Chapter 35
35
I spotted one of the water goblets at the table. I recalled how I’d grasped the anting-anting and Nix had burned at my touch when I’d believed she was a threat. So a concentrated dose would do far more damage, or at least spread the damage out more. I hoped. It was the only weapon I had.
Slowly, I inched over to my right, until the goblet of water was just within reach. My fingertips could just touch it without leaning over.
“Once the hapcanto pretender is deposed and I am the ruler of Biringan, you all will see the heights we can reach, the power we can wield when we stop diluting our magic with the vile stain of human blood. We can be what we were, gods to the earth, wielding our magic as we see fit. Not hiding away, silenced, invisible!”
I put my hand to the amulet. There was no way to unclasp it without being noticed either. I tugged on it. The chain around my neck was pretty secure. I pulled again. Nothing.
She looked over at me. “The usurper! She taints the greatness of the encanto.” She pointed a gnarled, decaying fingernail in my direction.
A chair screeched somewhere in the room, and her head snapped in that direction. “And you—” She pointed to the poor courtier who’d had the misfortune of moving his chair. “You refused to support my bid against King Vivencio when he married that wretch. Did you think I would forget such an insult?” She turned back again, pointing to the rest of the room. “Or any of the insults you have flung at me, and at all the mambabarang?”
I used my fingernail to pick at the jump ring holding the amulet to the chain. That worked. It bent just enough to slip the pendant from the necklace. I clutched it in my palm and put my hand down to my side.
Elowina was savoring the fear she’d created. She stopped in front of the horned man who’d stood earlier. “Remember when you had me exiled from Lambana? You promised me sanctuary, and you threw me out just like they did!”
I closed my eyes tightly, feeling the amulet in my hand, remembering my mother’s words. This is your father’s amulet, an anting-anting. It’s made of a very rare salt mined beneath the Paulanan Mountains of Biringan. A vision of the protective salt transforming, becoming liquid, flashed through my mind. I opened my eyes and dropped the amulet in the water goblet. It hissed and fizzed. I put my hand over the top in an attempt to muffle the sound, just as Elowina turned back again.
She looked up at me, a sly smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. Just what I was afraid of. “And our princess, no, our queen ,” she said. “Whatever shall we do with Her Royal Highness? Her Majesty ?”
It felt like everyone in the room was holding their breath. She continued sauntering up the center aisle, straight for me. One step. Another. Deliberately toying with me. I had no doubt that once she reached me, she intended to kill me. I wasn’t going to allow that to happen.
I took a sip of the water. Better aim that way.
“Our princess is thirsty? By all means, whatever she wants, she shall have.” She bowed with a flourish, mocking me. That was fine. Let her have her fun. It wouldn’t last much longer.
I locked eyes with her. Inside, I might have been quivering, my heart racing into my throat, but I wasn’t going to let her see that. I’d had enough of being walked all over, here, in the past, and in both realms. I raised my chin.
“Haughty and entitled to the very end, are we?” she crooned. She stepped closer. Only a few feet from being able to reach out and grab me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Jinky struggling to get free from one of the Sigbin guards. She looked me in the eye, her brow furrowed. I could tell she was wondering what I was doing. I shook my head slightly. I didn’t want her to risk herself for me. She’d only get herself killed.
That intensely salty water was starting to make my mouth burn; I had the urge to swallow or spit it out, but I controlled it.
Then the intense feeling completely disappeared. I felt a wave of something rush through me, like adrenaline, only far more powerful.
I had only one chance to do this. And if I didn’t do it just right—or worse, if it didn’t work at all—I was finished. But I didn’t come this far to go out like that.
Elowina’s hand rose, those spidery fingers reaching out like she was coming for my throat.
I waited, staring right at her scowling face.
The witch was inches from me now. Come on, I thought. Just a little more.
I could smell her hot, putrid breath. The edge of her sharp nail grazed my throat.
Now! I spit the anting-anting salt directly in her face, spraying it as forcefully as I could. She hissed like an angry cat and lunged to the side. I saw most of the water, which wasn’t nearly as much as I thought it was going to be, splash against the long sleeve of her gown as she screeched.
My heart sank. I missed!
Her hand snapped out for me and, before I could react, wrapped around my gown’s collar. She was yanking me toward her. Her lips curled into a snarl, and in the black pit of her mouth, I saw her jagged, pointy teeth, ready to bite.
I pulled back with all my strength, but she was stronger. I caught a glimpse of Lucas, as beetles crawled around his body.
Then I spotted the goblet with the rest of the anting-anting salt. It was my last hope.
I pulled against her grasp, managing to loosen her grip on me just enough. I reached out and grabbed the glass of magical salt water, nearly letting it tilt too far over. Don’t drop it. Don’t drop it.
Just as her face loomed up inches from mine once again, so close I could see the decay on her teeth, I splashed the contents of the goblet directly in her face.
Immediately, she jumped back, as if I’d hit her with a baseball bat, and let me go. She began fumbling around, clutching her face, screaming high-pitched wails like a siren. Her voice got louder and louder, until I had to cover my ears.
Others in the room did the same; I even saw guards drop their weapons as they brought their hands to their ears.
Everyone was in agony.
The witch dropped to her knees, hands scratching all over her face. Then she fell forward. Her face was bubbling so that it hardly even resembled a face anymore, just oozing red-and-purple sores, growing and bursting and spreading from where the salt water had made impact. The fizzing spreading down her neck onto her shoulders and arms and hands.
Normally this would’ve made me sick, but that witch tried to kill me.
Her head turned up to the sky like a wolf about to howl. There was one last window-shattering shriek before it ended, leaving only the reverberating echo hovering in the air.
The witch slumped to the ground.
Almost instantly, the room erupted into chaos. People ran toward me. Others ran for one another and hugged. Some gathered their skirts up in their arms and went right out the door.
The Sirena guards looked around, confused and disoriented. It appeared they’d been under her spell all along, unable to fight. Two of them rushed to the witch, or what remained of her. One of them kicked at the pile of fabric with his foot.
Something moved; the guard jumped back and held out his sword, prepared to fight. The mound of fabric wiggled more. Others noticed what was happening and froze on the spot, worried the mambabarang was about to rise again.
The movement intensified suddenly, almost like it was about to boil over, and then as quickly as it began, it stopped. The pile became very still once more, before a swarming mass of black beetles burst out from underneath, scattering in every direction while onlookers screamed and jumped on chairs to avoid them.
The bugs disappeared underneath the walls and fled through windows and doorways. The guard took his sword and lifted what was left of the witch’s clothes. All that remained was a pile of ashes.