him.
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“Where was she?” he asked Devlen.
“Hiding in the rocks out on the point.” Devlen released his
hold. “Her clothes blended in with them, but she can’t hide
from me.” He sneered. “I know all her tricks.”
I shot him a nasty look and cocked a foot to kick him.
“Stop,” Galen said. His anger eased toward amusement.
“Opal, you will not hide from us again. That’s an order.” Then
to the guards, “Take her to the hut for the cleansing ritual.”
They pulled me away, but as we reached the door, Galen
called for us to wait. When he approached, I knew by the sick
little smile twisting his lips that this wouldn’t be good.
“I almost forgot,” he said. “Opal, remove the barrier shield-
ing your emotions from me now. I wish to know exactly what
you’re feeling during the biggest night of your life.”
The glass wall disintegrated in an instant. I blasted pure
hatred at him, but he chuckled. “Love you, too.”
The bamboo hut resembled one of the cottages, except it
was bigger and only contained one room. Four women waited
for me. They wore identical sleeveless white dresses that hung
to the sand. Their hair had been tucked up into white scarves.
No shoes on their feet and no softness in their faces. Their
eyes held no spark.
The guards left me standing in the threshold, secure in the
knowledge that Galen had ordered me to comply with these
women. They resembled each other enough for me to guess
that three of them were sisters and the older woman was their
mother.
I scanned the room. Certain items, like the two posts with
leather straps in the middle of the room sent queasy warn-
ing signals through my body. A large tub of water filled one
corner and buckets, sponges and cleaning supplies leaned
against the side wall. Despite the heat, a fire burned in the
small hearth.
The mother took charge. She closed the door and ordered
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me to strip. As I peeled off my clothes, the girls tossed them
into the fire. I watched the f lames consume the fabric.
“Eat this,” Mother said.
She handed me a wad of slimy green seaweed.
“All of it. Now.”
I almost gagged at the taste of rotten vegetables and briny
goo mixed with the gritty crunch of sand. It made me appreci-
ate Leif ’s healing concoctions. They were mild in comparison.
As soon as I swallowed, my body f lushed with heat. Sweat
beaded on every inch of my skin. The hut tilted as my head
spun. The girls led me to a bed covered with towels.
They ignored my requests for water. I understood the need
for towels as sweat gushed from my body. When it finally
stopped, Mother gave me a brown leaf to chew. It tasted like
paper and f lakes stuck to my tongue. It was also difficult to
swallow with a dry mouth.
The girls hovered around me holding buckets. After a few
minutes, I found out why. My stomach reacted violently to
the leaf, expelling its contents in painful bouts over one of
the buckets. I only had a few seconds of peace before cramps
hit my guts and I quickly sat on another bucket.
No dignity during the cleansing ritual, which seemed to
have no end. I would have loved to spit out the purple f lower
Mother shoved in my mouth, but Galen’s command forced
me to chew and swallow. Burning pain stabbed deep inside
me. I bent over as spasms seized my lower abdomen.
When blood poured from between my legs, I panicked.
Mother held me down and shushed me. “No lasting harm,”
she said. “It’s to cleanse out a baby that might be growing.
Master Walsh only wants his baby to grow inside you.”
Eventually the pain subsided and the girls helped clean
me.
“Answer me honestly,” Mother said. “Have you taken moon
potion in the last year?”
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“Yes. Why didn’t you ask me before you gave me that
f lower?”
“Moon potion is not a hundred percent effective. How
many years have you taken it?”
“Two.”
thousand times. Moon potion prevented a woman from getting
pregnant. One dose lasted a year. However, if you wanted to
have a child before the year was up, a dose of starlight would
neutralize the protection.
Mother mixed starlight with water and handed it to me.
“Drink it. That is fresh water pumped from under our
home.”
Then she fed me fruits and vegetables grown in the
Bloodroses’ compound. I made the connection between
purging all that I may have imbibed before coming here and
replenishing it with substances from the clan.
My hope of being finished after the meal died when the
girls strapped my wrists and ankles to the two posts in the
middle of the room. My vulnerable position reminded me of
my time at the prison.
Rustling sounded behind me; I craned my neck around.
Mother held long strands of dried seaweed. She cocked her
arm.
“Wait,” I said. “What’s left to cleanse?”
“Blood.”
“But—”
She whipped me with the seaweed, leaving behind lines of
stinging pain across my back and the back of my legs. When
she moved to do my front side, I yelped more from surprise.
My skin was extra sensitive on my chest. The seaweed sliced
thin cuts and blood welled from the rows. After all I had been
through, the wounds felt minor.
