Dawn brought the scent of blood into Sara’s chambers. She felt sick. It was getting bright, but that wasn’t fair. She’d only been brought back here a few minutes ago. It couldn’t be morning already.

Sara felt the bed move. A girly voice breathed next to her ear, “Is the Goddess awake?”

Sara turned to see the servant girl she named Sapphire lying under the sheets. “W-what the hell?” she jumped out of bed, yelling, but a wave of nausea slammed her back down.

Sapphire led her back under the covers. “Prince Jamie instructed me to stay with you,” she explained.

“And you took that to mean sleep with me?” Sara asked. She had a splitting headache, which made everything ten times more difficult. “Why are you even naked?”

“Because you were dying from the cold,” Sapphire answered.

Sara remembered vaguely what happened last night. She knew she had been dragged into a bath and then a bed, but the whys and hows she couldn’t quite recall. Peeking below the sheets, she saw in horror that she was wearing a thin sleeveless nightgown over her underwear, and nothing else.

“We cleaned you after the ceremony,” Sapphire said, no doubt sensing the question. “You were very cold and shivering."

“This is too weird. No, bizarre.” Sara climbed out of bed, taking it as slow as her panic allowed. “Bonkers. Insane.”

Sapphire slipped out of bed to follow. She was completely naked. “If the Goddess does not like me, I can ask for another to take my place.”

“Not what I meant,” said Sara, shielding her eyes to protect the girl’s modesty. “I just… I need a minute.” She pulled out a chair and threw herself in it. There was a tray on the table filled with eggs, bread, and cheeses. On the side was a bowl of fruit and a wine-filled goblet.

Sara plucked a grape and squished it between her fingers, watching the juice shoot across the wall. Bile crawled up her throat. She wanted to laugh, or cry, she didn't know which. She tried to swallow it down but her throat was painfully dry. She picked up the wine and swallowed, tasting the bittersweet liquid as little as possible. The bile went down but the wine shot straight to her head. She swayed, nearly falling out of her seat but Sapphire caught her in time.

“The Goddess is recovering. She needs rest.”

“Call me that again and I’ll send you to see one,” Sara said through her teeth. She threw the wine into the tray of food and pushed herself up. “Now put some clothes on, woman.”

“If you insist,” Sapphire replied with a smile, then stepped aside and plucked her clothes off the back of Sara’s chair.

Sara made her way towards the door. Whether it was the wine or simply time, she was remembering everything. The images sliced across her brain. She saw the men again, their faces grim as they fell around her. She heard the twisted promises Jamie made to them as their blood flowed freely through Sara’s fingers.

Sara did not have time to react. She fell to her knees as acids poured out of her throat. She held herself and vomited straight onto the clean wooden floors. She hurled out everything that was in her, which thankfully was just wine, then dry-heaved until she could not breathe.

She was faintly aware of cool fingers holding back her hair and Sapphire’s gentle voice in her ears. She let herself fall into the girl’s lap.

“Go to sleep. I’ll wake you when the Prince has called you again.”

Again. The word was like a knife in Sara’s gut. Did she need to go through that hell a second time?

“Fuck,” Sara pushed away the servant girl’s caring touch. “That.”

“No.” Sapphire stopped her with a hand on her wrist. “If you leave, you’re dooming all of us.”

Sara glared at Sapphire until the girl loosened her grip. Then, snatching her arm free Sara demanded, “What is all this supposed to do?”

The servant girl looked away. A range of emotions flickered across her freckled face, each one evaporating too quickly for Sara to identify them. “I was born in the outskirts of the Tachelm kingdom,” she said finally. “My village was poor. When the war started, the older men were taken to fight, my father being one of them.”

Sara crossed her arms. She felt a tiny bit better after vomiting, but sickness still swirled inside her like an octopus curling around her intestines.

“As the war went on longer, more and more people were taken. First, it was my oldest brother, then the second oldest. By the time we thought to question the Skull Prince’s orders, there were only women left.”

“So did Jamie capture you?” Sara asked. “He’s the one fighting this Skull guy, right?”

Sapphire shook her head. “They came in the night, the Blight Beasts. Without the men, we were slaughtered. Prince Jamie found me crossing the river, fleeing my burning home.”

“So you’re indebted to him,” Sara said. "You could've led with that."

“Yes," said Sapphire. "But I only agreed to become a servant here on the condition I take care of the next Goddess Witch.”

Sara had heard enough. She understood none of it, but when Sapphire reached for her hands again, she did not fight.

“All my life, I have believed in fate," said the servant girl. "When the Blight Beasts killed everyone in my village except me, I knew it was because I had a greater role to play.”

“Or you’re just lucky,” Sara pointed out.

“That, too.” Sapphire laughed as she traced circles along Sara’s wrists. Her touch was light, distant. It made Sara feel warm, but the moment ended when the door swung open and Jamie marched in.

“Leave us,” the Lord Prince commanded. His eyes glazed over Sara and Sapphire, not focusing on either of them.

Sapphire stood, her head bowed.

Sara instinctively reached out. She didn’t want to be along with Jamie but the servant girl was gone like a breeze. At the door, she gave Sara a look of pity before swinging the door shut, taking all the warmth in the room with her.

Jamie stepped first to the table. He took in the sight of the mess but said nothing. Then, picking up a pear that was dripping with wine, he said, “I know you want me to apologize.”

