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“We’ve had word,” Leif says, limping toward us to hand Einar a rolled-up piece of parchment.
“Already?” I ask.
Though, in a country with dragons and magically growing fantastical cats, I’m not sure why I’m surprised.
The king quickly unfurls the letter, his eyes scanning its contents before he nods.
“Right. He’s close, then. I’ll be leaving immediately.”
Leif nods and opens the main door to the king’s room to signal something to the guards before heading back to Sigrid.
"Who did you write to?” I ask while Einar throws a few of his journals and vials with various plants into a satchel.
"My ambassador. He has been helping me. Last I heard from him, he believed he might be on to an antidote, but that was months ago --” He pauses, sighing. “When they took a sharp turn for the worse."
I nod, but then something strikes me, and the room begins to spin.
Right before I got here. Right before I was sent here, last minute, more like it, by an ambassador. Like the one allegedly helping him.
He casts a sideways glance at the tapestry on his wall before turning away.
“I’m coming with you,” I announce as he reaches for the door.
“The hell you are,” he commands with finality before slamming the door shut behind him.
I feel frozen in a flurry of emotions. My pride makes me want to chase after him and insist. My fear makes me want to stay with Sigrid. My rage wants to shatter everything in this room. But Madame’s voice in the back of my head is telling me something else entirely.
It makes sense now, why Madame had chosen this castle. How she knew it had been weakened from the inside. How many people in the world have the knowledge to turn a person into an animal, or even a version of one?
Haven’t I seen her do this before, or at least something similar?
So many things are clearer now. I wish they weren’t. I wish I could go back to when the king was just a cold bastard and I was just the bride he purchased. Because all of this knowledge and insight, even though it feels like it changes everything, it changes nothing in the end.
But when has wishing ever gotten me anywhere? That was one of the first lessons Madame taught after she obtained me.
After shestoleme.
Khijhana presses herself against my leg as though she senses my despair, and I let her, because I lied before when I told Einar I am not a monster.
I’m just not nearly as much of one as the creature who made me. The one who plucked me from my home and molded me to suit her needs.
The one who poisoned this entire castle.
Chapter Thirty-Five
It doesn’t take long for me to decide to explore the passage in his room again. The way he looked at it before he left told me enough to know that it’s important.
I must have missed something.
I push the tapestry aside and scan the wall before my eyes snag on the stone brick that sticks out just a bit farther than the others. I press it, and it gives way to reveal a solid stone door. I open it to the winding staircase, this time feeling the walls along the way for anything I may not have seen the first few times I was here, during all those weeks he left me to my devices.
Khijhana mews and tentatively climbs the steps while I slide the heavy door back into place. The motion brings Einar’s words back to mind.
The hell you willas he slammed the door.
Slammed the door. Ordered me to stay.
He doesn’t even realize the web that’s being woven around him, and the stubborn bastard refuses to trust me, refuses to believe that I might be able to help him.
