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“No.” The witch laughed.
“I’m sure Dace would be happy to set you free if you could help us just a little?”
Ryker was hopeful. It was one of the many things I loved about her. The witch had said no and she still thought she could get the answer.
“I’ve already explained this to your king—drunk bastard if you ask me.” Geeta spat at my feet. “There is not a cure unless the witch who created the spell put in a loophole of some sort. His only relief will be death, and until then he will only grow angrier and angrier until he takes his own life.”
I’d thought Ryker had been pale out in the hallway when we spoke about children; I’d been wrong when in comparison, now, she was white as snow.
“No, no. That can’t be,” she said with a hiss. “How can we figure out what witch created the spell?”
“You’re looking at her,” Geeta growled.
“Why? Why would you do that?” Ryker sat on her knees, leaning toward the witch like she meant to grab her by the throat.
“Because I wanted to survive, and to do that I had to complete the spells that King Ganglin told me to. He wanted your friend to go mad, and mad he will go.”
“Why would King Ganglin do that to Daethian?” Ryker’s wide eyes turned to me. The threat of tears shone and I bent down to take her hand.
“To get to you is my guess.” I pressed my lips into her fingers, leaving the slightest kiss on her hand.
“You knew there wasn’t a cure?” She ripped her hand from mine. My skin buzzed with the sudden lack of touch. “She said she already told you this. Why would you use her as leverage to get me to come here?”
“I thought she was lying!”
“But you still could have told me that.”
Jesseline shrunk into herself as she watched, doing what assassins did best, and blended in. She certainly wasn’t going to be any help. Neither was the damn witch. Geeta’s smile grew until all her flesh-ripping teeth caught the shine of the Fae fire.
“So I left out a detail.” I shrugged in an attempt to make the fight seem more casual. As my shoulders fell, heat darkened Ryker’s face.
“This is important to me.”
“I know,” I pleaded, “It’s important to me too. My parents’ deaths can’t be for nothing. I kept this damn burgundy witch,” I huffed, pointing at Geeta, who still smiled at us, “to help you. I kept her to get answers and she slaughtered them all.” I lowered myself, grabbing the front of Geeta’s beat up garment. “I should have killed you on those steps.”
“Yes, you should have.” She nodded.
My hand went to my belt. It would be easy to end it all now. If she wasn’t of any use to us, why keep her around? A warm hand covered mine and I froze.
“Just stop.” Ryker sighed. “Let’s go breathe and we can come back to this later.”
Or I could kill her now?
Kill her now, Dace. Do it. Just do it.
Your father would do it if it was him.
No, no, no. You’re not your father.
I tried to take deep breaths to clear the struggle inside my head. Maybe Ryker was right. I wasn’t exactly sane right now. I needed a break.
“Fine.” Fingers slipping from the thin material of Geeta’s shirt, I scowled as her head bounced off the wall. Then I was turning, fleeing the room altogether.
“Nice to see you,” Jesseline called sarcastically.
We entered the hallway, pulling the heavy door shut behind us. Ryker was already talking, her hand working the air as she tried to figure out solutions.
“I’ve got to tell Hattie; she’ll know what to do. And King Windre, he has a huge library according to Graceson. We could look there some more. It’ll take time, but we have to keep looking for answers. I can’t accept ‘no.’ I won't.”
