Page 155 of Gilded

Maybe not, she tried to tell herself. They had only to find him. He was hiding. Playing a prank. Which was out of character for the stalwart boy, but maybe Fricz had set him up to it?

But all those desperate pleas shattered as soon as the Weber cottage came into view. As idyllic as always, surrounded by pastureland and grazing sheep, Serilda felt an ominous chill sweep over her.

The Weber family were all gathered on their front stoop. Little Marie was clutching at her grandmother. Baby Alvie was swaddled in his mother’s arms. Anna’s father was trying to saddle their horse, a speckled gelding that Serilda had always thought was one of the finest-looking horses in town. But the man’s movements were clumsy, and as she approached, she could see that he was trembling.

Her eyes searched their faces, all gripped with terror. The elder Mother Weber had a handkerchief pressed against her mouth.

Serilda searched and searched. The garden, the front door left open, the road and the fields.

All the family was there … except for Anna.

As Serilda got closer, they all startled and turned toward her with flitting hope that immediately came crashing back down.

“Miss Moller!” cried Anna’s father, tightening the bridle. “Do you have word? Have you seen Anna?”

She swallowed hard, and slowly shook her head.

Their expressions fell. Anna’s mother buried her face into her daughter’s hair and sobbed.

“We woke up and she was just … gone,” said Anna’s father. “I know she’s headstrong, but it isn’t like her to just—”

“Hans is missing, too,” Serilda said. “And I worry”—her voice caught, but she forced out the words—“I worry they aren’t the only ones. I think the hunt—”

“No!” bellowed Anna’s father. “You can’t know that! She’s just … she’s just …”

A black shape in the sky drew Serilda’s eye upward to a patchy pair of wings showing glimpses of blue sky between the feathers. The nachtkrapp circled lazily above the field.

The king knew.

His spies had been watching all year, and he knew. He knew precisely which children Serilda taught, the ones she adored. The ones that would hurt her the most.

“Goodman Weber,” said Serilda, “I’m so very sorry, but I must take this horse.”

He jolted. “What? I need to go find her! My daughter—”

“Was taken by the wild hunt!” she snapped. While he was stunned speechless, she snatched the reins and sprang up into the saddle. The family cried in outrage, but Serilda ignored them. “Forgive me!” she said, trotting the horse far enough away that Anna’s father couldn’t grab her. But he didn’t make a move, just gawked, speechless. “I will bring him back as soon as I can. And if I can’t, then I will leave him at the Wild Swan in Adalheid. Someone will return him, I promise. And I hope … I will try to find Anna. I will do everything I can.”

“What in all of Verloren are you doing?” Anna’s grandmother hollered, the first to find her voice. “You say she’s been taken by the wild hunt, and now you think … what? That you’re going toget her back?”

“Precisely,” said Serilda. Pressing her foot into the stirrup, she cracked the reins.

The horse bolted from the yard.

As she passed through Märchenfeld, she saw that nearly everyone had emerged from their homes and were gathered near the linden tree at the town’s center, talking in frightened whispers. She spied Gerdrut’s parents, her mother’s belly round with child, crying while her neighbors tried to comfort her.

Serilda’s lungs squeezed until she thought she would not be able to breathe at all. This road did not travel past the twins’ home, but she did not have to see their family to know that Fricz and Nickel would be missing, too.

She lowered her head and urged the horse to run. No one tried to stop her, and she wondered if any of them would guess at her guilt.

This was her fault.

Coward. Fool. She wasn’t brave enough to face the Erlking. She wasn’t smart enough to trick him out of this game.

And now five innocent children had been taken.

The road blurred beneath the horse’s hooves as she left the town behind. The morning sun glistened off fields of wheat and rye, but ahead of her the Aschen Wood loomed, dense and unwelcoming. But she wasn’t afraid of it anymore. There might be monsters and forest folk and creepy salige, but she knew the true dangers lurked beyond the wood, inside a haunted castle.

She was nearly to the woods when the birds caught her eye. At first she thought it was more nachtkrapp, an entire flock of them swarming above the road. But as she drew closer she could see it was just crows, cawing and screeching at her as she approached.