Because a witch told me the price months ago, while the woman I love stood four steps away.
“Anger, or indifference, or something,” the witch had said. “About a month. Then it breaks, and she feels everything it held back.”
Someone stole a month of my sister’s heart with a weapon I bought, carried, and kept while telling no one about it.
There is one man in the four realms who wanted this courtship dead, and he told me so in his own gallery.
I told him no.
He told me we would see.
Now we are seeing exactly what he meant.
“Torgan.” Saskia’s voice drops into a low warning. “What are you hiding?”
I never could hide anything from her.
“Get Ysolde, Brynna, and Mirelle,” I say. “Ma and Pa too. All of them in the hall. Now. There are things I should have said months ago.”
Harek is already moving.
Saskia doesn’t. She looks at the letter, then at me. Something dawns behind her eyes that I would give anything to stop.
“Torgan?”
“I fucked up, Saskia.” I drag both hands through my hair because I can’t think of anything else to do. “I fucked up Mirelle’s life.”
21
LISSY
I've been humming for three days.
I catch myself doing it at the cutting table, in the shower, on the stairs. The same six notes, over and over. I don't stop myself, because I'm happy. My whole body has been humming like a struck bell, and I've spent three days living on cloud nine.
The masterpiece for Mirelle's wedding dress stands on its form with the first panels pinned. The same leather from Ysolde's dress is worked into the edge of the bodice. The thread from Brynna's lies waiting, and the silver from Saskia's dress is on the spool.
Three sisters woven into one dress, waiting for the fourth to join them.
The best night of my life,I told him.In case you're lying there wondering.
And whenever I stop humming, my doubt rears its ugly head.
The needle. The oak. You know how this ends.
I've fought that doubt for three days.The fable is only a story,I tell myself. The Sunfell women in my family were only unlucky.
I am allowed, for once, to want something for myself.
The doubt mostly goes away when I hum, so I keep humming. It’s my armor against the doubt.
The bell rings, and I turn around smiling.
Delighted by who I see.
It's Ysolde. Behind her come Brynna and Mirelle, the latter wiping her boots neatly on the mat like she doesn't have a worry in the world.
Saskia comes through last.
