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Another memory I wanted to carry with me. Somehow, my enemies had managed to taint even that.
“I figured. Tried to steer us this way under the city…”
“It no longer matters. Bone soldiers rushed her manor at dawn. All servants and guards are being questioned. The tunnels are being searched and sealed as we speak. There is nothing more that she can do.”
“You didn’t find her? Arrest her?” The fear in Vanya’s voice made me want to wrap her in my arms. What von Lemerch had done to her would never be forgiven.
“You don’t have to fear her anymore. She has fled. Her power came from moving unseen, pulling our strings. We will work with the Temple to root out the priestesses abusing their powers as well, but if they move against us in the open, they’ll be killed on sight. Von Lemerch is probably on her way back to Denyev to lick her wounds.”
“Threats mean nothing to her. She’s already dead.” Vanya grabbed my coat collar, pulling me down to her until our noses almost touched. “She’s no more alive than the walking corpses who attacked us. She’s Ealhswip. She’ll stop at nothing to reclaim her power.”
I heard her words, tried to find a hidden meaning, a metaphor that made sense.
“Stasia von Lemerch is a human—a hidden mage perhaps, for Denyev doesn’t share their records with Tal—but just an old woman. She can curse us, if she has curses left, but she’s not…”
I could not even breathe life into her outlandish claim. The ancient divine ruler coming back from the grave to exact vengeance? Vanya seemed the same, if perhaps more serious, but she had been through a lot. Death… And mage’s sickness could have twisted her mind after the bridge…
“Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped, knuckles whitening. “You’re as bad as my sister. That’s the reason the priestesses follow her. Herebov seduced and murdered her, and she has been here since.”
Should I wrap my arms around her or step away? Could a healerhelp?
“Is this why you’ve not run?”
“I’m not delusional,” she growled. “Ask Morovara. Ask those servants you captured and Flora von Heskin if they believe von Lemerch human.”
The sun sank, our shadows long enough to reach the manor. My time was running out.
“If there’s any way I can help—” I started as a Spirit coalesced beside her.
I flinched away as it wrapped too-solid hands around her, my nightmares of the bridge returning.
Together, they illuminated the night.
Chapter twenty-five
Vanya
Warmth bloomed inside as I was enveloped in an embrace as cold as a winter storm. Too long had she avoided my touch. Death might separate us, but inside the magic, we became one.
The last of Popova’s curse and my own walls crumbled. White light flared, too bright to see, and when the twilight returned, my sister was in my arms.
We broke apart, only hands touching, and studied each other. She remained, a core of unearthly light steadily shining inside, but any resemblance to normal Spirits ended there. Each pane of her face was as in life—it seemed death did not heal all scars—and her clothes, down to the coat buttons were recreated. Her hair remained as short as it had in death, brushing her chin. Her hands were solid in mine.
“You’re real.” It came out as a sob. “You’re impossible.”
She smiled, and my heart broke and healed all at once.
The eerie glow illuminated Dimitri’s face from below, showcasing terror and anger.
“Get away from her,” he snapped.
I was not sure which one of us he meant.
Lumi, her emotions flowing through me, sneered. “She’s been mine since before birth. You’re all the same. Staking a claim. Using and discarding.”
“You tried to kill me.”
She scoffed, sounding completely alive. “Like you wouldn’t have killed me. You hung my sister while nobles who murder commoners aren’t even brought before the court. I don’t regret attacking you. Only that my sister was caught in the middle. She was never supposed to be part of this.” She turned to me, regret and sorrow replacing her anger. “I was supposed to clean away the past so you could build a future. I failed, but you can still get away from here.”
