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“You think we have taken everything from you. You still have your Spirit, little girl. No matter what they say, it will be free when you die. Unless I say otherwise.” The voice layered, as if two beings spoke at once. “Give me thecrown.”
She attacked my mental walls with freezing pain and terror, but nothing could compare to Lumi’s death, and while pain laced my mind, my stubborn death-defying core held. I was not letting this creature into my mind. I had lived in death’s shadow my entire life. There was no more fear.
I did not try to get away as darkness ate at my vision and desperation clawed inside me until I only saw burning blue flames. All my life I had tried to run—away or somewhere new. To move and dance and fly. Perhaps for the first time, I was completely still on the outside while my mind fought.
Lumi had always been a razor blade, cutting through the world. I had thought she was meant for building and business, ignoring her own plans. If I could be as cold as her, perhaps I could still make a difference.
“The Taliell,” I gasped. “I hid it among the stones where it runs through the palace grounds.” By the time they discovered my lie, I would be dead. Let her try to get the answers from my Spirit.
She pursed her lips, clearly unhappy, but the pressure lessened, and the eyes returned to human.
“Reckless, but we knew that.” She tapped her cane on the stone floor. “How you stumbled through the steps. Stupid small-minded creature, thinking the innate magic flowing through your veins might offer you a little protection.” She shook her head. “You von Heskin girls think yourself clever. Your sister tried to work against us, and for that you killed her. Helia fumbles through the dark. She wanted to break the engagement. Seems your actions changed her mind. You three will be remembered as the fools who gave us the living. On the Day of the Dead, Tal will return to where it belongs.The royals stole and then forgot. Maybe I’ll capture your Spirit after the hanging tomorrow. That way you can witness it all.”
“I didn’t ask for any of this,” I spit out. “And I’m no von Heskin.”
“None of us ever does. What is started must finish. They could have left Tal alone, now the dead will reclaim it.” Her eyes flashed. “Herebov’s descendants will die, as will all mages who stand in my way. Never again will I be chained.”
For a moment, her back straightened, gray hair darkened, and skin smoothed. A beauty with vengeance in her eyes stood in the doorway. Then she leaned on the cane, and the illusion broke.
I stood at the bars, no longer afraid. “Dimitri also thought revenge was the answer. All it brings is death.”
“I’m not changing the past. I’m saving the future.”
She threw something at me. Reflexively catching it, I found myself staring at Dimitri’s notebook. The soft blue leather was strained, pages smudged.
“Why?” I asked, remembering him giving the book to me when the undead charged us in the tunnels.
Ealhswip smiled. “You had him, silly girl. If your sister had stayed out of it and you not made such a spectacle of yourself, he would have married you. Perhaps I would even have let you live for such an achievement. Nothing brings someone to their knees like heartbreak and betrayal—as you through your death seem to have delivered that to Herebov’s heir, you deserve a reward.”
She laughed again as she left, a joyous sound. The sound of victory.
Part of me wanted to obsess over her every word, then read each of Dimitri’s no matter how they cut, but the cold lethargy returned. What would I do with anyinsights?
The guards brought me water but no food, to minimize the cleanup after I loosened my bowels in death, they explained. I thought I recognized one from the night I first escaped the palace. He had been kind to a hurt girl. None of that softness remained for a traitor.
No more visitors came. The guards changed. They kept their distance, hands gloved to avoid touching me. Hope I’d not known still lived inside me withered. No matter what my mind said, my heart had still expected Dimitri to come—to save me or say goodbye, to curse me or demand more answers. He felt close, like if I turned a corner he would be there. Perhaps he still sat somewhere in the building doing whatever kings did.
Unable to sleep, unable to think, I flipped open the first page, knowing it would give me no peace. Ealhswip had wanted me to read it. She had known I would be unable to resist.
Year 299, 6th month, 8th three-daystood on top in the same neat letters as his maps—four days before I met him. He had started the notebook the day he returned to Tal. One day before mine and Lumi’s fateful robbery.
Tal stinks more than I remembered. Three years of longing to be called back and now I cannot stand it. How they pressed against the Guard, barely dressed in rags, shouting as if they mattered to me. What lies had Father told in my absence? At least Palace Road is wide, and no one touched me.
He even painted my rooms like flames. Placed the foreign girl’s picture on my mantel. Ordered his servants to follow me around—all instantly dismissed. How much of a fool does he still think me? Then he summoned me, as if I needed more than his letter. An engagementball without a bride?
The crown and the power that came with it. Head of House Herebov. I’ll do anything for it. Be anyone. Kill if needed. Marry—if the von Heskin ever arrives.
It continued more of the same, part rant, part thoughts, possibly so pressing he had to put them to paper to get them out. None of it flattering, though it painted a very different picture to the man I met and teased from the start. Had Ealhswip given me this so that I could see how he viewed me? Lumi and I had been part of the common masses watching him ride into Tal.
An ink blotched sketch covered the opposite page. The black jagged lines made no sense until I turned it sideways. Squinting in the low light I recognized the sharp-angled structure of Morovara’s ziggurat, then the diffuse trees of the Bone Grove, their sinuous shapes transforming into houses by the end of the page. He had drawn Tal like I never saw it before—threatening, overwhelming. The ink ready to run over the page, like he had spilled it though it had not seeped through the paper.
It was darkness and grief and despair.
Flipping further, I froze. A woman’s face covered the page, her hair wild, eyes stormy, and lips parted as if asking for a kiss. I had never seen myself like this—desirable, wanton, breathtaking—still, I recognized it as the night we met. He had captured the moment with the skill of a master, but it was the emotion laid bare on the page that made my heart stutter.
I slammed the book closed.
He watched from a throne today as his Council condemned me. I would not spend my last moments grieving for him. I would not read more of his thoughts. My treacherous fingers clenched around the supple leather, despite my mind telling them to let it all go.Ealhswip had seen me broken and desired to fuse something together before the hanging—to bring me to life so that she could watch my death.
