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Chapter fifty-three

Nerys

T wo hours. She had less than two hours before she would meet the R?ll.

Nerys looked out her window and into the night. Light from the palace glistened on the snow, which spread in heavy drifts around the grounds. In a matter of hours, she would be riding through those drifts with Idris, with her task done, her vengeance complete.

If she survived.

If…

“Vine,” Nerys said, calling her stone eyes.

Vine sat on the bed, watching her. Who cared where he bled now—she would never sleep in that bed again. “I don’t exactly disappear, you know. You can stop summoning me like a dog.”

“I know—just—argh. How do I free you?”

“What.” It wasn’t a question. Vine cocked his head. “Why would you want to know how to do that?”

“So I can do it.”

“Wait. Wait. Wait.” Vine shook his head. “Did you sample the poisons the merry nitwits sent with you? What is this? Are you sick?”

“No.” Nerys walked up to Vine. “If I die tonight, I don’t want to be stuck with you for eternity. And with our tasks done, we can go our separate ways, for good. Consider this a favor to me.”

Vine looked at her with his orange eyes. “You’re serious.”

“Unfortunately.”

“You want to free your demon.”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you worried about me—you know—betraying you, eating your soul, all those lovely things? No…don’t tell me you’ve decided I’m a demon with a heart of gold. I’m reformed .”

Nerys grimaced. She really didn’t want to spend an afterlife with him.

He leveled a gaze at her. “Your sister would kill you for doing this, you know.”

Her heart stopped. “You’ve…seen her?”

Vine shrugged. “Hard to avoid her. She’s safe, by the way. Thanks to me. She was oddly devoted to following you, but I managed to make her see sense.” He raised what should have been an eyebrow. “She’s smarter than you.”

“She had better be safe.” Nerys clenched her fist.

“She is. I’d be more worried about yourself, frankly. You should be scared of me. I ate the soul of a Sword Man for breakfast yesterday, and his servant the day before that—nasty thing, the pox.”

Adilette…

Vine had better be telling the truth, though she had no way of knowing for sure. Not right now. But she would find out what happened, someday.

Adilette, the sister who ran out in a storm when they were children after Nerys was lost in the woods.

Everyone else was ready to give up, but not Adilette.

Adilette who stabbed a bully with a fork for her.

Adilette who had taught her to read, a little.

Adilette wouldn’t want her to be distracted now.

“I know you need me alive for a few hours at least,” Nerys said. “And I’m hoping that should I survive this, you’ll be distracted and go on your way.”

“Away from you.”

“Ideally.”

“Hmm…” He looked off, deep in thought. “Interesting.”

“Can it be done?” Nerys asked, impatient. “If you want to be free, this is your chance—we don’t have time.”

Vine smiled, making her stomach flip. Oh, this was a bad idea.

So bad. But he had just as much to gain from killing Beleth as she did.

And he wouldn’t harm her, not when he needed her.

Not now. And she was not going to deal with him longer than she had to.

The feeling was very likely mutual. He held out a manacled hand and beckoned her to him with a single clawed finger. “Come closer, then. Let’s get started.”