Chapter 40 Astrid #2
“Indeed,” says her mum. Her face is alight with something at odds with the darkness that resides inside Astrid. “And your Gift, my miracle girl?”
She bristles, unsure why she’s annoyed with her mother.
Perhaps it’s because she can still see the boat in the distance, the plumes of smoke rising above it.
Or perhaps it’s because her mum has barely given space to Jessa’s death and instead is more intent on Bastet’s and Astrid’s Gifts.
She almost refuses to answer, then chides herself for being petty. “I’m an Amplifier.”
Bastet growls in approval.
“I realized at the Masked Ball. Turns out I’m the only person Zryan can Teleport with,” she admits, and she doesn’t miss the sharp look between the queen and the bear.
She decides not to tell her mum about amplifying Skylar at the beach or that she’s disappointed in her Gift.
Disappointed, because she will only ever be able to make others more powerful, never herself.
Her mum must hear it in her voice, though, because she grips Astrid’s shoulders and says, “You’re no ordinary Amplifier.
If you enhanced a Blooded power, and a Prime’s at that, you must have a powerful Gift.
Imagine what you could do to another witch.
What you’ll be able to do for the efforts to stop the Blight. ” Pride shines in her mum’s eyes.
“That’s what Bastet said.” Astrid smiles weakly at him. He told her how a Gift like hers could help Arturea, could save thousands of lives. Told her Jessa would have been proud of her. Astrid takes a gasping breath. “It didn’t help Jess, though.”
Useless. She pushes the intrusive thought out.
“No, it didn’t,” her mum says. “But it can help you. This”—she gestures to Bastet, to her—“it all means something. It’s a sign, I’m sure of it.”
“A sign of what, though?”
“You think it is mere coincidence that the last heir of the Arturean witches should find herself bonded to the same kind of familiar as King Nyx? That same familiar that flew the king into battle against the Vatran dragons and won glory for our queendom?” An image of a lustrous tapestry pops into Astrid’s mind.
The one that apparently contains some truth she’s looking for.
Maybe her mum is right: maybe it does mean something, and she is trying to care; it’s just, she’s so damn tired.
It’s not helping that she can still see that burning boat.
“You think it coincidence,” her mum says, tapping her platinum arm ring, “that the Vatran heir in turn now has a dragon of the Fire Dynasty, the first one since Cuatra herself?”
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence, no, but I also don’t know how it’s going to help us. Skylar’s new dragon only means the king thinks Vatra has some divine right to rule over both continents. He’ll definitely invade.”
Although it won’t be up to him, will it? Skylar or Zryan will become the monarch, and she really doesn’t think they will invade. Unless of course they must. If there’s something wrong with the Heart, then wouldn’t they march for Arturea’s resources?
At the end of the day, Zryan will do what’s best for his kingdom. But she thinks of what he said in the dungeons. What he admitted to her in the forest.
Lately, I’ve been questioning my priorities.
And he flew straight for her mother after Jessa died, even though her mother was the one responsible for that scar along his torso.
Stars, her mother almost killed him. And he still did that for Astrid.
The question is on the tip of her tongue when she stops herself.
No, Astrid won’t raise it with her mum, because what’s the point?
It was naive of Astrid to think Gwen never stooped to such methods, not when the choice was her own daughter or a stranger meant to kill her. Astrid understands.
As for Skylar, Astrid’s not sure what she’ll do if she becomes queen. Probably let the whole world burn.
“Having the descendant of mighty Artemia, though, will give them pause,” her mum continues.
“Only if I win,” Astrid says quietly.
“You will win, you have Bastet. The first thing you do when you get in that arena is you cast your shields, jump on his back, and you damn well fly. Hitting a moving aerial target? She won’t stand a hope in Hel.”
Astrid pauses. Her mother is right: she didn’t even think of that. If she can get above Skylar with her vials, then… Astrid stops. Her chin drops.
“I don’t want to kill her.” Not that she could, even if she tried.
Her mother is silent a moment, eyes coasting over her daughter. Then she reaches for her. Strokes her cheek. “You have no choice. You have to kill her.”
And that’s the truth of it. One of them has to kill the other. And yet she feels like Skylar is the only one who truly understands her. She desperately wants to discuss this theory of Skylar’s about who’s behind the assassination attempts, but she knows it’ll have to wait.
“Have you been taking your tonic?” her mum asks softly. She hasn’t, in truth, but she nods her head anyway.
Her mother leads her off the boat so they can make their way back to the castle, asking Astrid if she’s able to amplify Bjorn’s Gift so his shield might surround them all—she can, it turns out—but Astrid is only half concentrating.
She keeps glancing back at the burning boat heading for the horizon, waiting for it to disappear and dreading the moment it does, knowing it will be the last time she will ever see her friend in this world.
Knowing it won’t be long until she sees her again in the next.