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By the time he made it to the arch, she was out of sight. He scrambled up the muddy embankment and found her waiting at the top, staring away from him, into the valley.
He swallowed hard and asked, “Nessa?”
Ana whipped around, her eyes as wide as saucers. She patted her dress... her breasts.
Tyr lost his footing. He stumbled sideways in the tall grass and raked his hands through his hair, trying to find another rationalization for what he’d seen.
“I... can explain,” she said weakly. Her voice trailed.
He had every reason to be angry. Every right to feel deceived and wronged and lied to. But he clung to the silly thread of hope that she’d become someone else because she couldn’t bear to really leave him.
His head split down the middle, sadness battling frustration and bewilderment swathing both. There was no battle to be won though, only a heart to be lost, and so he went to her, gathered her in his arms, and whispered, “I’m here now, Ana. Everything is going to be all right.”
“You’re well within your right to hate me.” She sobbed. “I would hate me.”
“Oh, Ana.” He sighed, laughing softly. “I’ve already tried hating you, and it’s not for me. Nothing you’ve done these past weeks erases the mark you’ve left on my life.”
The sky opened for the rain, which came on with sudden swiftness. It swept sideways on the wind whipping through the valley, roaring off the foothills. He could still hear the sound of the crystals, of the cave turning on them. But all he couldfeelwas the collapse of the wall she’d built to keep him out, crumbling brick by brick.
Her eyes were spidered with red when she leaned up to look at him. “I don’t really have a cousin, Tyreste.”
His solemn facade cracked, and laughter took hold of him. He shook his head and pressed her tighter. “And Grigor?”
“The man has never been with the same woman twice. I’d be stunned if he didn’t have lads and lassies running all about the kingdom, but if so, he’s unaware of it.”
“I’m sorry for messing things up with... whatever that was.” Tyreste nodded behind them. “I was afraid for you. Iamafraid for you. What...arethey?”
“The kyschun and kyschuna.” Ludya appeared at the top of the embankment with a stern frown. “The archivists of our histories. And you, publican, just turned their anger Anastazja’s way, a problem that will not be easily remedied.”
“I didn’t mean—”
Ana turned away to look at her vedhma. “It’s not his fault, Ludya. He did what I would have done, had I watched him leave, distressed, headed for Ancestors-know-where.” She glanced back at the cave, still rumbling from the aftershocks. “What Ihavedone, in the creation of Nessa.”
“You do not owe this boy explanations,” Ludya stated. She slid partway down the hill. “Anastazja, it is already quite late. If you’re not back soon...” She leveled a cool glare on Tyr that made him slide back a step.
Ana’s mouth parted with an incredulous gape. “What, you don’t want me to anger the koldyna? After everything she’s done?”
Koldyna,Tyr mouthed, trying to recall the meaning. He’d heard the word before, from Ana, but his thoughts were too scattered from everything happening. The exceptionally weird trip into the foothills. Ludya’s hostility. Whatever the fuckNessahad been.
Ludya’s eyes widened in warning. “What I want is to continue this conversation in private.” She flicked another glare at Tyr. “Consider your words and who you are speaking them in front of.”
“Tell me... how you did it,” he said, finding his voice. “Ana. I want to know who—what— Nessa was.”
“Anastazja,” Ludya practically hissed.
“An illusion,” Ana said, her eyes cast away from them both, her voice quiet and distant. “I’ve been doing it since I was a girl, but it’s not easy for me. I... have to focus to hold the illusion or it breaks. Flickers. Sometimes disappears entirely.”
Ludya moaned. “Ancestors keep us.”
“He’s always known I had magic, Ludya,” Ana said with a halfhearted eyeroll. “This isn’t exactly a radical revelation.”
“So that’s why...” The past weeks caught up to Tyr in a series of bizarre revelations. “Sometimes I looked at her and saw you.”
Ana nodded.
“And I thought I was losing my mind, but itwasyou.”
Ana nodded at the muddy ground. “I’m sorry.”
