Page 138 of Traitor Witch

On and on it goes. There's none of the sickness of before, thanks to the new shadow sigils which still twinge on my spine. Since they were inked into my flesh, perceiving the world in both forms has become second nature. No more nausea, just endless repetition.

Petra had to direct the sigil witch as she spread agony over my body. Alletta gave me a lot of sigils, but there are a few known only to Shadows.

And there are only ever two Shadows alive at one time. One mentor, one student.

Petra is dying. Soon it will be just me.

The sole remaining Shadow until another is born. Responsible for preserving thousands of years of lore and tradition.

In the last week, Petra's made it her mission to drive that point home at every opportunity.

She also likes to repeatedly point out that I'm the worst Shadow she's ever taught. So it's not uncommon for our sessions to end with me chucking whatever sharp and pointy objects I can find at the old hag.

They never hit her.

She might be old, but she's still as lethal as me. If I'm honest, she's more so.

That annoys me almost as much as her constant criticism. Not that I have the energy to do anything about it when she's done with me at dawn each day. She's kept me so exhausted from training that I've not even managed to badger her about Alletta, and Sophie has disappeared—doing whatever it is a Solar High Priestess does.

My curiosity is still there, but I have no other leads.

"Again!"

"Enoughalready." I flop down onto the floor of the terrace we're practising on, the tiles against my back and the cool night breeze on my front feel so good against my skin. "I need a break."

"You need to get back on your feet before I make you," Petra retorts. "You think the palace guards will grant you a break before they tie your limbs to a rack and rip you apart?"

"If you're so sure I'll fail, why are you even bothering to train me?"

"The Goddess demands it."

I shake my head. "There's more to it than that. Why does the Goddess want the human queen dead? Why does theEagle of Galmere force my pirates to ferry siren scales and fae dust? What's it all for?"

Petra frowns, worrying her lip with her lower teeth. "I suppose it is time you knew. Tell me, what's the greatest gift given to humans by the Goddesses?"

Is this a trick? "Mortality. To know time is against you and feel all the wonders of the world—good and bad—more keenly for it. Never ageing into true indifference as immortals do." Every Lunar witch knows that.

"What if I told you that hundreds of years ago, the human royals discovered a potion capable of granting immortality?"

"Impossible. That's just... impossible." Yes, I know I'm repeating myself, but the idea is just mind-blowing.

Yes, the monarchy live long lives—compared to most humans, anyway—but that's supposed to be a gift of the Sun Goddess. Not a potion.

Petra smiles, but it's a grim expression. "They call it the Mortal Cure. It was first used by the Queen's mother."

"If that's true, how is she dead?" The Dowager Queen died of heartbreak after her own son tried to assassinate her and the Eagle of Galmere executed him for it. "Everyone knows the story of Prince Dorian's betrayal. It's legendary."

"It's legendary because the story has been twisted beyond recognition and made to serve the Queen," Petra snaps. "The truth is Dowager Queen Eleanor was a ruthless bitch who taught her children that in order to rule, one of them had to kill the other, promising that the child who lived would rule side by side with her for eternity."

She sighs, scrubbing a palm across her forehead and takes a seat on the balustrade which separates us from the plunging drop below. She seems even older in this moment, somehow fragile for all her snark and bluster.

"Prince Dorian was the younger of her two children," she continues. "He lived through hundreds of Catherine'sattempts to kill him over the three years between the invention of their elixir and his death. He endured and even retaliated a handful of times until his wife gave birth to twin daughters. He became afraid for his girls. Parenthood has a funny way of making even the most apathetic person want to change the world for the better," the soft smile on her face makes me wonder if Petra's ever had children. "The prince planned to escape with his whole family and live in exile.

"His idea might have worked, but the idiot put his trust in the wrong people. Princess Catherine—as she was then—convinced her mother that his cowardice made him unsuitable for the throne, and together, they framed her brother. Only a few months later, when it was clear Dowager Queen Eleanor wouldn't share power as she'd promised, Catherine poisoned her own mother with the very elixir she believed made her invincible."

It's so messed up I don't want to accept it. Don't want to believe that anyone could do that to their family.

"And no one noticed? Not one person knew the truth in a palace full of servants and courtiers?"