Page 51

Everly

M ore blood greeted me in the hallway.

A handful of the rooms might have been clear, but no part of the estate was truly left untouched.

I trusted that Draven had been thorough in his search for remaining frostbeasts, and still I tiptoed on silent footfalls, stepping around the dark spatters on the ground.

Every creak had the hair on the back of my neck rising.

I clutched my towel tighter around me, trying to ward off the chill that was steadily seeping back into my bones.

The sounds of quiet sobs reached me from the room across the hall as one of the maids wrestled with her demons from today. Through another door, I heard the cook muttering prayers, again and again, as if the Shard Mother was listening.

I forced down a wave of bitterness as I focused on my sister’s door at the end of the hall, flickering beneath the low light of a lantern. I hesitated when I reached it. We had never knocked at home, but these were not ordinary circumstances, and I had never been to the Estate.

My father had never allowed it, and the guards at the estate answered to him. Wynnie’s husband had agreed, of course, since I was a bastard. It was the main reason she had never been able to stand him.

I added it to the list of things that settled like cold-iron in the pit of my stomach. Perhaps she could have loved him without that chasm between them. She could’ve been happy without the shadow of the sister she always needed to protect.

Then again, I supposed Fate always would have led us here. Only Nevara knew.

Thinking about her warnings and her tears was more than I could handle right now, so I stuffed them down, raising my hand to knock lightly before I could overthink it anymore.

It sounded too loud in the silence. I was half convinced that another Wretch was going to appear, masquerading as my sister this time. Or a Tharnok, ready to devour me whole.

“Wynnie?” I called.

A beat of silence passed, just enough time for panic to rise in my chest while I imagined all the ends Wynnie might have met in the brief time since I left her side.

Then the door swung open. I let out a breath when I took in her damp curls, wild and unruly as ever.

“Evy?” She swept a glance over me. “Did you not see the nightdress I left you?”

I gestured to the stack in my arms and shrugged.

“I see,” she said softly, stepping back to allow me entry.

“Well, if you need something else, you can take your pick,” she gestured toward the piles of fabric on the small sofa. “I stocked up, so I didn’t have to go back…”

She trailed off, eyes going somewhere I couldn’t see.

I squeezed my eyes shut when I realized what she meant. She hadn’t sent her maid. She had traipsed back into the room with her husband’s body, most likely alone.

“I would have gone for you,” I told her quietly, opening my eyes.

“I know,” she said simply, rifling through the clothes until she found something loose enough to accommodate my curves. “But you had already done enough.”

“By showing up just in time to let your husband and your entire estate be slaughtered?” I asked bitterly.

Her gaze snapped up to mine as she shoved the fabric into my hands. “By showing up in time to save the lives you could. My life, and the lives I’m responsible for… which was more than I could have hoped for.”

“You’re too stubborn to die,” I muttered, like I hadn’t driven myself half to madness with worry for her.

“Oh, is that all it takes? Then I suppose you’ll live forever.” She shook her head, turning to pour us both a glass of water from a pitcher. She cooled them with her hands, like she always did, before setting them on the nightstands.

I pulled on the underwear and nightgown, and the slightest hint of a smile threatened to break through the horrors of the day.

“I’ll stay with you tonight,” I announced once I was dressed.

She glanced up from putting the glass down, meeting my eyes in a mirror that hung just over the low table. Questions churned in her gaze, but she didn’t voice them aloud.

Looking at our side-by-side reflections, it wasn’t hard to understand why. We both looked…tired. Young and old at the same time.

Or maybe I just felt that way, standing by my sister in a nightgown that was too long, my wet hair just dark enough to resemble my mother’s midnight shade, the color it had been when I was younger, and freshly clean from the blood.

It was strangely reminiscent of our first night together, except that now Wynnie was suffering too.

Even in the reflection, I could see clearly the pink tint to her eyes and the puffy circles that hung underneath. She was exhausted, and whatever her relationship with her husband had been like, some part of her had to be grieving.

So she just nodded, climbing into bed and patting the spot next to her, just as she had back then.

I crawled in next to her, soaking in her familiar scent of snowdrops and honey, using it to chase away the faint smell of blood that still wafted in from underneath the door.

Minutes crept by in silence where neither of us slept. Her breathing was still uneven, hitching enough to belie her steely facade.

I stretched my hand toward hers, linking our pinkies together. She squeezed back, another breath hitching.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “About Yorrick.”

She sighed and stared up at the ceiling. The moonlight caught on her profile, highlighting the slight furrowing of her brow and the tremble in her lips.

“So am I,” she said, clearing her throat. “He had a lot of mana. He probably could’ve found a way to save himself if he hadn’t spent so much time saving me. The seconds he spent barricading me in was time that would have saved his life.”

“I’m glad that he did.” It was probably an insensitive thing to say, but it was true.

I would choose her life every time.

“I know,” she said simply. “And…I’m sorry, too.”

My brow furrowed. “About what?”

She took a breath, her weight shifting as she rolled to face me, never dropping my hand.

“Because I know you never meant to care about the king. And I know what it means that you do.”

I didn’t respond. She was right, and we both knew it. As hard as I had fought it, I did care about Draven.

And that was dangerous for us all.