But when Torben and I met with Sandy and Danielle, neither mentioned knowing about my magic. “You destroyed the letter, didn’t you?”
She nods. “And ended the messenger’s life. I saw both as a threat to you, and the same went for Marybeth. I was prepared to kill her when I next found her in the woods with a letter in hand. Vartul and I caught her, trapped her. But when I read her latest correspondence, I was surprised by what I found. In it, she expressed a refusal to divulge any more of your secrets. She insisted you were a good person and a kind friend and that she no longer believed what her cousin had told her about you. Seeing this, I realized I could make her an ally. So I…persuadedher to give me the power of her true name.”
“You persuaded her.” I give Myrasa a pointed look. “How?”
“I threatened her, all right? I said I’d go to the queen and reveal the maid’s treachery. The girl would be executed for smuggling information about the princess out of the castle, but if she gave the power of her true name to me, I’d use her to reunite her beloved princess with her mother.”
“She agreed, simple as that?”
Her lips curl up at the corners. “There may have been some…fear involved as well.”
Vartul snickers behind me. I imagine they threatened Marybeth with a violent drowning to quicken her resolve.
Myrasa continues. “But yes, she agreed. She seemed almost happy to do so once I told her who Edmund Snow really was—your captor. After that, I utilized my control over the girl to gain information about you, the queen, and your so-called father. I learned about your reliance on Crimson Malus, about your stepmother’s growing disdain for you. It took two years to finalize a plan, but once I had a clear vision of how to get you out of the palace, I executed it.”
I curl my fingers into my palms until I feel the bite of my nails. “You mean you killed my father.”
She lifts her chin. “I liberated you from your captor. From a false familial bond.”
This is the false familial bond, I want to say, but I hold my tongue.
Her smug expression turns affronted as she speaks again. “Unfortunately, my plan didn’t quite go as I’d foreseen. While Marybeth spirited you from the palace as ordered, you managed to trick Vartul. He was supposed to take you to me that night, but when you used your magic against him, he thought he’d found the wrong girl.” She pauses to glare at the kelpie. “After that, I had to come up with a new plan. Marybeth’s reports made me hopeless, as no one was able to find you. Until, finally, the Huntsman got involved.”
My heart flips in my chest at the mention of Torben, but it quickly turns into a hollow ache.
“I ordered Marybeth to read his correspondences with the queen, to learn all she could about his mission, his whereabouts, his weaknesses. Whenever he showed up to the palace in person, she spied on his meetings with Tris. She learned about his possession of the Chariot, overheard him making a bargain to deliver the device to the queen in exchange for Davenport Estate. Marybeth also discovered that he’d located you in the Fire Court, in Irridae. That you’d made a new life for yourself at the Seven Sins Hotel.” Her tone darkens, as does her expression. “That he was planning on ending your life within the following days. As soon as I learned where you were, I ordered Marybeth to take leave from the palace and get to Irridae at once. Vartul took her to the border of the Fire Court, and she rode the train the rest of the way. I feared even then it might be too late. That…that you were lost to me.”
Her eyes go unfocused, and my hate for the creature almost softens. Almost.
“Why didn’t you simply come find me yourself?” I ask. “Or send your kelpie friend? Surely either of you would have been more formidable than a human girl.”
“You’d be right about that, had you gone to any other court, but Vartul and I are both water fae. While water is known to overpower fire, there are instances where fire is detrimental to water. I couldn’t have survived that hot and barren land. Vartul would have been weak outside of the pools and ponds throughout the court. So I sent your friend to save you instead. Someone you trusted. Someone who cared about you enough to work hard to save you regardless of the orders I gave. I told her to do whatever it took to kill the Huntsman before he killed you. Above all else, though, she was to bring you back to me.”
Her eyes lock on mine, disgust curling her upper lip. “I should have known better. Should have foreseen that you’d fall in love with your captor yet again.”
“Stop calling them that. Father and Torben—” I nearly choke on my words. For a moment, I wonder if she’s right. Both men did abduct me in the strictest sense of the word. While Father’s intentions had been noble from the start, Torben’s weren’t. I think back to our first meeting, how he handcuffed me and nearly went through with tearing out my heart. He’d been my enemy then, a man sent to murder me in cold blood.
And Myrasa is right. I fell in love with him.
I expect shame to sink my heart at the admission.
But it doesn’t.
Instead, a lightness flutters through me. A comforting warmth.
Myrasa’s words may be true, but they fail to account for everything that happened between my first meeting with Torben and when I realized I loved him. Despite the bargain that could cost him his life, despite the prejudice he’d formed against me regarding my guilt, despite the fact that the same poison that killed my father laced my blood…
He stood by my side. Fought to prove my innocence. Befriended me. Comforted me in my time of need. Helped me get through one of the hardest experiences of my life. Not only that, but…
The feeling of fur against my cheek floods my memory—no, two memories. Of Torben lying next to me on the bed, calming my frayed mind while I was trapped in my grief. Of the baby bear snuggled up against my tiny, crying form while I was hurting and alone.
So yes, I fell in love with my captor. I’ve loved two of them in two different ways.
But both men have been so much more.
So. Much. More.
Myrasa places a hand on my shoulder. I stiffen at her touch, the coldness of her palm seeping through my blouse. “You’re free from him now,” she says. “It’s time to take your rightful place at my side.”
