Aradella stared at her. Her newly smoothed face remindedher of someone she’d seen before but she couldn’t remember who or where.
“You think I don’t know who you are? Take off that useless mask and show your ugly face.” Olina was laughing at her—as she’d done since Aradella was a child.
The crashing outside stopped and Aradella hoped Ian had left to find Mekos and his uncle.
Olina turned to sit on the side of the table. “At least have the courage to face me. Or are you as cowardly as your father was?”
That taunt made Aradella peel the mask from her face, put it in her second pocket, then defiantly look at the woman.
For a second, Olina showed her surprise as she looked her up and down. “You are different. Did you sell your soul for beauty?” She was smirking. “It failed. You’ll never be a beauty no matter how hard you try.” She got down from the table, obviously unafraid of anything Aradella did.
Olina’s hateful words made it difficult for Aradella not to revert to the beaten-down girl she used to be, but she put her shoulders back. “I no longer have to wear big clothes, or hide from your treachery and your evil. Is that what you mean?”
From Olina’s expression, she was about to attack. Aradella knew she wouldn’t be able to withstand a witch of her power, so she needed to keep her talking—so she could get closer to her. “You took away people I loved. You—”
Olina turned a face of fury to her. “You thinkIwas ever loved? My mother despised me. She—”
“Spare me!” Aradella said as she inched closer. “Your mother doesn’t love anyone.”
“What you don’t know could fill one of those books you tried to hide. You think I didn’t know about them?” She smiled in a hateful way. “Were they love stories about the life you’d never have? Oh so clever Aradella. You were never half as smart as you thought you were.”
Aradella moved a half step. She didn’t want to talk about her books. “You tried to marry me off to that whiny little Nessa.”
“You think I wanted to marry your uncle?” she half shouted. “With a prince you would have had a glorious future. Better than I’ve had!”
Aradella wasn’t going to allow this evil woman to turn herself into a victim. All she wanted was to distract her and get close enough to use the knife she had her hand on. “You are twisting everything to try to make the horror you did to me seem for the good. I woke up every morning wondering if it would be my last day alive.”
“So did I.” Olina gave a shrug then raised her hand. “Now you’re boring me.”
Aradella knew that what was coming was some witchery directed at her. Olina could kill with the stroke of her hand. By reflex, Aradella twisted to the side, her head down, ready to receive the final blow. But nothing happened.
Olina had frozen in place, her hand raised. “Where did you get that?” Her voice was a whisper and she was looking at the medallion around Aradella’s neck. Her face might be new but it took on the look of rage and hatred Aradella knew so well. “You’re after Haver’s soul, aren’t you? How did you find that necklace?”
Aradella had no idea what Haver had to do with the medallion, but she wanted as much time as possible. “I got it from the person who stole it.”
“That slimy goat?”
“You mean the Monster of Sheean?”
“Whatever he calls himself. Give it to me! It’s mine!”
Olina leaned forward, meaning to snatch the necklace—and Aradella saw her opportunity. In one quick motion, she took the knife out of her pocket and slammed it into Olina’s stomach.
Olina staggered back against the tall cabinet. She looked more surprised than in pain. She looked down at the knife sticking out of her stomach. With a grunt of pain, she pulled it out, tossed it onto the table, then looked at her hand. There was blood on it. She looked back at Aradella. “You think you have harmedme? That you’ve endedme? This is nothing.” Olina put both hands over the wound and muttered some words.
As Aradella watched, the wound closed. No more blood came out.
Olina looked at her. “Now I will do to you what I should have done years ago.” She raised her arms into the air and in an instant, a fog came up from the floor and began to fill the room.
This is the end, Aradella thought. She stood upright, put her shoulders back, and stiffened her body in preparation. Visions of Mekos came to her and she thought of what could have been—but would not happen now.
But in the next instant, the fog disappeared. There one second, gone the next. Olina put her arms down, her hands over the wound. It was starting to ooze blood. “What have you done to me?” Her face showed her shock.
It took Aradella a moment to realize that maybe this wasn’t the end. Not for her, anyway. “You built a wall between me and my home, but I made that space into a library. Myfriendsbrought me books, not about love but about plants.” Aradella paused to look at the blood that was growing under Olina’s clasped hands. “That is the knife that I used to kill Valona. It still has her blood on it, and I wrapped it in the leaves of a plant from her garden. She had three of them with a little fence around them.”
From the way Olina’s eyes widened, she knew about the plants. “Valona said they were her insurance against my mother.”
“I immediately recognized that plant. It’s from a place on Earth called the Amazon, and it’s name is...” She waved her hand. “That doesn’t matter, but it translates as ‘go home.’ The theory is that the poison of the leaves allows you enough time to go home before you die.” She watched as Olina, still showing her shock, slowly slid down the cabinet to sit on the floor. More blood was coming from the stab wound. And with each second, Olina looked weaker. She might be able to heal the cut but she couldn’t survive the poison. Or was Valona’s blood on the blade the death knell?
