Tears burn behind my eyes and start to trickle down my cheeks.

We cross uncultivated fields and skirt another clump of trees. The wind cools the streaks of moisture on my face.

Finally my hands pull the reins, slowing Toast to a trot.

But not through my doing. I still can’t exert the slightest bit of control over any part of my body.

The magic thrums around me like a drone in my ears. We approach a derelict cabin at the edge of a larger forest, and I halt Toast completely.

Several figures step out of the cabin to meet me.

Most of them I don’t recognize, at least not as individuals. There are two men and a woman in the blue uniforms of the royal army, which would make me think King Konram is behind my kidnapping if it weren’t for the two pale shrouded figures with them who I immediately know are sacrificial accomplices.

A man and a woman in regular clothes flank one accomplice together. Another woman stands next to the second, her expression taut and sweat beaded on her forehead despite the cool air.

The man who emerges last, I do know. The sight of his tall, lopsided frame sends even more fear coursing through my veins.

Lothar Riosemek, the secondary magical advisor to the king and destroyer of riven sorcerers, is staring up at me with pale brown eyes and a hard-edged smirk.

“Look at her,” he says conversationally in his thick baritone. “She can’t move a muscle unless you allow it, Zaneta. How strong you’ve become after all those daimon spirits you’ve been directing.”

The sweating woman dips her head in a hint of a nod. Her voice echoes the strain etched across her face and in her posture. “Yes, Master Lothar. It isn’t quite the same when we didn’t build the body. But I can hold her.”

“Good.” Lothar’s smirk grows, seeming to crawl across his face.

My voice stays locked in my throat, as much as I want to cry out.

This man is behind the scourge sorcerer uprising?

Alek found out the clay purchaser had used a royal seal to keep the shipments concealed. We never suspected it could have come from someone quite so close to the king.

Gods above, what else has he done? What does he mean to do next?

What’s he going to do with me?

Lothar takes a step closer, making my spirit want to recoil inside my puppet of a body. “Ivy of wherever you’re actually from, you destroyed my army. I’m taking you and your wild magic in return. Not such a bad exchange, really.”

He flicks his fingers, and his followers move toward a cluster of horses tied within the shadows of the trees. At a tug of magic, I nudge Toast to follow them, all the while screaming inside my head.

My body doesn’t respond. This psychopath has me well and truly trapped.

And for the first time since I stumbled into this conspiracy, I’m utterly alone.

* * *

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