Page 29

CHAPTER 29

L aena had not expected to open her eyes again.

The stars were fading when she did, their light still cool and bright even as dawn washed them from the sky, as if they wished they could use their light to soothe the pain that radiated from her core.

She’d seen Callum’s face, the hardness in his eyes. He’d asked if she trusted him. The last thing she remembered was the feeling of his arms around her, the desperation to tell him… something. Where was he now? Her thoughts were slippery, her memory fogged. He would not have left her, surely.

Laena rolled over, retching bile into the grass, the soft blades brushing her cheek.

“That’s it, sister. Take it slowly.”

She startled as Katrina touched her shoulder with a gentleness that sent a surge of suspicion shuddering through her mind. Katrina was many things, but gentle had never been one of them.

Laena was trembling, her body aching as if one more spasm would heave the pain from her core. It took a monumental effort to slide her elbow under her body and work her muscles just enough to tilt herself at an angle so she could look up.

Katrina should not be here. It made no sense. And yet here she was, golden curls shining in the early-morning sun, a smile crinkling the skin around her mouth. As if Laena were the younger sister, and Katrina the indulgent elder.

Why did she not have an entourage, a guard of soldiers? And where was Declan?

Questions. So many questions, and only one that mattered. Laena coughed, and her throat spasmed in pain. “Where… where is he?”

Katrina sat on the grass in front of her, reaching forward to caress her cheek with the back of her hand. “ He, dear sister, has abandoned you. Just like everyone else.”

“He wouldn’t.”

Katrina stroked her cheek gently, the back of her nails skimming over Laena’s skin. Her hand felt cool, though Laena suspected it was only in contrast to her own fevered heat. “And yet he did.” Katrina might have been putting a child down to sleep, for the soothing, sing-song tone in her voice. “He was all too eager to leave you here on the side of the road. All too eager to leave you in my care.”

“Because I told him I trusted you.”

“What an egregious mistake.”

Laena’s head was spinning. Her thoughts tumbled around as her fevered mind tried to put the pieces together.

Katrina’s nails bit into Laena’s skin, sharp and stinging. Before Laena could pull away, Kat dug her fingertips deeper into the flesh of her cheek and dragged them down, drawing rivulets of blood down her face.

Laena scrambled back, pushing herself away from her sister and farther into the road. “What the demons was that?”

“They don’t like that term, you know.” Katrina was examining the blood on her fingertips. “They find it offensive. ”

Laena squeezed her eyes shut, raising a hand to her stinging cheek. Who found it offensive?

But she knew, didn’t she? She already knew.

Katrina stood, brushing invisible dirt from her skirts before waltzing over to where Laena lay. Even the simple act of pushing away from her had cost Laena what little energy she had left; she was panting, every breath like a stab to her chest as the inferno continued to crackle within her core. There was still a spark of cold there, like the last spot of frost before the spring. But it would not last long. She could feel it dying.

She didn’t know what would happen when it failed.

Kat reached down and took her wrist, and Laena felt something crack as she squeezed, the bones caving to her unnatural strength.

And through the cloying scent of lilies, Laena caught the rank burn of a heart-tithe.

“It’s simple, Laena,” Kat said. “The mages will return. When they do, they will allow me to keep my throne.”

“How?” Laena choked.

“I kill you, and I kill Hawk. Clearing the way for them.” She said it like it was just another item on her to-do list. Visit the seamstress. Select new wallpaper. Meet with the council. Kill Laena and Hawk.

“And what of Silerith?”

It might have been her imagination, but she thought Kat’s expression darkened. “Silerith is none of my concern. My powers will be unmatched, enough to open the barrier. What do I care about Silerith?”

Clearly, she did care.

But the mages could have asked this of anyone; it needn’t have been a queen. And Laena? Laena was nothing. Less than nothing. Why unearth her from her life in the middle of nowhere? Why drag her back when she had already been dealt with ?

Callum had been right to ask it. He had been right about everything.

Katrina released her arm, dropping her into the dirt. Pain lanced through her as she caught herself with her injured side, and Katrina smiled, drinking in the power of Laena’s pain. More pain meant more power, and Kat clearly intended to draw this out.

But Laena was not without her own power.

Digging deep, she scraped the bottom of her reserves, reaching for that final spark of frost, for the last dregs of her power. Bile rose in her throat, thick and hot, as she threw a blast of cold air in her sister’s face.

The world flickered, white-hot pain coiling deeper into her, pushing out through her arms, her legs. She was made of pain; it was all there was.

Katrina raised a hand, catching a snowflake on one fingertip and examining it like it was something to be dissected. Something to be used. “You know, I had wondered. They seem singularly concerned with your demise. They had me plant the blight in your garden. I suppose that this”—she gestured to the pitiful flurry of snowflakes—“would explain why. They don’t like magic that isn’t their own.”

Kat had allowed the assassins in; she’d attempted to kill them at sea. Had she been waiting there, watching? Ready to scoop them out of the water so she could be the one to end Laena herself? No doubt this was why she had charged Milla with kidnapping Laena, rather than ending her right there in the woods.

Katrina needed the tithe, the sacrifice to the mages.

Laena reached for her magic again, but this time it slid away from her, as if reluctant to poison her with more heat. She was burning from the inside out, sweat trickling down her back, along her hairline.

Kat knelt before her and produced a dagger from within her sleeve, sliding the blade out like an extension of herself. “Contrary to what you may believe, I do love you. It’s just that I love power more.”

There wasn’t much time. Heartbeats only. But Laena would be damned if she was the reason for the mages’ return.

Calling on the last reserves of strength her body could offer, Laena launched herself at Kat, surprising her sister enough to wrest the dagger from Kat’s hands.

Instead of slashing at Katrina, Laena turned the blade on herself.

Katrina screamed in rage, leaping toward her. But as the blade bit into Laena’s neck, she knew she could be content with the fact that her sister would be too late to claim Laena’s death as her own.

A body slammed into her from the side, spilling her into the dirt and knocking the knife out of her hands.

“Not yet, my lady.” Callum’s voice was soft in her ear, the promise of it making her want to weep with relief. “We still have a world to save.”