Flashback ( PDFDrive )

“Why do you look so afraid?” Umber asked Tam as he stumbled
back from the shadowflux. “This is your true strength. It’s time for you
to embrace that.”
Sophie cried out as Umber hurled the arrow, and it zipped through
the force field, aimed perfectly at Biana’s head. But Tam snarled
something before the darkness hit, and the arrow vaporized into a
thick black mist.
“Now that’s more like it,” Umber told him. “That I can work with.”
“Good,” Gethen said. “Then we should move this along.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Fitz asked, shoving Alvar
forward. He’d bound Alvar’s hands behind his back with strips of his
cloak and had a dagger pointed at Alvar’s side to keep him from
fighting. “You trapped your accomplice with us.”
“What makes you think we want him?” Gethen asked.
“Why else would you be here?” Fitz countered. “You need him to do
something for you—either here or at the festival.”
Gethen tilted his head. “What if I told you that you were right?”
“What?” Biana asked, the word mostly a gasp.
But Gethen kept his eyes on Fitz. “What if I told you that your
brother is the key to everything we’re planning tonight—”
“I’M NOT!” Alvar shouted.
Gethen clicked his tongue. “So he says. But you know better, don’t
you, Fitz? You’ve known all along that something didn’t add up—and
no one would listen to you, would they? How frustrating that must’ve
been. Even Sophie hasn’t believed you, has she? And we all know how
much you rely on her. All this time, you were right. Is that what you
want to hear?”