Chapter 49
I already knew what I would see. Still, I looked up at the night sky. My heart sunk at the sight of the full moon beaming down at me between winking stars.
I’d been so caught up in the thrill of defeating Livia, of defying death and restoring Amalie, that I’d forgotten about my own bleak circumstances… Fool.
“I take it you’re here to collect your prize?” I asked bitterly.
“How astute of you.” I could hear the smirk in her voice.
“Alara, who is she? What is she talking about?” asked Tarben, but I would not—could not—take my eyes off the malevolent figure gliding towards us from the skeletal trees. I didn’t want the witch anywhere near my friends.
Turning to them, I said with hushed urgency, “You have to go. Now.”
“We’re not leaving you,” said Tarben. Sensing danger, he stepped in front of me. Behind us, Hugo and Filip had positioned themselves at Amalie’s side.
“Go,” I pleaded with them.
Tarben unsheathed his sword, with Hugo and Filip following suit. “Let us pass or I will gut you,” he threatened, leveling his blade at the Crow.
She came to a halt in front of us. “So protective.” Her high-pitched voice sounded mocking as she examined the cauldron which was, astonishingly, still steaming.
I pushed forwards so I was standing next to Tarben. “You can’t hurt her. She’s not really here.” At the confusion on their faces, I said, “She’s a projection. Her spirit is here, but her body is not.”
“How is that possible?” asked Filip.
“Witch,” muttered Hugo, his lip curling.
“Who are you?” Tarben demanded, reluctantly lowering his sword.
“Me?” the Crow gestured towards herself. “I am someone who’s owed a debt, and I’ve come to collect.” She angled her veiled head towards me.
“Alara, what is she talking about?” Tarben’s voice carried a note of fear.
Ignoring him, I addressed the Crow. “Just take me. I’m willing to go right now if you let them leave unharmed.” I had to keep my friends safe. After all, I’d been the one to recklessly get involved with a witch. I would never forgive myself if she hurt them.
She folded her hands in front of her. “Don’t you worry, pet. We’ll depart soon enough. But first, you’re going to take down the wards around Solvardunn.”
I huffed a disbelieving laugh. The witch had lost her mind.
“You’re going to take down the wards and then I’ll have everything I need.” She bent down to study the grimoire, still lying undisturbed on the leaf-coated ground where I had left it.
My brow furrowed as my brain began to put two and two together. “You want the grimoire?”
“Amongst other things,” she said, still crouched on her haunches. “Why do you think I sent you to this kingdom of all places?”
Sucking in a sharp breath, the realization caught up to me. “You orchestrated this all so I would find the grimoire?”
“You didn’t think I was helping you out of the kindness of my heart, did you?” Her laughter was shrill and unnerving. It echoed across the clearing. “I told you about dear Basia knowing you would seek her out and discover this.” She pointed her marked hand at the grimoire.
I narrowed my eyes. “You knew she wasn’t the murderer all along.”
She stood to her full height. “Child, I knew more than your pretty little head could possibly fathom,” she said smugly. “You were the final piece in a plan that’s been decades in the making.”
“For Seru’s sake, would someone please explain what’s going on,” said Hugo, who was promptly shushed by Filip.
My stomach churned at the realization. “You were working with Livia?”
She clapped slowly, mockingly.
“How long?”
Leisurely, the Crow paced in front of the meagre wood pile.
“I appeared before Livia a long time ago. I told her I knew of a potion that would enable her to return to the ocean—her heart’s greatest desire.
She agreed, no matter the cost. So we made a bargain.
I would tell her exactly how to brew the potion and, in exchange, she would kill Basia for me.
” She jerked her head towards the ramshackle cottage.
“For years I waited, until, finally, you reached your age of ascension—you were ready to come to the mortal lands.”
“After you and I made our bargain, and I sent you off into that storm, I visited Livia once more. I warned her you were coming and instructed her to set the plan into motion.”
Tarben looked at me in disbelief. “You were never on the ship?”
Biting my lip, I shook my head. Another lie had caught up to me.
“Did she not tell you her true motives for being here?” the Crow taunted.
“That’s not important right now. Please, don’t stop enthralling us with your evil plan,” I said, crossing my arms.
“Livia and her lover got rid of Basia, and you agreed to another bargain without me having to lift a finger. Then you so kindly retrieved the grimoire without getting yourself killed by those beasties. Once again, the plan fell into place more perfectly than I could have imagined,” she said with glee. “It’s as if fate wants you to be mine.”
