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“The sooner we finish this, the sooner everyone else can go back to living their lives.”
Malys pouted. “But not you. So grown up, so brave.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not interested in your sarcasm, either.”
“My, my. You’re a bit of a wet blanket, aren’t you?” She sighed. “Alright, well, here we are, in the presence of the Frost Stone. Are you ready to discuss terms?”
I could feel the stone’s magic thrumming. It was like a soft, deep chord being played in the background, never skipping, never beating, relentless and ever present.
“I want you to do what you have to do to me and leave my friends and my family out of it. I want you to bring my parents back from their exile, and let them, Radulf, Valerian, and everyone else live good lives, unbothered by you.”
“You realize that means they’ll need to forget you ever existed entirely, right?”
I swallowed hard. “I do.”
“And you’re truly prepared to make that commitment?”
I took a deep breath. “I am. I’m done running from my mistakes. I’m done running from you.”
“I am not a mistake, my dear. You realize, I am as much as an inevitability as your decision to come here today… ever since your father humiliated me in front of my peers and made me lose everything that was ever mine.”
“You did that to yourself the moment you snubbed my mother. You thought you were better than her, better than my family. You didn’t like to be put in your place.”
“Your father didn’t put me in my place,” she hissed. “Your father eviscerated me, took everything from me.” She composed herself. “So, I vowed to take that which was most important to him, and here I am.”
“Like a wart that no one can get rid of.”
Malys chuckled. “Sticks and stones, Amara. But we’re getting off track, aren’t we? You were about to give me… well, everything.”
“Only if we have a deal.”
Malys gave me her eyes, as beautiful as they were terrifying. “I’ll bring your parents back, and they and your family shall live charmed lives under my rule. I give you my word.”
I stuck out my hand. “Then take it,” I said, hoping to all the gods that any moment now, everything was going to turn around and Malys was going to get what she deserved. But as I stood there, before Malys, before the Frost Stone, with a deal sealing my fate and that of the rest of Arcadia on the table, I started to worry.
Where was Gullie?
Where was Valerian?
Where were my grandmothers?
From the moment Malys had appeared on that mountaintop, I had been lying to her. I had asked Gullie, loudly, if she was able to reach my grandmothers telepathically, and she had said no. She had made it look like we were alone, as if no one was coming to help us. Because the moment Malys brought us to the castle and put us on the other side of Windhelm’s defensive spells, she knew, she would have us in our clutches.
But there was a wrinkle in those defenses, and it sat around my neck.
Before leaving for Lysa, my grandmother had given me a necklace to wear; a jade crystal tied to a piece of leather. To the casual observer, it was an innocuous bit of jewelry, but in reality, it was a magical artifact. All I had to do was say the words, and the artifact would activate, allowing my grandmothers to pinpoint my location and burrow their way through the castle’s defenses to get to me.
I had already spoken the words down in the dungeons, but my grandmothers were nowhere to be found.
I pulled my hand back just as Malys went to touch it. “Wait,” I said, “What about that tea and biscuits I asked for?”
Malys frowned. “You were serious…”
“I was. I am. I could reallygo for sometea and biscuitsright now.”
“You are about to be forgotten, not killed. You can have tea later, now, give me your hand and let’s finish this.”
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