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“But your vows?”Perry asked her.
“I’ll have to fulfill my promises to Baba Yaga, give up my life in the human realm, and stay here.”The truth of her promise hit her.A truth full of regret and wishes for things that could never be.She and Perry had no chance at a future if hers was rooted in a world where he couldn’t or wouldn’t stay.
“Vori.”His whisper echoed her sadness.
She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t face what she was giving up, couldn’t let herself hope.“Kradnovtl needs all four of us royals here.Alive.”
“Fascinating.”Petra’s tone skipped light and easy over the word, as if they’d been discussing a favorite teen soap instead of a realm’s destiny.“Except I’m not staying, and my sister’s blood didn’t open the glass.She’s not arealroyal.Not like us.”
“Blood aside, we are nothing alike.”Vori couldn’t be the same, or she’d definitely go mad.
“You sure about that?We’re both goblin, royals, tied to the human realm and Baba Yaga.Only you agreed to give up our world’s most powerful weapon, to surrender it without ever wielding it.So sad.”Petra tipped her head.“And now, your pity for those like my sister?The other realm spoiled you, made you soft.Mercy isn’t the goblin way.”
“Maybe it should be.”Although it wasn’t all forgive and forget.The sisters would have to be kept under armed guard in the dungeon.Funny how fast the royal roles had reversed.
“No.Our way, thegoblinway is brutal.”Petra’s sugary sweet voice sounded so wrong with those words.“Baba Yaga gave me everything because she thought I was you, and with the amethysts, I can reforge the wicked crown.”
“To do what?”Vori asked.“Why would anyone want to do that after the lives it has destroyed?”
“Because greed has always been the goblin way.We steal, we vanquish our enemies, and we don’t forgive the unforgiveable.”In one quick movement, she pulled a knife and plunged it into her sister’s neck.Red poured over them both.
Artanya grabbed for the handle, stilling for a second that seemed to stretch into an eternity.Silence—the horrible kind where no one dared to move or talk or breathe—filled the room with a terrifying hush.The only noise?A dying woman choking on her own blood.
Shock tore through Vori like an explosion.The whoosh of a windstorm sounded in her ears, and she struggled to suck in air through sudden sickness.
The pretender queen was dead.
