Page 79 of Devoured

I don’t know about the hard rules of magic, but I do know what I felt when I was sifting through Portia’s memories. Her truths. “No. I can’t bring anyone back. Besides, I can only sift through one person’s mind at a time. There were too many people at the massacre. Lyra said something to me once. She compared time to a tapestry where every stitch is made by someone’s choices. I don’t think I can undo much more than a stitch at a time, if that, and if I did… I don’t know what sort of consequences it might have. Cora compared it to dominoes toppling. I flick one, and hundreds of others might collapse with it.”

Evie whirls around abruptly. Probably so we won’t see her face fall. Won’t know just how disappointed she is in this moment. For a second, she thought there was a chance her family and Nettie might come back. And now she has to grieve them all over again. “I see.”

Portia clears her throat, straightening before wandering back to her spot on the floor, where she continues to weave her crown as if nothing important happened in the last half hour. And maybe nothing has happened. Even with my powers, we still have no real plan. “Are you feeling better now?” she asks me.

“A little. It’s still tender.” I press a gentle finger to my temple and flinch.

“I’m sorry.” She grows a tendril of ivy around the floral crown. “Although… it’s useful to know what your limits are. We can’t expect you to use your powers more than once every few days. Even when you practice, you’ll need to do it when you know Cora won’t call on you. Maybe you’ll be able to build up your tolerance, like a muscle, but even then—if Cora needs your powers, she’ll want them in that moment. She won’t be pleased if you’re out of commission for a day because you’re hurt.” Shutting her eyes, Portia exhales slowly. “We need to know why she wants your powers too. Why would she go through all this trouble for—”

“Think about it, Portia.” Evie finally turns back to face us. Her eyes are too bright, as if she’s been fighting tears. “With this, Cora could change entire lines of succession. If Vanessa erases the Regent of Africa, she could potentially erase the entire royal family. Cora would have no problem taking control of the entire world. It’d just be a chess game for her to win. The battles would be few and far between, so long as she could get Vanessa in front of her victims. And no one would know. Not really. Not the depths of her abilities. Because we can hardly remember her using them at all.” She shakes her head. “Vanessa is like radiation, Portia. She can wipe out an entire country if you use her right.”

Fuck.

My stomach threatens to churn all over again as the warmth of truth spreads through my chest. Cora will do everything Evie said and more. She’ll make the Ascension massacre look like child’s play, and no one will ever suspect her.

Suspect me.

Portia straightens determinedly. “That isn’t going to happen. I need to send letters to the other courts. You already made me that special ink that disappears if anyone other than the intended intercepts it.”

“I still don’t think pen pals should be our highest priority right now,” Evie says.

Portia glares at her. “We are hopeless without other allies. This is war, Evie, even if Cora uses Vanessa like a nuclear bomb.”

“Exactly,” Evie says. “Bloodshed and battlefields.”

“No. Allegiances and strategy. Cora’s werewolves have proven themselves strong. We’ll need numbers in order to beat her. She’s not going to die easily, and she’s already making other allies. She’s growing her pack. There will be other monsters to follow her if we kill her at the wrong moment,” Portia says, the crown trembling in her hands. “The Realm of Superiority has begun to close outside Castle Severi. We can use that to our advantage with the other courts—it isn’t natural. It shouldn’t be happening. And even if Cora gives them a far-fetched explanation, there’s no way for them to know it won’t happen to their courts too. We need to tell them Cora is a blight. She is an infection that must be cut out. Before the Mating Rite. Before you two are… before you…”

“We know,” Evie says.

“Will you tell them?” I ask. “About me?”

Because there is one obvious way to prevent Cora from rewriting history. The other courts will see it, even if Portia doesn’t want to say it aloud. Despite her connections—and Evie’s—the safety and security of their territories will matter more to the other courts than the life of one girl.

They’ll kill me.

“I don’t know.” Concern shines bright in Portia’s eyes as she glances at me. “I don’t know that we can trust anyone with that information just yet.”

“Your father,” Evie says. “We can at least tell your father and make sure Canada is on our side. Maybe you can correspond with Asia on my behalf too. Just to see if I have any allies out there. Anyone left. But the others…” She too throws a wary look my way. “I don’t know either.”

Portia bites her lip, clearly deep in thought. A moment of quiet fills the room until Evie lets out an aggravated sigh. “We have to hope there are others like us. Others who don’t want to worship a conquering madwoman.”

Evie moves to the bed, sitting as far from me as possible. I pretend not to notice. “I just wish we could know what she’s planning and when she’s planning it. We’re screwed if she attacks too soon. If she uses Vanessa too quickly. We can’t recover yet. We’ve hardly even begun to fight back.” She burrows her hands in her hair and tugs the strands painfully taut. Fear seeps into the room, like a bittersweet rot growing from the walls, the ceiling, the floor. Hers, mine, even Portia’s.

It feels like déjà vu. As if I’m still on that beach at midnight, watching the queen snap Evie’s neck, only for Evie to show up alive a day later.

I’m always a dozen steps behind Cora. “What are we going to do?”

Portia grows flowers beneath her fingers, along the ivy of her crown, and speaks with deliberate calm. “I’m going to correspond with the other courts. Not to tell them about you explicitly—not yet—but to gauge their attitudes. To plant seeds of doubt. You’re going to keep practicing with your powers. Evie will keep watching Cora’s werewolves to make sure Cora doesn’t have any other hidden weapons in her midst.” She meets my eyes directly then, and to my surprise, I find she’s calm. Quiet purpose radiates from her with a sincerity that leaves even Evie staring. The fear is still there, yes, but it isn’t everything. “And Vanessa?”

“Y-yes?”

“We need to start researching your purple eyes. They have to be connected to your magic somehow, and the more information we uncover, the more we’ll understand how to use your powers. The more we’ll understand how to keep you safe from them too.” Evie opens her mouth to agree, or maybe even argue, but Portia lifts a hand to silence her. “Cora won’t want you using the library, Evie, but I’ve kept in the queen’s favor so far. Let me see if there’s any precedent for… any of this. Even with the records burned, there must be something out there for us to find.”

I sigh. Evie sighs. Even Portia sighs as she resumes growing pretty pastel flowers through the ivy. Silence draws tight around us. Neither of them knows what else to say, and neither do I. I’d hoped this conversation would help illuminate some plan or idea that might save us, but it’s only made us all the more confused.

I don’t understand my powers. Evie has been promised to a brutish warrior. And Portia—Portia is going to send letters. We have to hope letters will fix this. All before the Mating Rite, which looms closer by the day. Less than two months away.

Portia sighs once more before throwing her crown onto the bed. It lands on Evie’s lap. Evie stares down at it as if it’s poisonous. “What is this?”