Chapter Sixty-One
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Scarlett
The crypt was eerily still, the air stale. The darkness was so thick that I couldn’t see the alcoves around me, filled with hundreds of stone coffins. There was only the seamstress’s body, faintly illuminated by the oil lamp in my hand.
‘You ordered the Warriors to take Lillian.’ Aric’s voice sounded dull, like some part of him had died along with his sister.
‘I thought it best,’ I said gently.
Aric’s gaze went past me – to his sister. Lillian was laid out on a marble slab, her golden hair spread out like a halo. She looked so peaceful that she could have been sleeping, if it wasn’t for the unnatural paleness of her skin and the blood staining her dress.
‘You would bury her here?’ Aric asked. Though he was trying to be stoic, tears glistened on his cheeks. ‘In the royal crypt?’
I moved towards him. This close, I could smell his aftershave: musky and familiar, thanks to his time spent guarding me. It was a scent I had come to appreciate – or perhaps I had simply come to appreciate him . ‘I didn’t bring Lillian here to bury her, Aric. I brought her here to offer you a choice.’
Aric looked up at me, his confusion obvious.
This was my last chance to hesitate. To change my mind.
Some fates should not be changed.
An Artisan’s warning was not something to be ignored, but I liked the idea of embracing my powers and saving a life. Particularly one that might prove useful to me.
‘I can help Lillian,’ I murmured, keeping my voice soft. Inviting. ‘If you ask me to.’
‘You could . . . but she’s dead.’ His voice broke. ‘She’s beyond anyone’s help.’
‘Not mine.’
Aric stared at me, and I saw a desperate shred of hope burning in his eyes. Oh, he would love me for this – if I could accomplish it.
‘What are you saying?’
‘I can bring her back,’ I said. ‘I can make her whole again, Aric. For a price.’
He shook his head, as if he was certain he must have misheard. Misunderstood. But then he whispered, ‘A price?’
And I knew I had him.
‘There’s always a price. I wonder . . .’ I cast him a curious glance, ‘are you willing to pay it?’
‘For Lillian? Anything.’
I smiled and stepped forward. The knife was already in my hand – the thin, stiletto blade that I had used to kill the emperor.
‘You have to cut me,’ I instructed, passing him the knife. Then I extended my palm so that it was directly above Lillian’s body.
Blood welled, vivid against the whiteness of my skin, but I didn’t feel the sting.
As it dripped onto Lillian’s upturned face, I braced myself for pain, for dizziness, a more extreme version of my reaction after resurrecting animals with my blood.
All I felt was numbness. An absence of feeling.
I knew I should feel disappointed – this was, after all, the same failure I had experienced with Sabine – but instead of disappointment, something strange began to build beneath my skin. A kind of pressure I had never experienced before.
When I glanced down at my hand, the veins had turned black – as black as the blood rolling down Lillian’s cheek. Like an inky tear.
A chill breeze suddenly raced through the hall. The oil lamp flickered uncertainly and went out.
Though my eyes were open, they might as well have been closed. In the absolute darkness, every inch of me felt alert, my previous numbness dispelled. Touch, smell, hearing . . . they were all heightened, taut and tense. My breathing was loud in my ears, ragged. Beside me, I could hear Aric’s, too. Neither of us dared speak.
And then I heard something else. Silk rustling against skin.
I jerked back, my hip striking painfully against the stone slab. There’s nothing to be afraid of, I told myself, trying to calm my racing heart.
But when I tried to move my arm towards Lillian’s body, I couldn’t. I was frozen with fear, terrified of what I might feel if I did. Terrified that Severin had been right, and I had made a terrible mistake.
I took a deep, steadying breath—
And reached into the blackness.
Resurrecting Lillian felt like a dream. One that I would wake up from at any moment.
But it had been an hour, and still, Lillian’s heart was beating. Still, her face was flushed with warmth and life .
Not some unnatural, undead thing, but the seamstress, exactly as I remembered her. Every bit as alive as she had been a day ago.
And entirely dependent on me for her continued survival.
The awareness had come on slowly, but now it was inescapable. Even when Lillian was out of sight, I could feel her – sense her through whatever magical tether connected her life to mine.
A tether that I could snap with a single thought.
‘Lillian,’ I said gently, ‘could you give us a moment?’
It was clearly torturous for Aric to loosen his grip on Lillian’s hand. To watch Lillian step away from him with a soft smile.
‘I’ll be right outside,’ she reassured him.
I perched on the edge of the stone slab, wincing as I did. Aric frowned with concern, his brown eyes canvassing my face. This close, it would be impossible for him not to notice the blue tinge to my lips, the way my red hair transitioned to white on the ends. I had no idea whether they were permanent changes, but for now, I felt as if I had escaped lightly.
‘When it comes to magic,’ I told Aric, ‘there’s always a price – both for the recipient and the wielder.’
Aric’s frown became more pronounced. ‘I thought I was the only one who had to pay the price.’
I believed him, but I doubted it would have mattered if he had known. Aric would have damned the whole world to hell if it could have saved his sister. His depth of feeling was something I admired about him.
‘It was worth it,’ I said, and meant it. ‘To have something good come out of all this.’
Aric knelt before me, his face upturned. ‘How can I ever repay you?’
I considered him for a moment. What I wanted was his devotion – the devotion I had envied ever since I first saw it directed at Mira. My rival.
My enemy, now.
‘For all intents and purposes,’ I said slowly, ‘Ravalia is mine. But before I can officially become empress, Roran will need to be dealt with. Not to mention Mira and Cassius.’
My casual mention of Mira was a test, but Aric didn’t flinch. I had done my work well – isolating her from her closet allies with a single strike. I thought back to the devastation on Aric’s face when he had laid eyes on Lillian’s body. Devastation that had shifted into something darker and harder when I mentioned Mira’s clandestine trip to Madam Mandrakes the night before.
Aric hadn’t even held his dead sister before leaving to intercept Mira at the docks. And though he had let her escape with her life, I doubted he would offer her that same mercy again. After everything he believed Mira had been responsible for – killing the emperor, scheming with Cassius, costing Lillian her life – he must wonder if he had ever known her at all.
That kind of betrayal was a good start, something I could work with. And when I was certain of his loyalty . . . I studied Aric, thinking of how his trainers had described him: a talented Warrior with a mind for battle strategy. Honed by experience, those skills would make him invaluable. I had no illusions about the task ahead: war was coming, and my father’s generals and advisers were sure to throw their lot in with Roran. I would need to replace them with people I could trust.
People I could control .
I brushed a finger across Aric’s jawline. He shivered at the sensation, and I smiled. ‘What I need from you, Aric, is to fight for me. And in time . . . to lead my army. That’s my price.’
‘I’m with you, Your Highness,’ he said, without hesitation. ‘Whatever you need.’
‘Scarlett,’ I murmured, my eyes inches from his. ‘It’s Scarlett, to my friends.’
‘Scarlett,’ he repeated, equally soft. I liked the way he said my name: like it was something precious and delicate.
I was still smiling as I said, ‘I think you’ll make a wonderful general.’
‘And you,’ Aric told me, kissing my hands, ‘will make a fearsome empress.’
My laughter was a very distinctive, very unexpected sound.
Like ice cracking.