I sag, hand over my thumping chest. “Thank Divine,” I breathe, condensation puffing out of my lips like smoke.
She turns to me and stops, cutting me off. “Yet.”
My short-lived relief stutters and stumbles, a newborn calf falling on the ground.
I watch her face, her eyes. Sparkling blue to distract from the darker depths within. “You promised not to tell,” I remind her.
“I have to make a lot of promises. Doesn’t mean I keep them.” Her tone is a bite, frothing in warning. “How does it work, anyway?”
An incredulous frown drops my brow. “You just admitted that you might be going back on your promise to me, and yet you think I’m going to tell you anything?”
She shrugs a dainty shoulder, flicking snow off her hair. “I want to know how it works.”
“Howwhatworks?”
Rissa smiles, like me doing the same thing—purposely being difficult—amuses her. “Never mind. It’s obvious that King Midas transferred some of his powers to you when he gold-touched you, and he doesn’t want anyone to know,” she says quietly, making my heart stop.
She studies my face, and I don’t know what she sees on my expression, but it makes her lips tilt up in victory.
“That’s why he refuses to gold-touch anyone else. Not because you’re his one and only favored, but because he doesn’t want to accidentally give anyone else his magic too.”
She’s speaking more to herself than to me, a confirmation that she reads from the lines on my face.
I glance around to make sure no one is around, terrified despite her hushed words. A hard lump has lodged in my throat, a graveled pebble that won’t move.
If Midas ever caught wind of this conversation...
“How often can you tap into his power?” she asks thoughtfully.
“You need to stop asking those kinds of questions, Rissa. You can’t tell anyone what happened with Captain Fane. It needs to stay a secret,” I say in a rushed, desperate whisper, eyes darting left and right.
She tilts her head, wheels churning, mind working. “You want my silence?”
“Yes,” I say emphatically.
Something flashes in her eyes—like the glint a fish sees right before they swallow the hook.
“Fine. But I want gold.”
My heart drops, because I both knew this was coming—and hoped that it wouldn’t. “Rissa...”
She looks back at me without remorse. “Secrets have a price in this world, and we all have to pay. Even the girl made of gold.”
I want to laugh humorlessly, not because she’s wrong, but because I know exactly how right she is.
I have spenteverythingon secrets. Coin. Time. Heartache. Precious moments. I’ve had to give up my childhood, my freedom, any scrap of happiness I’ve ever had.
Secrets, I’ve learned, cost far too much.
“I have to survive, same as you,” Rissa says steadily, voice holding no remorse. “You need my silence? I need gold. That’s my price.”
Seconds pass between us like breaths, one after another, no break between. She holds her chin up and her back straight, but I know the mark on her back where Captain Fane struck her with his belt will still be there, just like his kick to my ribs is still healing.
Yet it’s the hurts without marks that worry me the most.
I sag a little where I stand, a dejected breath passing my lips. “I’m sorry Captain Fane touched you,” I say quietly. “I’m sorry I let it get that far.”
She scoffs. “I’m not doing this because he touched me, and I don’t need your pity. I’ve been touched by far worse for far longer. Besides, it’s my job as a saddle to be ridden.”
