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“You would not have been able to kill her without killing yourself.”

“What?”

“You are tied to one another. You weren’t eighteen yet.”

“Wait, so you’re telling me if I were to try to kill her… that her children would also die?”

“Yes. Very morbid, I know.” She sat on a log. “She may be evil, but she is clever. She played on people’s sympathy for children to protect herself.” She held up her finger. “You would have to successfully kill her thirteen times. One time for each child.”

“So you’re telling me that no matter what I do, thirteen children are going to die?”

“Yes.”

“Fucking hell. You’re a good witch. Can you not use your power to fix this? To reverse the curse?”

Her lips pinched into a hard line. “I’m not a good witch, simply a white witch. I wish I could reverse the curse my child. Right now, you’re the only one with the power. Which is why she will come after you.”

“I don’t have any power.”

She smiled at me knowingly, but I didn’t know what that meant.

“Child, you have more power than she does. I can sense it in you. You just don’t know how to use it.”

“Or access it.” I laughed, finding this entire conversation amusing. “Wouldn’t I know if I was a witch?”

“You are part of Merla. You have power. Have you never noticed how nature responds to you? Hear the songs on the wind, see how the animals are naturally drawn to you? Have things ever just happened and you couldn’t explain why?”

As she was speaking, memories would pop up in my head of instances in my childhood when water troths would explode when I was angry, how I could tame a wild horse with a touch, how I listened to the wind to find the purple mangor. “I’ve never thought about it before.”

“You have power without even trying, Snow. You are powerful beyond measure. I imagine the Queen can sense it as well, which is probably why you scare her.”

“Can you teach me how to use it?”

She shook her head slowly. “I cannot.”

“You can’t or won’t?” I barked.

“I can’t.”

“I don’t understand.”

She rested her hand on my shoulder. “That is a story for another day.” She looked up at the darkening sky. “It’s time for you to go.”

She was speaking the words and was fading back into the tree.

I stood there, unable to move.

I don’t know what I expected, but I was not prepared for what I heard.

I felt a hand snake around my waist and found Gage standing beside me.

“I think we need to talk.”

Chapter fifteen

Merla - Secrets and Betrayal

“MyQueen.”Thefrumpywoman in brown cloth poked her head in the dining hall. “You have a guest.”