Chapter Thirty-One
Analleia
I awoke in a pool of my own blood. Some sticky. Some dried. Was I dead? I lifted my head, trying to get a view of my surroundings, but all I saw was red. My shirt was pulled up, my wound bared. It looked fresh, yet somehow partially knit together. My head swam with dizziness.
How am I alive?
The question overwhelmed my mind. Darkness enveloped the room.
Maybe I had blacked out and woken right back up, but something told me more time had passed than that.
I rolled over onto my side with a grimace, struggling to my feet while holding a hand against the wound to prevent it from reopening.
I stared at the puddle of blood on the floor, the bloody hand prints staining the windowsill. Why wasn’t I writhing in pain?
“You would have bled to death if I hadn’t intervened.”
I jumped at the voice, having to grasp a chair for support as the world spun. I snatched a knife from my boot, squinting against the dim light. A shape moved forward into the moonlight cascading across the suite floor.
Ebony hair flowed down bare brown shoulders, the flecks of gold in her green eyes glowing in the darkness.
“How did you get in here?” Bewilderment filled my voice.
The Enchantress took another step forward. “Where is the ring? Do you have it for me?”
I struggled to focus, drained from the injury. I shook my head. “No. We— I—I tried. He can sense enchantment. I couldn’t overpower him. He was trained like—like me. I barely made it out alive.”
She stared at me like I was a street thief who had failed to steal an apple.
“Was not our bargain that in exchange for the enchantment, you would provide me with the ring?”
No trace of compassion filled her voice. This was not the same Enchantress I had met in the woods.
“When I reached for the ring, I couldn’t touch it. It was as if something, or someone, was preventing me from touching it. Like it had a protection around it. A force shoved me away.”
“If that’s true then you’ll never be able to touch it as long as he is alive,” she said.
“But our bargain wasn’t centered on if you could get the ring.
Our bargain was clear that you would deliver the ring to me.
If you cannot fulfill your end of the bargain there is no reason for me to fulfill mine. ”
She lifted her hands, and I yelled, “No!”
She cocked her head staring at me. “I have given you plenty of time. I would hate to think you were planning on using me for my magic.”
“I need another chance,” I begged. “Please. Please don’t change me back.”
She considered me for a moment as if trying to decide what to do with me.
“I will give you one more chance, but I’m changing the terms of our original agreement.
You can’t obtain the ring while Wylan Athello is alive.
If you want to keep that face and keep your friends safe from death, you will kill Wylan Athello—and you will deliver the ring to me before the finale—or you will come work for me. ”
I couldn’t kill him. I had sworn to only ever take one life.
I swallowed.
I might not have a choice.
Keep your friends safe.
This was no longer a bargain.
This was a threat.
“Why do you want this ring? Why is it so important that you’re willing to kill a man to get it?” I demanded.
“What I want and why I want it is of no concern to you. Your only concern is bringing it to me. And as for Wylan Athello, he is no saint. You pity a demon and a monster when he deserves far worse. Death is too merciful for him. Now, either you agree to this bargain or I lift the spell from your face and name, revealing to everyone in this kingdom exactly who you are. You’ll have minutes before the royal guard comes knocking down your door. ”
Her eyes bore into me. Challenging. “Do you accept the terms of this deal, or do you wish for me to take back my enchantment now?”
I had to kill him. If I wanted to make it to the finale, if I wanted to take out King Zaricor, I would have to kill his brother.
Steal the ring. It went against everything within me, but I didn’t watch my family burn, didn’t watch my kingdom destroyed, didn’t train in the harshest conditions for five years just to give up when an unexpected obstacle blocked my way.
“I accept.” The words tasted like acid as they left my mouth, burning and destroying me.
A faint smile touched her lips. “You will deliver me the ring two nights before the finale, or you lose everything.”
“How will I find you?” I asked.
She looked over her shoulder at me. “You don’t. I will find you.”
Her very essence seemed to shimmer, to disintegrate into mist, and then with a quick twirl she vanished, leaving the room dark and cold and quiet as if she had never even been there.
I sank against the wall, my stomach roiling at what I had agreed to.
You will kill Wylan Athello—and you will deliver the ring to me before the finale.
I had learned every way to kill a man, and I didn’t know how I would bring myself to follow through with this, but it was my convictions against Nadiyah and my brother’s lives.
And I would choose my family every time.
Even if it meant destroying my own soul in the process.