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13
MIA
“I can’t touch her,” I tell Vanessa the next day, shuddering as I sink down on her bed. “Can’t help them. She makes them suffer to drive me away.”
“And you offered Ophelia a favor, any favor, to save Sindri from one night with a fae girl? Am I understanding this correctly?”
“Yes.”
“Are you crazy?” Vanessa puts her hands on her hips. “You’re playing right into her hands. Now she’s holding something over you that she can claim anytime she likes. Most likely at a time when you’ll need any advantage you can get but will instead give it up to her.”
“I couldn’t let him be used like that. I won’t allow rape, Van.”
“He’s a fae prince! He has magic and can defend himself.”
“You haven’t looked at them properly lately, have you? And you don’t know what happened to Sindri in the past, or in the last couple of days.”
Her bright brown eyes are on me. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not sure what happened to him growing up, only that his mother and father were from different courts. It seems to have made for a difficult childhood, and I’m starting to understand that difficult means violent.”
“Mia—”
“And then a couple of days ago he was taken away from the Academy by a fae elder. You see, Sindri asked a couple of favors from the elders on my behalf. He asked them for money to pay for my tuition. I didn’t know. And he’s been digging into what happened to his mother. She’s dead, by the way. We found out recently.” I rub a hand over my face, hoping to clear the fog hanging over my mind. “This elder took him away, slowed time down and tortured him for days, only for Ophelia to rescue him and find the opportunity to dig in her hook and get him under her enchantment.”
Vanessa blinks. “Dear God.”
“You see now. I couldn’t let him be hurt more. I can’t.”
“Girl.” Vanessa sighs and sits down beside me. “Stop this. Stop making them into real people. I can’t stand it.”
“They are real people. And it’s the truth.”
“You won’t make me care for them.”
“That doesn’t change who they are and all the good they’ve done. You may choose not to see, but that doesn’t mean the evidence isn’t out there.”
She leans back on her elbows. “Whatever. I don’t care about them. I only care about stopping Ophelia.”
“Right. Well, I’ve been thinking about that line in Ophelia’s diary, about the burden… Their families did terrible things and put the blame on them. Used guilt to manipulate them. How can I prove it, though?”
“Call the families here, if you think that’s what happened. Trick them into confessing.”
“Oh yeah. Piece of cake.”
“Come on, though. Believing their families would fabricate lies and making them believe they committed crimes…” She clucks her tongue. “The simplest solution is usually the right one. They did commit those crimes. Why else would their families concoct such elaborate plots to implicate them?”
“Because these boys have more power than their entire races combined? Elemental magic the likes of which hasn’t been seen in centuries. And their families know that a Queen Witch is out there, trying to use them?”
“So they’re the victims here?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you’re talking a lot of bull.” But her eyes search mine again, uncertain.
“Just like you thought Ophelia’s selfless goal was to bring justice to the world?”
Vanessa heaves a weary sigh. “This discussion is going nowhere. We don’t have facts.”
