Renee, but in all honesty, I’d also done it for myself.

I couldn’t lose another member of my family. Not after all I’d endured in the last year, losing Bastion. He’d been the center of my life, carved from my soul before our own family could grow.

I collapsed into a heap of tears on the floor of the carriage.

The latch clicked loudly as it was locked from the outside before lurching into motion.

Every thread of my being unraveled as I let the wall I’d built around my heart since my husband’s death crumble into a pile of broken dreams. If I hadn’t thought my life destroyed before, I did now, because I was on my way to the mysterious Gatehouse, to be prepared for whatever the Dark Fae would do with me.