Chapter 20: Taken

I was on the floor, and I could not make my arms work.

The hall tilted above me.

Wolves lay slumped across the benches.

The elder had her head on the registry book.

Rowan lay a few feet away with Lark still tucked under his arm, and his eyes were shut.

Lark was screaming.

Four Kestrel enforcers in plain coats came in behind the Dowager.

I knew them.

They were the same men who had stopped my bus.

"Quickly," the Dowager said. "The draught lasts an hour. I paid the cook enough for two."

One of them crouched and pulled Lark out from under Rowan's arm.

"No," I said.

It came out as a croak.

"There she is," the Dowager said, bending over me with her fur collar brushing my cheek.

"Do not worry, dear. You always do worry. I won't hurt her."

"Give her back."

"I wouldn't dream of it. You see, your daughter is the only thing in this valley worth anything."

"The Kestrel line needs a lender. She will be raised under my roof with the best nurses, and she will be taught to give."

"She is the most valuable thing you ever made."

I tried to get my hands under me.

My palms slid on the wood.

"The Council will hang you," I said.

"The Council doesn't know where I am," the Dowager said. "And when Lark is fed to my son, he will rise and the Council will not dare."

"He has no wolf left. She'll be useless to him."

"Not at all," the Dowager said, and smiled.