Linette rounded the table and grabbed Cora by the arm. “You rotten little witch.”
Cora shrugged free, her breaths coming out in sobbing gasps. “I’m not a witch.” That word had been a filthy thing then, something spoken with disdain. Cora hadn’t yet learned that witches were real, that they were nothing like the storybook monsters she’d heard about.
Linette dragged her away from the table. “You are a witch,” she muttered under her breath, all the while keeping a smile on her lips.
Cora glared up at her. She made no move to lower her voice as she said, “If I’m a witch, then I curse you.”
Linette dropped her arm like she’d been burned. Her chest heaved, eyes roving the room and the eyes that continued to watch them. “Stop,” she said, tears springing to her eyes. The queen shuddered. She was truly afraid of her. It was written in the emotions Cora sensed, writhing, contracting, spilling deeper into her until she felt like her head would explode.
She erupted with a shout. “I curse you to die.”
Without another word, she kicked up her heels and ran from the dining room.
She crossed the threshold, desperate for the relief of the quiet halls.
But the doorway only led her to a room with a bloodstained bed.
“No,” she breathed. The room was as frozen as it had been when she’d left it. The king remained locked in place, the queen staring sightlessly ahead. Only she and Morkai moved.
“You did that,” he said.
“I didn’t mean it,” Cora said. This time, her voice was her own, without a hint of her younger self. “Even if I had, it wasn’t a true curse. Witches don’t curse people.”
“How do you know? You spoke the words, sent them out into the ether. She died that very night.”
“You killed her,” Cora said through her teeth.
“Yes, but what if it was your fault? What if your words sparked a series of events that resulted in her death? Is it really so improbable? You killed the queen. You let Princess Aveline die. Deny it.”
She opened her mouth to say she wasn’t a murderer, but the words turned to ash on her tongue. The version of her that existed outside the dream had ended seven lives mere days ago. Erwin with an arrow to his throat. The hunters who drank her rum.
Morkai took a step closer. The lantern light glinted off the sharp planes of his face, making him look both beautiful and terrifying at once. “Maybe Linette was right all along. Maybe you’re an evil thing. You kill without remorse. You choose death, violence, and solitude over the safety of a new home. You lied to people who loved you. Turned your back on your dearest friend without even a goodbye.”
Her legs began to tremble as she tried to put more distance between herself and Morkai.
“Maybe you’re even worse than me.” With a flutter of his fingers, the room began to dissolve again, this time under swirling shadows. They crawled down her throat, filled her lungs, raked talons over her heart. Black filled her vision as she struggled to free herself from the strangling dark mist. No matter how she fought, where she turned, she was pinned in place. The shadows refused to abate. They simply pressed harder. Harder. Squeezing her lips like a kiss of death.
* * *
Cora.
Cora.
“Cora!” The sound of her name made her body go still.
Her muscles ached as if she’d run for miles, as if she’d thrashed and raged in her sleep the same way she’d done in her dream. She blinked into the night, but her eyes were glazed with tears, casting everything under a blur. Something heavy was still pressed to her mouth, the smell of sweat and soil filling her senses. It was wrong. Foreign. Her mind struggled to remember.
Where am I? Where am I?
Then she remembered. Somewhat.
Her body went limp, and the heavy thing left her mouth. A hand. She waited only a beat before reaching for her belt and unsheathing her knife. With her free hand, she thrust outward, striking blindly with her palm. A gasp followed, then a thud, and she shoved all of her weight into the other body until she felt it collapse beneath her. She blinked again and again to rid the glaze of tears from her eyes. When her vision finally cleared, she found Teryn looking back at her, eyes wide with surprise. He was flat on his back while she straddled his stomach, her knife at the base of his throat. She felt a slice of wind beat her cheek. As she turned her head to the side, she caught sight of a dark shape darting for her.
“Berol, no,” Teryn said.
The falcon pulled out of her dive and lifted into the sky. Cora saw Berol’s shadow cross the moon as she circled overhead.
She returned her gaze to Teryn, her chest heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. Their eyes locked.
