Page 42 of This Blood That Breaks Us

She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “Speak quickly. I can already feel Her near. There are only two days out of the month I am close enough to the veil. And one of them I’m so weak I can hardly stand.”

“Good. I won’t want to speak to you again.”

The green stayed strong in her irises, and her frown deepened.

“How do we get out of here?”

“You don’t. You can’t. You can’t escape The Divine Plan. It is the most likely path, even now. Continuing to fight will only make you and your brother unhappy.”

I squeezed her arm. “Don’t talk about my brother like you care.”

“I wouldn’t hurt him.”

“You already have. You don’t even care about the girl you killed in front of him. You probably don’t even know her name.”

“Sarah was a threat to The Divine Path, and that is why she was killed. I did not do it.Youwould do well to remember that. If you try to stray from the path, they will punish you. There is no way out of this.”

“So we’re trapped here—you, me, and my brother—for the rest of eternity?”

She pulled her arm from my grasp and went to her wardrobe. “Unfortunately, yes.”

She dropped her towel to the floor and pulled out another silk nightgown.

“Why did She call me here today?”

“To keep you on the path. It’s always to keep you on Her path. She likely knew we’d have this very conversation.”

Did She know we were going to leave all along? Did She predict that too? Could She see every move? Every possibility and decision we could make. There was something unbelievably hopeless about it and, at the same time, relieving. If She was the mastermind, then we never stood a chance, and that meant it didn’t matter what I did. Right?

This was a huge problem. If Luke knew this girl was in the queen’s body, he’d never be able to let it go.

“It looks like you and I are going to be stuck together for a long time. Now, understand this, you leave Luke alone. You don’t ask for him on the new moons anymore. From now on, you ask for me.”

“Are you ordering me?” She’d slipped her dress on and climbed into her bed. The white haze was taking hold in her eyes again.

“Yes, if you really cared about my brother, you’d leave him alone.”

He gave himself away too much, and it always left him with nothing, and I wouldn’t let him do it anymore. He had nothing left to give.

Cecily stared into my eyes with what was left of her lingering in that body. A better man would have felt sorry for her, but all I felt was rage and hatred that probably had nothing to do with her. I couldn’t let her get close to Luke because he would cave. If the queen was going to ruin anyone, it should be me.

I wouldn’t tell him about this. I wouldn’t tell him anything.

Her eyes turned white again. “I will leave him alone, but it won’t work. She’ll pursue you both. And She’ll win. She always wins.”

“What do you know?”

“I can’t stay.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “She’s coming back.”

“Tell me, princess.”

“I’ve seen it. You’re both standing next to Her, guarding Her. It’s written all over the stars. A thousand times over. You look . . . so angry.”

Fuck the stars.

Fuck this place.

Fuck Her.