Maybe the rumors are true, that he’s no Orean—no fae either—but a demon. One who burns with death and will strike me down right here and now, judging me for the part I played.
Still, he stares at me in silence, though he doesn’t need to say a thing. I can feel his menace, can feel the words he spoke in the city, over and over again in his hate.
I should kill you.
Water beads at my eyes, and something in me, some final barrier of my cold-hearted justifications, shatters away.
My voice is just as broken. “I’m sorry.”
This apology won’t be enough to appease him, and we both know it, but I offer it anyway. Shame and acceptance pull down my head, neck bending, heart pounding, death imminent. My only consolation is, with his amount of power, I know my end will be swift, and I know Dommik will take care of the survivors.
Ravinger takes a step closer, and from the corner of my eye, I see the glinting black spikes along his arm. My panic rises up at the sight, because what if instead of using his magic to end me, he runs me through?
I feel his stare against my form with an abrasive drag. Even my ice is too scared to show its face, my power shriveling in his presence. Then he moves, and my eyes slam shut, my body flinching wildly.
But…his magic doesn’t invade me. His spikes don’t stab into my skin.
Instead, he walks away.
My eyes open at the sound of his footsteps retreating. Shocked, I watch him leave through the bedroom door, and my entire body slumps.
He didn’t kill me.
Whydidn’t he kill me?
For long moments, I can’t move. I’m half-expecting him to storm back through the door, deciding to end me after all. Yet he doesn’t come back, and I finally snap out of it enough to leave.
My hands are shaking as I go to the door, but before I walk out, I steal a glance at the cage.
She was inside it foryears.
No wonder she killed Tyndall—if what Kaila told me is true.
We were both trapped by King Midas, though in very different ways. Both blinded—her, by love, and me, by hate.
I think I see things now because I’ve finally started to look.
My body stiffens with the residual waves of shame, and I swallow hard. Thinking of her trapped in here. Thinking of how it must’ve been.
The favored was nothing but a prisoner.
A whisper trembles from my lips, shaking out into the cold and empty room. “I’m sorry,” I say.
Though it’s far too late for her to hear it.
CHAPTER 19
QUEEN MALINA
After walking away from Auren’scage, I shut the door behind me, leaving soft flakes of ice on the knob. I descend the stairs as if I’ve been encased in plaster, my movements stiff and heart brittle.
When I’m nearly at the bottom floor again, I pause to take a steadying breath. I hold the banister, looking down at the main floor below. From this vantage point, I can see the threshold of the royal dining room. Can hear the subdued chatter of the survivors inside.
At the open front doors of the castle, snow has blown in. Tracks run through it, made by the obvious drag of bodies that were pulled outside. I shudder to think just how many more bodies will be found inside these many rooms. My father must be turning over in his grave.
I hear a noise that tugs at my attention, and I glance around to find the source.
What was that?
