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“Have I scared you? I would be most aggrieved if you are avoiding me because I’ve given you an unintended fright.”
“No, not at all,” Ana cried out. She squeezed her mouth and eyes closed.Idiot.
“Ahh, and I thought I mightneverhear your lovely voice again. Please. Or shall I say pros? You have nothing to fear from a mere mirror. And you have expressed a desire to learn its secrets, but how will you do so when you cower in a privy, afraid of that which you do not now, and never did, understand?”
Everything the voice said was a lie. Anaknewthis, in her soul, but still she put one foot in front of the other and forced herself to return to the sitting room.
“Closer,” the preternatural voice beckoned. “So I can see you.”
Ana crept slowly across the stones until she was again standing before the mirror.
The face staring back at her sent her hands to her mouth in alarm.
Dark hair... wan, pale flesh that was nearly translucent. Those were enough for her to think,Not a man,but it was hiseyes.Oh, Ancestors, hiseyeswere pools without end, a place where a person could disappear and never again be found.
“Mortain.” She hadn’t meant to say the name aloud, and the way his entire sculpted face came to life made her instantly regret it.
“How delightful. We may forgo all necessary pleasantries and proceed as though we know one another. For I certainly know you, Miss Wynter, and how curious to find thatyouknowme.”
“I don’t... know you.” Her trembling voice was horrifying. Why had she said anything at all? Why hadn’t she ignored the voice calling to her in the privy and pretended none of it had ever happened?
Why, why, why?
“No,” he agreed pleasantly. “I should say not, for anything you believe you do know was compiled from the unreliable recollections of others. To truly know someone, you must go to the source. No?”
“I suppose so. Yes.” She was desperate for something to clear the dry thatch spreading down her throat.
“You look so much like her. It’s all in the eyes. It’s almost startling.” He shook his head with a wistful sigh.
“Who?”
“My daughter. Imryll.”
Ana breathed deep. “She was your daughter.”
“Mm.” Mortain’s face wavered, as though speaking through water. “Imryll was precocious. Intelligent. Insightful. Were I a man, I would have fostered these traits in myself. Though she did not much approve of me, she did everything I ever asked of her. She married the wulf and founded a dynasty.Mydynasty.”
He’s lying.This time, the words were not her own, but she heard them as clear as if they were.There is truth in his words, but only some.
“What...” Ana cleared her throat. “What is Magda to you? Another part of your ‘dynasty’?”
“You must already know she’s nothing to me, or she would be standing where you are and not clawing her way to a more promising future. In fact, as we stand here, enjoying the company of one another, she has gone deep into the mountain in search of answers to old Vjestik riddles, hoping to learn the means by which to subdue you as she has so easily subdued the others. You are a most vexing puppet, it seems.” Mortain’s thin smile was chilling. “Yet now that I have yourrapt attention,I cannot see a need for her at all.”
Do not trust the excited race of your heart. He knows what you most desire. He will offer you anything you want but will fail to tell you the price until you have no choice but to pay it.
The voice was certainly not her own, but it was distinctly female. She’d heard it before, at various points in her life, never often enough to strike more than a passing wonder. But as she reflected upon those times, Ana realized this voice had come to her in her hours of need—not every one, but enough to believe it wanted her to succeed.
“I could... dispose of my need of Magda. If I had known I had such a curious Wynter right there in the keep, I might have never summoned her at all.”
You are a warrior,she heard, though that voice was no mystery. Grigor had never dealt compliments frivolously, and while she didn’t understand, his belief in her gave her enough confidence to speak clearly and confidently to the only creature with the power to end the terror. “You’re right, sorcerer. You don’t need Magda. It is I who has done all the luring. It is I who keeps them alive while she toils in a cellar, collecting hearts for her own wicked indulgence. Tell me what it is you want with the Ravenwoods.” Her voice faltered ever briefly, but she recovered quickly and prayed he couldn’t see it. “Tell me and I shall see it done.”
Mortain disappeared from the mirror. All that remained was her own reflection and the blooming horror that she’d not just scared him away but assured her family’s destruction. But then he was back, flashing a placid smile that did the opposite of putting her at ease. “You must forgive the disturbance. It is ordinarilyIwho does the summoning.” He offered no further explanation. “I could rid you of the foul witch. What is the word you use again?”
“Koldyna.”
“Koldyna.” His tongue lashed across both of his lips like how she imagined a snake might do. “What a colorful language is Vjestikaan. Would you like to be rid of your koldyna, Anastazja? To live beyond the cruel end she has chosen for you?”
Her heart did somersaults in her chest. “Very much so, Mortain.”
