Page 83 of Hearts on Fire

“Take Gabrik with you.” He released my hand reluctantly. “And don’t linger, my spark. Come back soon.”

“I’ll be back,” I promised.

Gabrik escorted me down the stairs.

“Here.” He stopped in front of thesalamandras’old bedroom. “They found her in here.”

The door to the room was wide open, like every door in the castle today. The early evening light flooded the gloomy space inside with a warm sepia glow, shrouding the perches into shadows.

My heart skipped a beat as I held my breath at the threshold. Thesalamandrasof the Sanctuary were dead. I saw them die with my own eyes. Isar had avenged for far more lives than she knew when she murdered that bastard.

Could one of them have survived?

But how?

Afraid to hope, I stepped inside the room. The table with the breakfast food served days ago still stood by the open window. Most of the dishes were now stale or spoiled.

The rows of hard, narrow perches were empty, except for one. A woman lay on it. I recognized her dark, long braid even before she glared at me from under her arm.

“Zenada!” I rushed to her.

She sat up, drawing her knees to her chest. A clinking of metal exposed the manacle around her ankle.

“Why are you chained?” I lowered myself on the perch at her feet.

She swallowed and cleared her throat before replying, “Mother.”

Her voice sounded rough. I noticed her chapped lips and sunken cheeks. If Mother was the one who’d locked her up, then Zenada had been here on this perch for two days now. The table full of food and drinks was just a few yards away, but it remained out of her reach since she was chained. Thirst and hunger wouldn’t kill a fae for a very long time. But they would make them suffer.

“You’re thirsty.” I ran to the table and filled a goblet with water from a jug.

“Thanks,” she croaked, grabbing the goblet from my hands and emptying it in a few greedy gulps.

I returned to the table to get more water and a bowl of plums, the only dish that still looked edible.

“Here.” I placed the bowl into Zenada’s lap and refilled her glass. “Now let me get this thing off you.” I placed a hand on the metal cuff around her ankle, then searched for the hairpin in my braid with my other hand to pick the lock.

Gabrik cleared his throat, stepping closer.

“Allow me, my lady.” He yanked the axe out of the holster on his back.

Zenada shrank back from him with a gasp.

I blinked at the sight of the massive axe in his hands. “Gabrik, we need the cuff removed, not to have her leg chopped off.”

He smirked into his beard.

“Big doesn’t mean clumsy. I can do some very fine things with this.” He stroked his axe so gently, it almost looked like a caress.

I hesitated, but Zenada clearly wished to get out of the restraints as soon as possible. Scooting to the edge of the perch, she stretched her foot toward Gabrik.

He took her heel into his large hand, then slid the sharp toe hook of the axe into the ring that held the manacle around her ankle. Holding the manacle in place with his hand, he wrenched the long handle of the axe with the other. The metal cracked. The ring bent and the cuff fell open.

“Thank you.” Zenada withdrew her foot from him, rubbing her ankle.

Gabrik grunted something under his breath, then stepped back to the door.

“Why did Mother chain you?” I asked Zenada.