“And was she happy to see you?”
Gideon paused, not understanding the question.
Cressida sliced swiftly downward, cutting open the jacket and the shirt beneath. The fabric fell open, revealing Gideon’s chest.
The corner of her mouth curled as her gaze slid from his throat down. He knew that look. It made him break out in a cold sweat.
“You stole everything from me, Gideon.”
“I’m pretty sure it was the other way around.”
“I want to forgive you. I do.”
Forgivehim?
“After you murdered my sisters, I wanted you to suffer. I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I’d do to you, once I had you in my hands again. And I’ve realized… well, I’mindebtedto you.”
He stared at her.
Had she gone mad?
Cressida took his jaw in her grip, forcing him to look at her. Her ice-blue eyes chilled him to his core.
“You made me realize how much I took my sisters for granted. How much Ineedthem. Elowyn, Analise, and I are so much stronger together. Which is why”—she bared her teeth in a smile—“I’m going to bring them back.”
She’d definitely gone mad.
“Your sisters are nothing but bones in the ground.” He didn’t know this for certain. Analise and Elowyn’s bodies went missing in the chaos of the New Dawn. People had assumed the corpses were stolen and defiled or thrown into the mass graves reserved for witches killed in the revolution.
“Oh, Gideon.” Cressida laughed. “You think I’d let my sisters rot?” She shook her head, sending her pale hair scattering like snow. “I hid their bodies somewhere safe. For two years, I’ve kept them preserved with magic.”
“That’s not possible.”
But this was Cressida Roseblood. He knew exactly what she was capable of.
“A resurrection spell simply requires the sacrifice of a close kin—someone with strong blood ties to the deceased.” She tilted her head, narrowing her eyes. “I could do it in my sleep.”
“Your entire family is dead,” Gideon pointed out. “You don’t have any kin.”
“Oh, but it turns out I do.”
He frowned.What?
“A long-lost sibling.” She smiled. “Unfortunately, I don’t know who or where they are. All the sibyls in my employ can’t See them. Someone’s concealed them with an ancient spell—for now.”
A missing Roseblood heir?
Dread filled his chest like lead. Cressida alone was one thing. She might retake her throne, but she’d struggle to hold it by herself. With the purgings, witch numbers had drastically declined. People remembered the tyranny at the Reign of Witches’ end, and they would not welcome its return. She’d have to use force and fear—which was precisely why she needed Soren’s army.
Does Rune know about this?
Elowyn and Analise were the more powerful—and the more vicious—Roseblood sisters. They had tortured Gideon’s mother and were the reason both his parents were dead. If Cressida resurrected them, it would mean the return of all three witch queens. Together, they would end the New Republic.
“But enough about that.” Cressida’s hands coasted up the lapels of Gideon’s jacket, pushing it and his tattered shirt back over his shoulders and down his arms, staring all the while at the brand seared into his pectoral.
Her brand.
“Let’s talk aboutus. I’m doing this for your own good, Gideon.”