I couldn’t believe what I’d heard. This whole time, I had been nothing but a pawn in the Crow’s game, and I was too blinded by my desperation to break the curse to see it. “Maybe not,” I drawled. “Your good friend Livia tried to kill me and nearly succeeded. How did that fit into your plan?”
She stopped pacing, planting her boots on the knitted blanket and leaving no footprints.
“Livia was a very naughty girl. I told her to wait for me before touching you. Regrettably, her desperation to return to the ocean clouded her judgment. It’s a shame she didn’t listen to me—I would have been a lot kinder when I disposed of her than your mortal was,” she said, making a throat-slitting motion with her finger.
“You touch Alara, and I’ll do the same to you, witch,” threatened Tarben from where he stood beside me.
“And what is it you want from me?” I asked, sounding as bored as possible. I was reeling from the Crow’s revelations, but I’d be damned before I let her see she had gotten to me. I’d already revealed too much as it was: now the Crow knew I cared about the mortals.
“I told you, child, I want you to remove the wards,” she said.
I snorted. “Okay. I’ll just snap my fingers and be rid of them. While I’m at it, I’ll turn the moon green. Is there anything else you’d like to request?”
Her next words came as a surprise. “Did granny ever tell you the real reason I cursed the Mer?”
I crossed my arms and raised my eyes to the heavens, refusing to give her the satisfaction of knowing I was taken aback by the abrupt change in topic. “We’ve already been over this—my mother made a bargain with you, which she didn’t fulfill.”
She tilted her head to the side. “She never told you what I wanted from your mother, did she?”
Although my gut clenched at the mention of my mother, I released a dramatic sigh. “She didn’t know.”
The Crow’s cackle was bone chilling. “It seems I’m not the only one who’s been keeping things from you. Callianassa knew.”
My grandmother had lied to me? The betrayal stung, but I brushed it off, revealing nothing. “By all means, enlighten me,” I said, gesturing for her to continue.
She leaned in closer, her voice a taunting whisper. “You.” My throat bobbed. “I wanted your mother to agree to send you to me once you came of age. She refused and fled, so I killed your father.”
No. Like a battering ram to the gut, the words slammed through me, knocking me backward and wrenching the air from my lungs. “I killed your father.”
This vile, wretched creature had murdered my father.
I was an orphan because of her.
Searing rage tore through me like a wildfire. I couldn’t speak through the hateful smoke choking my lungs and smothering my words. But from that inferno a vow was born, forged in flames. She would pay.
“By the time you were born, the Cold Queen had placed powerful wards around Vantillios to keep me out. So, I cursed you all.” She circled us, more like a shadow than ever before in the pale light from the slowly shrinking fire. My entire body shook in fury.
“But I still needed you. I bided my time, and I waited. Waited for you to ascend into your full powers. It was all too easy to make a bargain with you—you were so desperate to paint yourself as the savior of your people.” Another piercing laugh.
“To get away from that forsaken kingdom and that miserable grandmother—I don’t blame you. ”
“Do not speak about my grandmother like that,” I snarled, all pretense of being unbothered now gone.
She stopped circling me to ask, “Don’t you want to know why I sought you?”
I didn’t respond. With my fists clenched at my sides, I branded her with a glare that promised incineration. She deserved the Flames of Erasure for what she had done.
There was a long pause. The rags that were still hanging from the clothing line swayed in the breeze. The smoke from the cauldron curled around us like mist. A rough caw cut through the terse silence.
Finally, the Crow spoke. “It was foretold that you would possess the power to help me achieve my greatest desire.”
“And what would that be?” My voice was ice cold, but the rage in my veins was still blazing.
“All in good time. To begin with, you will undo the wards.”
“Even if I could, why would I help you when you’ve confessed to killing my father? I will never let you anywhere near my friends.”
She clicked her tongue in disapproval. “Perhaps, with the right incentive, you’ll reevaluate.”
A sound coming from the edge of the clearing made me whip around. The source of the noise tore a horrified scream from my throat.
The blood-soaked corpses of Magnus and Livia. They were rising—reanimated. Magnus’s reopened eyes were bloodshot and vacant, while the rest of his face remained devoid of any expression. Livia’s body—impossibly—moved as if unaffected by the loss of its head.