It was over as quick as it had started. The girls released
me, but my relief didn’t stay for long. The girls’ grim frowns
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warned me a second before they seized my arms and legs. Lift-
ing me off the f loor, they carried me over to the tub. Time
to wash the blood off. But why did they brace themselves for
trouble?
They dunked me in the tub and held me underwater. Every
single cut blazed. Salt water! I struggled to sit up as the searing pain dug into me and set my whole body on fire. Keeping
firm pressure on my shoulders and hips, the girls wouldn’t let
go.
The ache in my lungs soon eclipsed my burning skin. This
couldn’t be a part of the ritual. I gathered magic to me, but
released it back into the power blanket when my brain caught
up. Acceptance was a part of this custom. Relaxing as much
as possible for a drowning victim, I stopped fighting. Five
heartbeats later, they let go.
I broke the surface sputtering and gasping for air. The three
girls wouldn’t meet my furious glare, but Mother had no
qualms.
Her unf lappable manner remained the same. “You are
clean,” she said. “Here.” She handed me a white shift just
like the one she wore. “Get dressed.”
“Undergarments?”
“Not for you.”
Better than nothing. I pulled it on. The dress dragged on
the sand.
Mother stepped to me. “My single piece of advice. Obey
Master Walsh. He has a bad temper. Remember the pain you
felt in the tub?”
“Yes.”
“Imagine being whipped with leather and then submerged
in salt water on a daily basis for a season. Master Walsh calls that pepper and salt, and that is just one of the punishments
he hands out to those who upset him,” Mother said. “Your
presence has caused us trouble. See my beautiful daughters?”
She stabbed a thick finger at them.
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Maria V. Snyder
“Yes.”
“I don’t want them to suffer because of you.”
As one of the girls pulled my hair up and wrapped it into
a white scarf, Mother applied a colored paste to my eyelids.
Mother said, “We won’t be attending the ceremony. We’ll
be in our cottage so we stay out of trouble. I don’t want my
girls involved.”
A couple clues snapped together, and I guessed the reason
Devlen had said I needed to be at the bonfire.
“Yet you’ll allow your girls to marry Walsh when it’s their
turn. You’ll allow them to be his slaves. You’ll allow them to
risk their lives diving for oysters or mining diamonds.”
“You know nothing about it. You’re not even a mother.”
I imagined raising Reema and Teegan in this place and a
whole new fury burned inside me. “You are doing more to
harm your daughters than I ever will. That is how Walsh is able to control all of you with so few armed guards. You’re
terrified!”
“He’s a powerful magician. And now this Galen is giving
orders, and you.” She jabbed my arm. “Galen’s slave. Quinn
is young and inexperienced and foolish. How can he counter
three magicians?”
“He can’t. That’s why he needs you.” I surprised her. Score
one for the new girl.
“I
can’t—”
“Yes, you can. Who is serving the clams tonight?”
Confused, she cast about for the answer. “One of the
cooks…Miranda or Lilian.”
“Friends of yours?”
“Sort of. We don’t form close attachments.”
“Which just helps Walsh all the more.” I shook my head.
“Here’s how you can help. Give some of that brown leaf stuff
to Miranda and ask her to mix it in Walsh’s, Galen’s and my
food. We can’t do any magic while we’re throwing up.”
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“But only temporarily.” She snagged her lower lip with her
teeth.
“Are you good with plants? Is there another leaf or root
that would incapacitate us for a longer period?”
Fear and uncertainty f lared in her eyes. “There’s beach root.
It causes a horrible stomachache for a few hours.”
“Do you have any sleeping potions?” I asked.
“No.”
“Then use the beach root if you can. See? It takes everyone helping, otherwise we won’t be successful.”
“We? What can you do?” she asked.
“My usual. Cause trouble. But first, I need a few things.”
She chewed on her lip. “Things?”
I smiled. “Undergarments and pants for starters.”
“Hurry,” one of the girls called. “He’s coming!”
Adding a scarf around my shoulders, I turned in a circle
with my arms out. “Well?” I still wore the shift.
Mother inspected me with a critical eye. “It’ll do for now.
Don’t let him rub against you.”
I shuddered at the image. “That is always my intention.”
When the door swept open and Walsh entered, we all held
our breaths.
“Is my bride ready?” he asked Mother.
She nodded and I remembered to breathe.
He held out his hand, and I grabbed it before he could
notice how nervous the women were. We walked through the
compound hand in hand. The sun dipped into the horizon as
fingers of thick fog stroked the shore.
“It was nice of you to escort me,” I said. A few of his men
followed us at a distance. Both Walsh and Galen had an armed
escort at all times.
