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Lilianna spoke first. Her petite frame knelt beside the man, a hand on his shoulder as though she were comforting him. “He had green eyes.”

Sorin looked at Alina; there was something different about her. Something broken.

“We must bury her,” Sorin announced. “Then we take back the town.”

They vacated the house of death as a raven observed them overhead. Alina and Sorin carried Red’s body out into the forest, where they agreed she should be buried. They took turns hauling dirt with a single shovel, the four of them splitting the workload. Alina only relinquished the spade when Sorin forced the shovel out of her blistered and bloody hands. Sorin knew the labor distracted her from the pain of losing Red.

They lowered her body into the grave, and Sorin placed the now wordless scroll in with her. All four of them began to push the dirt over her with their hands. Witches achieved their most basic power from the Earth, their flesh absorbing that power as they buried one of their own. As they finished, they paused to wipe their tears away with soiled hands. Alina sank to the ground and wept, comforted by the hushed, soothing whispers of the sisters.

Only Sorin did not cry.

When it was done, and Rose Luca’s body returned to the Earth, it felt like waking from a nightmare. One they would slowly recover from. In time each of them would heal, the wounds slowly closing.

EPILOGUE

SILVANIA

Ana held her belly, the life growing within her shifting and pressing hard against her organs. She watched from below as Matthias finished patching the roof. The home they purchased had ample land, but the building was falling apart at the seams. Even from below, she could see Matthias knitting his brow, his face pinched as he concentrated.

He’d borne a disdainful expression since that night in Ocleau. The night he paid the orphanage matron Kaisa Tamm to come to her house. Ana remembered it well.

Blaez returned home with the cure for Ana, but Matthias had given it to her earlier that day. Everyone was there at once—Blaez arrived to give the cure to Ana, but before he could enter, his body betrayed him, forcing him to shift into the Wolf. Then the child arrived, possessed.

She watched him, black as night, with eyes that would have made any normal person shriek in terror. His eyes had locked onto the child, and Ana clutched her niece tightly; the Wolf approached. The beast smelled the child, who whimpered and cried in terror. Then he shuddered and turned away; simply seeing the child was enough. The sacrifice had been made, and the Wolf’s decision was to allow the child to live. Blaez’s good-hearted nature came through even as a beast; this was the only mercy Azalea granted him.

When Ana was able to move, when the frozen terror released its hold on her, she slipped out the moment Eliise was safe, wrapping her in something warm and whisking her through the back door, leaving the confused Kaisa Tamm alone with the beast.

Ana was already far away, but she made sure to cover Eliise’s ears when the screaming began. They scurried into the woods, where Matthias would meet them the next night so they could begin their journey to find a better life. All Ana packed were the herbs to help her become pregnant, a change of clothes for her and Eliise, and some food—though not enough that anyone who looked through the house would know.

Ana watched Matthias change the night he met them after he had his mother executed. After finding his sister dead, her body ice cold in the snow. He would never be the same, but Ana reminded herself that she never really knew Matthias—Riina did. Ana still envied her dead sister for being able to love Matthias before he changed, and sometimes she pretended to be Riina for him. She tried to be the version of Riina that she remembered.

On those days, Matthias loved her.

Some days Matthias couldn’t even look at her, hatred brewing between them. He blamed her for this, and she blamed him for that; even Eliise couldn’t escape the unexplainable resentment that bloomed, insidious and spreading like a disease. Eliise grew jealous of the baby growing in Ana’s womb, fearing that she would not be loved. Fearing that she would be replaced.

When they found the scroll with the curse upon it, they wondered how it got there. It followed them to their brand-new home. They knew the Wolf had, too; Blaez lurked in the Mørke Forest, waiting to be called upon. He would forever be tied to the Lucas, to the curse, just as they would.

Ana watched as Matthias stepped down from the roof onto the ladder, and part of her hoped it would topple, taking him with it.