Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
VENUS
“I swear if you don’t kill him soon, I will walk out of this realm and never return.” I sat in my room at my vanity table.
My eyes were locked on my reflection . . . it was hideous.
The skin on my face used to be tight and smooth with a blush undertone. It used to be the picture of perfection. Now only half my face resembled the person I used to know. Thanks to Bastien, that bastard, the other half of my face was unrecognizable. My skin was burned from the hairline down to my shoulder. Except it wasn’t healing like it should have, the way my injuries always did—nice and fast. This wound was raw and still bleeding, and it was seeping some other fluid. My skin was blistering with gooey bubbles in spots while others had puss-filled sores. The rest was trying to heal but had dents all over, and the colors of the scars went from white to the darkest of purples.
My mother stood just behind me, pacing. “I’ve given you a lifetime of power and you will return it to me so we both get what we want.”
She opened her hand and her glittering power flowed around me toward my vanity. A plant with huge glistening leaves and red petals opened on it. “Rub that on your face. I can’t stand to look at it.”
She wasn’t wrong. My perfect skin had been ruined by whatever that bastard had blown at me. I ripped the petals off the flower and rubbed them over my, face but touching it made me hiss and wince. I threw the petals down on the table. “This isn’t working.”
She waved her hand away. “Well, you’ve been pretty long enough. Perhaps being ugly will build you some character.”
I glared at her through the mirror. “Because you have so much of it to speak of.”
She opened her hand and summoned another thick leafy plant to her palm. She slapped it over the cut in her side like a bandage. The leaves faded to the same tone as her skin. She walked back and forth once more in the outfit she’d stolen from my closet. It was a favorite of mine, a white bodysuit with a low V-neck and was cut all the way up to the ribs on the sides. Straps of fabric hung from the band around the waist, with high slits on each leg.
I hated seeing her in my clothing. No one was supposed to look as good as me in them. “You have an entire wardrobe for yourself, Mother. You hardly need to raid mine.”
“And with a face like that, now you’ll hardly need to be seen by anyone.”
“ Mother, my face is your fault?—"
“Hush. I am thinking.” She checked her reflection in my mirror.
“Then go somewhere else and do it.”
“My castle?—”
“—Half a castle. It’s ruined now.” My room was one of the only left untouched by the events of the last few days. As if on cue, another explosion rocked the outside of the castle. The walls shook and icicles crashed to the floor. “Soon to be no castle at all.”
She glared at me. “Insults do not further our agenda.”
“Your agenda.”
I was tired of her single-mindedness. We could easily leave this place, take up in another realm, and simply enjoy our powers there. This frozen hell wasn’t worth fighting for. The power my mother promised to me was though. And the power of her longtime lover intrigued me. It was time to claim First Realm as ours and be done with the nonsense.
“Of all the children I have left, why did fate make it you two? A priss and a traitor. The lowest fruit on the tree.” She paused at the table on the other side of the room and looked at the vials I had sitting there. One with a potion, one with a bit of blood from our Stone Keeper taken off the floors of her torture cell, and one with strands of her hair.
“Well, the priss survived and your favored others did not.” I’d always been the survivor of the bunch and now it was obvious. But if she thought I believed I wasn’t her favorite, she was delusional. She’d practically hid me for a few days. I wasn’t going to be baited by her drama now. “Must be a lack in parenting.”
She took the bottles off the table and walked over to my bed and sat back down. “When you have your own spawn, then you can cast stones in my direction. Until then your opinion is of little importance.”
She opened the potion bottle and added the blood and hair into it.
I narrowed my eyes at her and winced as it sent pain down my cheeks. “That is the last of the potion. Are you sure you want to use it on this?”
“I haven’t been wasting it as you have: turning myself into pathetic nobodies to toy with others’ emotions. The least you could’ve done was make them try to kill each other. A few petty squabbles are hardly worth all these bottles we took the time to steal from that frumpy little witch on Megelle Island.”
Her words never bothered me anymore. “It’s worked in the past. Don’t forget I’ve cast nations against each other with this body, face, and power. Don’t underestimate the potency of a divided side.”
“Useless.”
“To whom are you referring, me or you? Because all your attacks have thinned their numbers.” I rolled my eyes. “Just take it so we can be done with this.”
“If you weren’t my daughter, I would kill you.”
“If you weren’t offering me more power, I would’ve killed you long ago.”
She swirled the contents around, then tilted her head back and chugged down the contents. Once it was empty, she tossed the bottle to the side and it shattered on the ground. “I can’t believe others find this entertaining.”
“Oh, I’m sure you will.”
Her body began to transform before my eyes. Gone was the pale-blonde hair and in its place were those flowing pink and purple locks. She became smaller, more petite. She was beautiful with a tiny pert nose, wide aquamarine eyes, and perfect cheekbones. She bent down low to look in the mirror and wrinkled her nose. “If I looked like Collins all the time, I would hate myself. She’s so . . . delicate.”
“You should hate yourself anyways.” I rose to my feet and glanced down at her. “Now that you’ve used the last of my potions, what will you do?”
“I’m waiting for the stone to present itself to me.” She closed her eyes and held out her hand.
Nothing.
“Dammit.” She walked over to the window. “Let’s go.”
I sighed and followed her once she leapt from the window and out into the whirling storm. I flapped my wings, keeping up with her as she flew from the castle toward Crystal Henge. We’d been there so many times before I hardly thought a fleeting potion would work, but she was growing desperate. I could tell. She reeked of it, which only made my disdain grow. Desperation was a pathetic emotion wasted on the weak and feeble. Or worse: the incompetent.
When we landed in the middle of Crystal Henge, she stood there with her arms spread wide. The snow fell around us in sheets covering us up to our knees. It froze to my hair and over my skin. The only part of me it soothed were the burns inflicted by my brother. That revenge will be sweet. I’d kill his soulmate in front of him, then I’d let him live in that misery for a while or until I grew bored.
She spun in a circle. “I’m here. It’s me, your Stone Keeper.”
Nothing.
I rolled my eyes. “Did you really think that’d work?”
“Couldn’t hurt to try. With her blood and hair, it may have worked.”
“Your attempts are becoming pathetic.”
She marched up to me and hauled her hand back about to slap me. I caught her wrist and shoved it back. “Careful, I’m all you have left.”
“Then you’d do well to keep in mind I don’t need you.”
I took a step closer. “We both know you need me. So, what now?”
“I don’t need anyone.” She glared up at me. “Plan B. I will get that stone . . . one way or another.”