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“The kyschun work for us!”
“Nien,” he said with a short, acerbic laugh. “They work for no one. They work for themselves.”
“What does that mean? Work for themselves?”
“Their sole remit is to protect history and keep the future intact. Your vedhma has been feeding you lies. There is nochanginganything.”
“Then why protect me at all? If my fate is already decided?”
Grigor didn’t answer. She hadn’t expected him to. His devotion to her and his promise to his sister—these were the product of fear and emotion. He couldn’t save Ana any more than she could save herself.
She wiped her tears with her knuckles. “Right. Well, it’s as I’ve known all along. I’m on my own. I’ll handle this on my own, as Ialwayshave.”
Ana backed away, skipping into an ungainly jog, and once she’d put enough distance between herself and Grigor, she shifted and flew away.
Ana flew straight to the ravener at Fanghelm, where she sent a formal request for an audience with the kyschun.
Watching the bird fly away with her message, she made a decision.
It was the worst one yet, but what did it matter?
She was doomed either way.
If she was going to die at the hands of a monster, she’d rather go out knowing precisely who had decided her fate.
Ana took flight once more, this time headed for the observatory.
Chapter13
Fifteen Hearts
Ana landed outside the observatory and staggered through the doors, catching herself on the handle before she went sprawling. Varradyn looked up from the fur where he’d been sleeping, but she shook her head at him and marched back out into the cold.
Wind whipped her sideways as she stormed alongside the massive glass dome. She stayed close to the structure to minimize the gusts, but she was knocked to the side more than once on her way to the small, disused courtyard.
Ana whipped her head around for what she knew was there, but notwhere.
Have you ever been down in the cellar of the observatory?
It has a cellar?
A deep one. Detached from the building proper. Magda spends a fair amount of time there, from what I know. I’ve seen... I’ve seen threads that take you down there. What I cannot see is whether your discovery there helps you or hurts you.
A cellar. And you say she spends time down there?
Doing what, I cannot say.
“Doing what, I do not ever wish to know,” Ana whispered to the sky and stars, even as she looked for signs of the very thing that would rip off her blindfold and expose the rest of the horrible truths she’d been so afraid of.
She turned back toward the dome and saw Varradyn staring at her from inside, chains running from both of his legs. The raw panic on his face was discernible even from outside.
“You don’t even know what I’m doing, but you know it’s a bad idea, don’t you?” she said, wind and glass and time separating her words from his ears. He didn’t look away, but as she started to, she caught him raising an arm. Pointing.
Ana followed and saw it immediately: a protrusion of wood peeking up from the snow, between two trees at the back of the courtyard.
She turned back toward him. He shook his head again, with less enthusiasm. He seemed to know she’d already made up her mind.
“I won’t promise I can save you. Or even myself,” she said, breaking his gaze and starting toward the cellar doors. “But I won’t live in ignorance a moment longer.”
