Ann nods in agreement. Azreal leans in to her."Yes, we can end it for you."
"Stop it!" Felicity spits out.
Azreal moves to her, caresses her neck. "Such spirit, pet. How long would you last? If I broke and bled you? A week? Two?" He breaks into a slow grin. "Or . . . would you skitter away inside somewhere, as you did every time he touched you?"
Felicity's shame shows as a single tear coursing down her cheek. How does he know this about her?
"You be quiet," she whispers, her voice betraying her anguish. "All those nights in your room. Nowhere to go. No one to trust. No one to hear you. Not such spirit, then, pet."
"Stop," Felicity whispers.
He licks her cheek. "You took it. And deep down, you told yourself,'This is my fault. I made this happen. . . . ""
Felicity is so afraid. I can feel it in her. We all can. What was it he said? We smell your fear. It lets us in. Is there something about our fear that gives power to their magic?
"Fee, don't listen to him!" I shout.
"Do you know something, pet? I think you rather enjoyed it. 'Tis better than being ignored altogether, isn't it? That's what you truly fear, hmmm? That you are so very unlovable after all?"
Felicity's sobbing, unable to answer.
"You don't want to live with this anymore, do you, poppet? The shame. The heartbreak. The stain on your soul. Why don't you take this blade and do yourself in?"
Felicity reaches out and takes the dagger he offers.
"No!" I shout, but I'm restrained by one of the Warriors.
He coos to her sweetly as a mother with a babe. "That's it. Just end it. All that pain. Gone forever."
"Don't let them in," I say to Felicity."They're using your fear against you. You must be strong. Be strong!" Strong. Strength. I'm reminded of something Nell said. "Felicity, Nell said the Poppy Warriors would steal our strength. Fee, you are our strength! We need
you!"
I'm face to face with Azreal and his dead, kohled eyes. "What about your fear, poppet? Where should we begin? You can't even help your own father."
"I'm not listening to you," I say. I try to concentrate, abandon my fear. But it is so very hard. Azreal continues."All that power, yet you cannot do the one thing that matters."
A moment ago, the amulet began to glow, to show me the way out. I clutch it in my hand, secretly angling it toward the last two tunnels. Which is the one?
A hard slap stings my cheek."Are you listening, poppet?"
Keep concentrating, Gemma. Do I imagine it, or does the amulet glow? It does! It is faint but real. The tunnel directly behind Azreal is the one. I've found the way.
"We visit your father from time to time," he says.
"What do you mean?" I say. My concentration is gone. The glow disappears.
"When he is under the drug's spell, his mind is most receptive to us. Such games, such games. We told him about you. About your mother. But he's getting weaker. And we're losing all our fun."
"You leave him alone."
"Yes, yes. For now. Let's play."
"Stop where you are!" Felicity stands poised on a rock, her bow drawn back, one eye squinting on the arrow that she aims in a sweeping arc, taking in the whole of the room. The Poppy Warriors caw at her. Her mouth curves into a hateful smile, a mimic of the bow's string.
"Put the bow down now, poppet."
Felicity trains the arrow on Azreal."No."
His grin vanishes."I'm going to eat you alive."
"I don't bloody think so," she says through tears.
With a great caw, he charges for her. Felicity's arrow flies hard and fast, piercing Azreal's neck just above the protection of his chain mail. His eyes widen as he sinks to his knees and falls to the dusty floor, dead. There is a moment of stunned silence, followed by pandemonium. The Poppy Warriors shriek in anger and grief. There is no time to lose. "This way!" I shout, running for the tunnel the amulet has shown me. Felicity and Ann are on my heels, but so are the Poppy Warriors. We hadn't the chance to grab a torch. The tunnel is dark as pitch as we barrel through it, bumping into one another, feeling the rats tickle over our feet, hearing one another's desperate gasps and ragged breathing. And just behind us, there is the hideous cawing of those shape-shifting knights.
"Where is it?" Felicity cries."Where is the way out?"
It is still too dark to see my hand."I don't know!"