Chapter 35
Fortuna coughed, and black smoke erupted from her mouth, pouring more and more out until it filled the room up to everyone’s knees.
Jessamine leaned forward and wafted it toward her with a hand, inhaling the smoke and ignoring the whimpers that soon filled the room.
Even Sybil seemed a little uncomfortable with what was occurring in front of her, but there was no room for pity in this moment.
She needed to know what happened, and she needed to see it directly through Fortuna’s eyes so that she knew what dangers were coming.
There was a time for kindness, and there was a time for brutality.
She dove into Fortuna’s mind and disappeared into the memories. There were a lot of them to paw through, but her magic had already found what she wanted. She felt like Elric was there with her, as though her god was guiding her through the mess of this woman’s head.
Just like when Elric had taken her eyes so that she could see, she found herself stepping into a frozen memory that Fortuna had fought hard to hide.
Fortuna and Leon were cozied up on a bed together, white gauzy curtains frozen in a moment of billowing movement. Fortuna leaned against his chest, her hands playing with the hair there as she looked up at him adoringly. But Leon?
Leon was looking right at Jessamine. As though he knew she would someday stand right there, seeing all the darkness of his soul laid bare. He stared at her with those bright blue eyes that she had once thought so handsome, and Jessamine knew immediately where they were.
They were in the castle.
This was the day that he had proposed to her.
The same day he had gotten down on his knees before her mother’s throne and vowed to give Jessamine all the years of his life.
He’d declared he would be the best husband for her and no one would ever take her from his side.
She remembered seeing her mother’s jaw clench, but then she had agreed.
They’d all agreed to fall into bed with this snake, it appeared. Because he hadn’t actually wanted Jessamine as his bride. Instead, he had Fortuna in his bed mere hours before he had proposed to another woman.
No wonder Fortuna had wanted to hide this memory. This was the moment petty jealousy had festered into violent hatred. Jessamine had the throne, she had power, and she had stability. Fortuna had wanted all of that, and at this moment, she’d also wanted Jessamine’s soon-to-be husband.
Jessamine approached the bed, narrowing her gaze on the couple and trying to keep her anger in check. “Proceed,” she said, as though Elric were here to shift the memory. But instead of him, it was the magic that throbbed in her veins, just as angry as she was.
The couple before her started moving like time hadn’t stopped.
“What do you mean, you want this kingdom? You have your own,” Fortuna asked, her fingers petting through his chest hair as the curtains twisted before their image, obscuring Leon’s expression for a moment.
“I want everything, dear Fortuna. Don’t you? Don’t you want the entire world to bend at your feet and worship the ground you walk upon?”
Fortuna’s face twisted slightly, as though she was confused by the statement. “I suppose. But I’ve always thought that the right man would give it to me.”
He surged upright, rolling her over so he could loom above her pretty features. “I want the world. And I will give it to you if you help me.”
“What do you want me to do?”
Jessamine stepped closer because he had leaned down to whisper in Fortuna’s ear, no doubt to prevent anyone in the castle from overhearing him. But Jessamine heard him, just as clearly as Fortuna had in the moment.
“I’m going to kill the entire royal family, and then I’m going to take this kingdom for my own. No loose ends. And I will make you its queen.”
The hunger in Fortuna’s gaze was familiar, the expression of a woman who recognized her moment to strike. If she wanted everything, and she did, then this was the time she needed to stand up and be brave enough to claim it.
What Fortuna hadn’t known was that Leon offered her a kingdom of the dead. He’d infected its citizens, spread all that pain and fear and hatred. This wouldn’t be a kingdom at all once he was done with it.
Fortuna pressed her lips to his cheek and replied, “I want it all. All that you can give me.”
The movements under the covers were enough. Disgusted, Jessamine waved her hand in the air and said, “More. Show me something else.”
The magic twisted through her fingers, coiling along her arms as it advanced time.
Now she recognized her wedding, but from an angle she never would have seen from the altar.
Fortuna stood beside Callum, who had his arms crossed over his broad chest. They were both inside the castle, on a balcony overlooking the ceremony.