“It’s to ensure no one…harms you before the ceremony.
Some of my wives get jealous.”
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Maria V. Snyder
I’d bet, but he had given me a perfect opening. “I would
think you’d be more worried about Galen.”
“Why?”
Gotcha. Now I had to tread through the loopholes with
care. “Galen has Devlen now.”
He frowned. “So? Devlen knows quite a bit about blood
magic.”
I cringed. “Did they tell you how addictive it is?”
“Of course. I’ve seen it for myself.”
“Last time Devlen’s addiction consumed him, he wasn’t
content to wait for others. He’s clever and intelligent. Unpar-
alleled with a sword…” I let the information sink in.
Walsh stopped. “Is Galen planning to double-cross me?”
“I can’t say.”
“Even if I order you to?”
“Not even then.”
He dismissed my concerns. “I have my guards, my clan
members and my own considerable magic. There are only
two of them.”
“Three of us.”
Alarm filled his thin face. In the twilight he resembled a
ghost. “Why are you warning me?”
“I hate Galen and Devlen. If you kill them, I would consider
it a perfect wedding present.”
He laughed with a harsh bark. “Nice try. I almost fell for
it.”
Shoot. Time for a different angle. I silently thanked Mother
and shrugged. “As long as you don’t mind sharing me.”
“What do you mean?” he demanded, yanking me close.
“You’ve been ordered to my bed every night.”
“And to Galen’s every day.” I rubbed my belly. “I wonder
who will give me a baby first?”
“You’re lying. Galen loathes you. He would never take you
to his bed.” Walsh considered. “You shouldn’t be able to lie to
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me. He assured me of your cooperation.” His hard eyes bored
into me. “Kneel.”
Since I wasn’t in his bedroom and this had nothing to do
with the ceremony, I remained on my feet.
He grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “Did he order you
to obey me?”
Magic blocked me from answering, but he already figured
it out.
“Son of a bitch!”
Walsh didn’t waste time. “Take her to the bonfire, I’ll be
there shortly,” he ordered one of his guards.
As the guard marched me to the beach, I hoped I hadn’t
ruined anything Quinn might be planning by tipping Walsh
off to Galen’s deceit. If Galen had been tired of playing in
Vasko’s sandbox, he’d never put himself in the same position
again.
On the beach, bright f lames as tall as a man pulsed and
f lickered. A pit had been dug in the sand and the pile of drift-wood snapped and popped. The firelight illuminated the fog,
creating a fuzzy so
ftness around the bonfire. Clan members
had brought blankets to sit on. A few kids played in the gentle waves and others made sand castles. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think this was a large family picnic.
A dais had been set up with three ornate chairs. Purple silk
screens boxed in the dais on three sides, leaving the one facing the sea open. My guard led me to the chair on the left.
“Sit,” he said, before taking up position nearby.
From this position, I spotted a couple tables filled with food
and more armed guards patrolling the perimeter. Not all the
clan members had come, and I remembered what Mother had
said about staying in their cottage. A breeze blew onshore,
pushing the fog in thickening swells. One minute I couldn’t
see past the fire, and the next it was clearer.
Galen bounded onto the dais with Devlen a step behind.
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Maria V. Snyder
“Where’s the groom?” Galen asked me.
“I don’t know.”
“What happened?” he asked.
I jerked a thumb at the guard. “Told him to escort me and
said he’d be here soon.”
Galen glanced at Devlen, who gave him a slight shrug.
Settling into the chair on the right, Galen inquired about my
afternoon. “Did you have fun with the women?”
“No.”
He chuckled. “Come here.”
Devlen moved to stand behind Galen.
Although I wished to remain in my seat, my body complied.
Galen yanked at the scarf, uncovering my arms. Lines of red
welts striped my skin.
I glanced at Devlen. Anger f lashed in his eyes.
Galen admired the damage. “Is it still tender?” He rubbed
his hands along my arms, inf laming the cuts.
I jerked back and grabbed the scarf.
“Keep it off,” Galen said, pulling it away from me.
Walsh arrived with six guards. It seemed the guards out-
numbered the clan. A couple followed Walsh. He introduced
them to us as Minister Heath and his wife, Nancee.
I wasn’t the only one confused by the Minister’s presence.
Galen asked about them. “Don’t you usually use a Bloodrose
member?”
“Yes I do. But I wanted this one to be official and legally
entered into the record books.”
Bile rose in my throat.
“When did you decide on that?” Galen demanded, his ire
evident.
I wondered if Walsh had already suspected Galen, and the
couple was his insurance nothing would happen tonight.
“As soon as I set eyes on my bride.” Walsh took my left