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Better for Magda and others to believe her loose with her associations than careless with her heart.
“Plan to stand there all day, do you?” Magda’s shingly snarl returned her to the present.
Holding her tongue was sometimes the only form of power Anastazja had in the otherwise excruciatingly lopsided association. She instead stepped inside the small cave and shrugged off her layers of cloaks, piling them neatly in a corner as she always did.
She returned in her gown and boots, but Magda extended an arm toward the corner and shook her head. “All of it this time.”
Anastazja’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean ‘all of it’?”
Magda snapped her fingers. “Gown. Undergarments. Boots. Off.”
Ana’s flesh tingled, the first part of her to awaken to the meaning of Magda’s request. “But I’ve been shifting just fine in my clothing.”
“You won’t be needing your clothing when you return.” Magda’s outstretched arm was a solid monolith, unyielding. “Now.”
“It’s far too cold for that!” Ana exclaimed, though her reply was only a cover for the dread creeping around her heart like fingers of ice. Naked. Magda wanted her to lure a ravennaked,and every plausible explanation for the demand was worse than the last. Ana glanced toward the cave entrance like a cornered animal readying for encroaching danger, but Magda didn’t bother trying to block her escape. They both knew it wasn’t herself Ana was afraid for.
“You’re a Wynter. You carry the blood of the wulf. Of the Vjestik. The cold won’t kill you, but if you don’t take the rest of your clothes off, you can be certain I will.” Magda’s boots creaked on the patches of ice as she came closer. “Will be no bother to me. A tad ahead of schedule, you dying, but Niko will make a fine replacement for our endeavoring, until I tire of him as well.”
The threat worked. It always worked. Dangling her brother’s fate was the real power Magda held. It wasn’t her dark magic, nor her calculated, ancient evil. It was Ana’s unwavering belief that once she was gone, Nikolaj would first take her place and then be disposed of when his purpose had been served.
Heavy with trepidation, Ana moved slowly toward where she’d left her furs. Her hands trembled as she pulled at the stays of her gown, releasing them one by one. As always, her mind spun around ways out of the hold Magda had over her, but as always, she found none.
Shivering, with one arm crossed over her chest and the other covering her nethers, Ana shuffled back to the crone.
Magda nodded approvingly. “Yes. That’ll do.” She clapped her hands twice. “Splendid. Tell me the rules.”
Ana’s teeth clacked. “Inspect... isolate... lure. No...” She fought violent shivers. “No high priestesses. No heirs. No spares. Find... Find one who won’t be missed.” That last rule was the worst, the most foreboding, because she didn’t understand what it meant. After she lured them for the koldyna, her part was over. And Magda always released the ravens when her endeavoring was done.
Can I be certain about that?
“Yes.” Magda’s empty amber eyes were lifeless pools. “No women this time. You don’t return until you have a suitable raven male, and Guardians help you if you’re still flying around at nightfall.”
“Why no women this time?” Ana was stalling. She already knew the answer. She just wasn’t ready to acknowledge it.
Magda sneered. “Questions are not a part of this arrangement. You know that.” She stepped closer and tipped a gnarled finger under Ana’s chin, lifting it. Her chiseled nail dug into the soft flesh. “You won’t be returning to the cave. You remember your way to the observatory, from the sky?”
Ana nodded.Why the observatory,she almost asked but didn’t.
Questions were unwelcome. The less she understood, the better. Her ignorance to the specifics of Magda’s endeavoring was the mortar holding together the loose bricks of her steadily crumbling life.
“Observatory,” Ana repeated with a protracted exhale. She squinted into the dense squall forming outside the cave. She’d warm up once she shifted, but what about when she landed again?
You won’t be needing your clothing when you return.
Don’t think about it. Don’t you dare let your thoughts wander down that path. There’s no coming back.
Tyreste’s crooked grin appeared in her mind. She heard his giggles—rare but so real, so pure, and so wonderful—and felt his calloused hands running along the curve of her lower back, then settling on her ass with a claiming squeeze. Tasted the lingering sweat and cider at the edge of his jaw as she trailed kisses. Saw the deep pools of care reflecting in his eyes as he listened to her share things she’d never shared with anyone, but never all she wanted to share.
Whoever married Tyreste Penhallow would be a fortunate woman indeed.
She only knew it would not be her.
Marriage—life—was no longer a future she had any claim to. All she could do was use the time left to her to keep her loved ones safe.
“Ana. Forgetting something?”
Ana’s shoulders lifted in tension. She closed her eyes, braced herself, and turned to accept what she knew Magda would be holding in her palm.