Sara wrapped her arms around herself and inched back. Her knees hit the bed.

Jamie tossed the pear down. It landed on the tray with a loud clatter. He turned. He was dressed in full battle gear. His face was dirty with soot and his hair ran wild around the sides of his helm. His visor was up, and his eyes were as cold as his words.

“I won’t. Everything I and my men have done is for the sake of the entire realm.” He came towards Sara, who pulled the blanket off the bed and clutched it to her chest.

“How close are you to divinity?”

Sara scowled. “How close are you to going bald?” When Jamie lifted his hand, she flinched, but the hit never came.

After a long sigh, Jamie continued. “When my grandfather tried to create his goddess, he had his traveler strung up and skinned alive. You should be grateful I am not the First Stryde. But beware you do not test me, for I have the Stryde blood in full.”

“Is that another way of saying incest-baby?”

Sara knew she went too far this time when color changed on Jamie’s face. When he raised his arm this time, it was accompanied by his sword.

Sara scrambled from the bed a second before the Lord Prince’s sword slashed through it.

“You insult your KING!” Jamie howled, his sword glowing from the light streaming from the opened window. “I shall do to you what not even my grandfather had the heart to do!”

Sara ran to the other side of the room, which wasn’t far enough. She pulled the table from the wall and toppled it in Jamie’s path. The Prince threw out a leg and sent the furniture spinning. He sprang forward, catching Sara before she could make it to the door.

Sara fell backward, crying out in pain as Jamie hauled her back by her hair. Sneering, the Lord Prince threw her against the wall and held his sword under her throat. “I saved you and this is how you thank me.”

Sara kneed the prince in his groins, but he was covered head to toe in steel so the only one who was hurt was Sara.

The Lord Prince pushed on his blade, drawing a trickle of blood down Sara’s neck. Pain and fear rushed into Sara’s head. She could see the door, so close yet untouchable. Desperate, she reached for it, stretching her fingers as far as she could.

A blue veil shimmered at her fingertips, coming closer until she was touching it. Sara saw the door wavering out of view and words taking its place.

It wasn’t just words but numbers too. Sara strained against Jamie, trying to touch them. She didn’t know why, only that she needed to.

It was then the door opened and Tom walked in.

“Lord Brot-” The boy knight’s eyes widened into moons. “Jamie! Unhand her!” He leaped over, pulling his brother’s arm loose.

Sara fell to the ground. Her neck stung, and when she let go her fingers were smudged red. She got up shakily, using the wall for support.

Jamie snarled, “She deserves to die!”

“Do you hear yourself?” Tom asked. “She’s just a traveler, Jamie!”

The two brothers were bickering. Sara made a mad dash for the door, but Sir Moralis was coming in from the other side. Unable to stop, she crashed into him.

“Blasted girl,” growled the old knight, grabbing her as she tried to climb off him. She managed to untangle herself before the princes caught her once more.

Heart and head pounding, Sara sank to the floor. Tom held onto her right arm, his grip as tight as Jamie’s on her left.

“Just kill me already,” she sobbed.

“I would if I had a choice,” spat Jamie.

“My Lord Princes,” said Sir Moralis, picking himself up off the ground. “The time has come. The Prince of Skulls has been spotted at the river. He intends to push through with this last wave.”

“Good,” said Jamie. "The sacrifices should have been enough." He pulled Sara to her feet and began dragging her down the hallway. Sara stayed limp. She was too tired, too sick, to fight.

They took her from the guest tower, across the empty courtyard and up to the edge of the castle. The walls here towered above everything else, each block of black stone wider than all of them standing shoulder to shoulder. Sir Moralis operated some kind of level and a hidden part of the wall opened up, revealing stairs.

The sunlight disappeared as Sara was brought into the enclosed space. She stumbled up the steps, her bare feet slapping softly against the rough stone. Tom was the only one holding her now, with Sir Moralis at the front and Jamie at the back. No one said anything but it was far from quiet. Sara’s ears rang with the sound of battle. The sound of steel clashing echoed through the walls, growing louder as they climbed higher.

Finally, they reached the top. Sara squinted as the light shone brightly from above. The sky was cloudless. The wind was strong. The wall was wide, though there were only five feet of stone at the edge which prevented anyone from falling to their deaths.

“I envy you,” Tom said quietly, his voice nearly lost in the noise of battle in the distance. “If I had the power of a traveler, I would not hesitate to use it on our enemies.”

Sara glanced down the wall as they walked across it. The drop was far, the trees looking like stalks of broccoli. She thought about jumping but Tom was still clamped onto her. She’d have to take him down with her.

“Your legacy can go down through the ages," the younger prince continued. "Yet, you will throw it away to crawl back into whatever bleak existence you were dragged out from?”

Sara turned to glare at the boy. She felt sharp stones digging into her feet, the wind cold against the cut on her neck, but all these were nothing compared to the pain of his fingers pressing into the exposed skin on her arm.

“I am not a murderer,” she told him.

They rounded a bend and came to a stop facing the river. It was red, and on either side, people were falling in.

Under the golden sun, Tom’s eyes burned with a finality that froze Sara.

But it was Jamie who spoke first. “Send for the servants, Sir Moralis. Our traveler might need a little push.”