Before I can realize that Otto just felt all of that, the same way I can feel his guilt, he pulls me up. “Come. We can deal with this in the morning.”
I stand but plant my feet. “No. We really can’t.”
“I agree.”
Philomena is in the doorway. Hands on her hips. Face in a disgustedscowl. At her back is Rochus, who gapes at the library in horrified shock before he shoves around her and drops to his knees over a pile of ravaged books.
“What—” he starts. “What have youdone?”
Cornelia pushes to her feet. “We had a breach.”
Philomena glares at me, sharp with accusation. “Abreach. Fromher.”
“FromDieter Kirch.” Cornelia steps around us, putting herself between Philomena and me, and as Philomena tries to keep the blame on me, Cornelia explains in an ever more shouting voice what Otto just told her. Rochus half listens, gathering salvageable pieces of books into a pile.
Back through the door, shapes move. Brigitta, members of her guard, all listening, staring in shock.
I’m shaking. I only realize it when Otto touches my shoulder, and his steadiness counters my tremors.
“The hexenjägers didn’t kill Dieter,” I whisper.
Philomena is yelling. Cornelia too. Their argument gives Otto and me some semblance of privacy, for a moment.
“No,” Otto says, his jaw tight. “I don’t know why. I was so sure they would.”
I don’t want to think. I don’t want to do this. My body is broken and in agony and all the things I’ve most feared have just come to light.
But I’m the goddess-chosen champion.
And where were you?I ask Holda. I don’t know whether I intend to sound accusatory.
Who do you think was the cedar trees?she asks.He has hidden his true intent. His lack of magic—I never suspected—I should have. I’m sorry, Friederike.
You weren’t enough to keep Dieter out. Did you know he was bonded to me?
I sensed something connected to you, but I was not sure what it could be. Dieter has no access to magic—or he shouldn’t. It did not even occur to me to see if he was the cause.
But he is. He’sbondedto me. And I underwent the bonding ceremony with Otto, so we’re all connected now?
The thought of Dieter having access to me is nauseating.
The thought of Dieter having access to Otto is unbearable.
My body swells with defense, the instinctual lurch that fueled me in the dream-state to push Dieter away—out—of Otto. But something comes with this pull now, some weird surge that fills my gut with a sense of effervescence, and I’m hit with a memory so potent I go completely still.
Dieter, in Birresborn, back before Mama and the Elders kicked him out. Before we knew the depth of his insanity, he was training under our healer to be the next caretaker of our village, to tend injuries and illnesses with his affinity for body magic.
I’d fallen out of a tree in a quest for mistletoe. There was a nasty scrape down my calf, and I’d been sobbing into Mama’s chest at the pain and the fear, until Dieter knelt by my leg. His hand laid over it, coated in a salve, featherlight, and he whispered a spell as I wept and Mama shushed me.
A sensation wrapped around my leg. Warm and comforting and soft. And when Dieter peeled his hand back, the cut was gone.
That’s the feeling I have now. A wave of healing, my mind a jumble of Dieter and Otto and protection, and I try to shake it off, the memory, thewarmth—
“Fritzi.” Otto’s voice is thin with wonder and caution.
I glance at him, then follow his gaze down.
The wounds on my knuckles are…gone. The pain I’d felt in my back, from the burns—gone.
