“Tell me!” he roars.
But my words do not come. For woven through every rigid muscle of his face, there is understanding, just as there is heartbreak.
His eyes shutter, and he takes a step back. “You called them here,” he says, “to capture me.”
“No!” I choke out. “N-no, I mean, I told Lady Clarisse that I would be returning today, yes, b-but I did not th-think…” Each word is a stone rolling downhill, tumbling into the next, a great jumble of uselessness. “I s-sent her a note—”
“A note?” The scarring on his face contorts, rippling over bone. “What note?”
I feel close to vomiting, or passing out, or both. What have I done? Something unforgivable. “After you took m-me from St. Laurent,” I begin in a tremulous voice, “I found a way to send messages to Lady Clarisse. I wanted to return home. I was trying to r-reach her in hopes that she would s-s-save me.”
But I realize how utterly stupid that was. Lady Clarisse was never coming to save me. Why should she reward disobedience with a rescue? Why should she care? She doesn’t.
The East Wind continues to stare daggers at me. “That still doesn’t explain why she ishere, with Prince Balior and his army.”
“No, you’re… you’re right.” I take a breath. “We made a deal. She p-promised to sell the estate to me if—”
“By the gods,” he mutters, scrubbing at his face. “You mean this entire time I was falling for you, you were planning to deliver me to that witch?”
I press a shaking hand to my queasy stomach. I’m going to be sick.
“You spoke of belonging,” he continues, eyes full of hurt, “and I was beginning to believe you might be right. That maybe wedidbelong together.” He shakes his head in disgust. “I’m such a fool.”
“No,” I whisper, reaching for him. “That’s n-not it—”
“You’re a liar, Min. Like everyone else.” He brushes my hand aside.
“If you would justlistento me—”
“Listen to you?” He straightens to his full height, and I flinch away from him. “It’s clear that everything you’ve told me, everything you’ve done, has been to draw me back here so that woman could recapture me. So no, I will not listen to you. I’ve already heard enough.” He strides off toward the road, his wings half-extended. I scurry after him as the soldiers march steadily nearer, a wreath of darkness coiling between Prince Balior’s hands.
“Eurus, you’re going the w-w-wrong way.”
“No. It’s time I end this. Time to kill the witch, once and for all.” His eyes cut to mine, and he sneers. “So sorry to ruin your grand plans.”
“I didn’t mean for this to h-happen!” I cry.
“You were corresponding with her the whole time!”
I open my mouth, snap it closed. “At first, yes. But after the second trial, I began to question wh-what I was doing. I grew tocarefor you. I told myself that I wouldn’t h-help her anymore. That I wouldn’t betray you. But then I overheard you telling Demi I meant nothing to you, and I w-was hurt and angry, so I sent Lady Clarisse a message, informing her of when you would bring me h-h-home.”
A wretched sob overtakes me, but I force out the rest. “Wh-when you told me why you said those things to Demi, I realized my error, and as soon as we returned to the p-p-palace after the tournament, I sent another note to her ladyship, claiming that your ax had been destroyed—”
“Myax?” It is frightening how the whites around his eyes thin, how the pupils enlarge, like two blots of ink. “What does she want with my ax?”
Perhaps he already knows. Perhaps nothing matters, in the end. “Immortality,” I whisper. “She intends to use your heart’s blood to create a potion of immortality. But to d-do that, she would have to k-k-k—” I falter.
“Kill me?” he asks with lethal quiet.
I can’t speak. I have already said too much.
“All this time, you’ve been plotting my death,” he spits, peering down his nose at me.
“No! That’s not it—”
“You betrayed me,” he growls, the words eaten by all the rage and hurt I myself have felt. “And that cannot be undone.”
He shoves past me up the garden path. Bolting after him, I scream, “What did you expect me to do? When we first met, you treated me like a prisoner, a servant. I did not owe you a thing! And even after I fell for you, you made it obvious that it could never w-work between us. You told me yourself that once you r-return to the City of Gods, you are barred from living in the mortal realms. When you are gone, this estate, this town, will be all that I have left!”
