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“While you may choose to see these two days as a respite, when I return, you will either be ready for what comes next, or I will begin collecting the hearts most dearest to you. Have I been clear enough? Do you believe me now?”
What comes next?Ana fused her mouth shut from sheer will alone and forced her head to nod in the blind obeisance Magda expected.
But it wasn’t pure acting anymore. Magda gone for two days, no matter the reason, meant two days when Ana couldbreathe.Couldthink.
Two days when she could see Tyreste without the fear her presence would condemn him.
Magda stepped away from the hearth, and the sinister edge to the room faded. “Plans have changed. If you do as I command when I return, your life will be yours to live a while longer. How long, I cannot say. But your purpose is greater now. Much greater.”
“My...” Ana bit down the question, but Magda didn’t punish her for asking, for once.
“Yes, girl. Your purpose. It seems your usefulness may have years left before expiry. If you obey me without more of your untenable defiance, I may even consider returning to you that which I have taken.”
“Niko?” The word was out before she could swallow it.
“Niko,” Magda stated. “And I may heal your father and soften his heart toward you, so you may bask in his adoration once again. Would you like that?”
Ana’s nod was sincere. She knew better than to trust anything the koldyna dangled before her, but the witch was the only one with the power to return her father and brother to her.
For the first time in a long time, Ana had hope.
If she could summon the fortitude to do whatever Magda had in mind for her—whatever this new “purpose” was that she’d failed to define—Ana could have her life back. Not forever. Magda would find new demands, and she would take far more than she ever returned. But it could be long enough to buy time.
Magdamustbe defeated. The war would never end until she was.
But Ana could only handle one battle at a time.
“Stay out of trouble these next two days, do as I ask when I return, and you may find your joy returned to you.” Magda stormed toward the door. “You have already witnessed what I will do when tested. Try to imagine what I might do next.”
Ana slid from the bed to the floor when the door slammed closed. She fell to her side, clutching her knees to her chest and shaking in a fit of complicated laughter and horrified sobs.
Tyr worked his final shift in silence. He left the tavern floor to Agnes and Rikard and took up the labor of closing and prep in the back room. As soon as his mother or father showed up in the morning, he would tell them his intention to take a leave. It wasn’t the best timing, with Evert, Pern, and Drago having just left. Even so, he didn’t think they’d be upset about it, but they would be curious. Worried. He had only until then to find the right words to allay both.
But it was sweet Addy he struggled the most to find words for.
She’d stubbornly insisted on working, so Agnes had assigned her to peeling potatoes. But instead of sitting on her stool in the kitchen, she’d dragged it and the vat of tubers into the curing room and shut the door on everyone.
Tyr pushed open the back door, wiping his forehead sweat on his arm, and watched the sun rise beyond the trees. His parents would arrive soon. When they did, he’d be sent home for rest, and so would Addy and the others.
He returned to the kitchen, the door swinging hard behind him, and marched into the curing room. Addy didn’t look up. Her violent peeling, set to anxious grunts, continued. Thousands of discarded skins painted the floors and walls, and as he watched her take the knife to the poor tuber in her hands, he saw how the gory scene had come to life.
Tyr took another step in. The candles flickered, and she finally glanced up. She swiftly ripped her attention back to peeling, chewing on her lower lip.
Addy,he signed, ducking low so she couldn’t ignore him.Can we talk? Please?
She shifted the potato to one hand and signed with the other. Her fingers snapped in and out of place with furious twitches.Nothing to talk about.
There is. I need to apologize to you.
Don’t want it.
Addy. Please. I fucked up.He carefully reached for the potato and knife and held them for a moment, waiting to see if she’d stab him, before he set them aside on a nearby table. The glare in her glistening eyes was more devastating than any wound she could inflict.I was scared. I thought someone was stalking me, and it was easier to believe you had stolen the letters. It was safer if you had. I wanted it to be you, even though I didn’t believe you would ever do it.
Addy slammed the signed words against her chest, tears running down her cheeks.I told you it wasn’t me and you refused to believe me.
I know. And I know now who it was.
Addy snorted and blinked hard.Ana, right?