“Are you sure about this?” he grumbled, his voice lower than she remembered. Raspy, like he’d been drinking heavily the night before and the whiskey had burned his throat.
“Of course I’m sure. Aren’t you sure that you want to cure yourself?
I’m the one who found the book for you, and I’m the one who made sure that page stayed the way it was.
” Fortuna turned toward him with a delicately arched brow.
“Or are you suddenly feeling bad for the queen you thought you loved?”
“Don’t.”
“I’m just saying. Sometimes you have to pick yourself first, Callum. If you want to stay alive, this is the only choice you have. It’s okay. We all know that you’re a good man, regardless of what you’re choosing to do now.”
But as Fortuna strode away from him, leaning over the edge of the balcony for a better view, Jessamine noticed the twisted expression on Callum’s face.
He hadn’t wanted to help Leon. But he had been so afraid. That fear was clear as day on his face, and she paused the memory.
Walking up to him, she touched her fingers to his jaw. “You were the best of them,” Jessamine whispered.
She felt the memory twisting, warping, and there was something very wrong with the sensation. Memories weren’t supposed to change, and yet, Fortuna’s did. The woman’s image behind her turned to look right at Jessamine.
“Even the best of them fall,” Fortuna said, her lips warping over the words like it was a struggle to say them. “Even you.”
Jessamine frowned. Was she… changing the memory? Had Fortuna somehow followed her into her own memories and was now manipulating them? That wouldn’t do. If Fortuna could change this moment right now, what could she do to memories that she wanted to stay hidden?
“Priestess magic?” she asked, turning away from Callum and facing Fortuna now. “Or just a natural-born talent of yours?”
“The Crone provided her followers with more knowledge than witches could ever hope to acquire.”
“Fortuna, I’m going to tear apart your memories one by one. This can be painless, or I can make you writhe in pain while you bleed from your eyes. Please, let me do this without killing you.”
A drop of blood beaded in the corner of Fortuna’s mouth. Jessamine could only assume the red smudge reflected what was already happening in the real world, that Fortuna was struggling so hard against Elric’s dark magic that the shadows were tearing into her flesh.
“You will get no information out of me,” Fortuna said, her words slightly garbled through the pain. “I will tell you nothing.”
Jessamine didn’t respond. She just lifted her hands and let the magic coil between them again. “Show me the truth.”
The power seemed to dance with glee between her fingers. It wanted her to see these betrayals, to know that this was the right choice, that she shouldn’t feel guilty for this woman who had betrayed her time and again.
As she skipped through the memories, she noticed a few moments when the magic slowed down, showing her all of Fortuna’s little cruelties.
The times Fortuna had teased her for her hair.
When she’d stolen sweets. All the little attacks that had made Jessamine feel unworthy of the love that other people had shown her.
And then the memories slowed down, turning instead to the evening after her death.
She could see still her own blood on the lapel of the jacket that Leon wore as he strode into the same bedroom where the couple had lain together.
Fortuna stood near the balcony, those gauzy white curtains fluttering in front of her lovely dark form.
“Is it done?” Fortuna asked.
“All the infected have been removed from the castle grounds, yes. You are free to wander again with whomever you wish to keep here. Although I wouldn’t suggest remaining in the castle until we’re certain the other nobles won’t get any ideas.
” He caught her up in his arms, bending her backward for a bruising kiss.
“Are you ready for me to tell you everything?”
“I’ve been ready for a while, you tease! You somehow convinced me to overthrow the remnants of my entire family for you, and I still don’t know why.” Fortuna backed toward the bed, falling on it while displaying her body for him. “Your grand plan is already in motion, my king.”
He put a knee between her legs, pinning her to the bed. “And you will not just be my queen. You will be my high priestess, my—”
The memory warped again. Freezing in place as Fortuna appeared to split in half.
Another face stretched beneath the one in her memory, a face that pulled free from her skin and then suddenly seemed to control her entire body.
Strings of power roped around her, stretching out like elastic before snapping in two.
Her power was limited. Whatever spell she’d used in a last effort to control everything was already unraveling.
“No!” Fortuna screamed, wrestling herself free from the memory and splitting from her body. She peeled out of herself and charged toward Jessamine.