“I need more time,” she said. “I can’t take this alliance lightly. If you want me to trust you, I need more proof. Give me the full three weeks to determine if you’re worth my trust and I will meet you at the border as planned with my answer.”
His eyes narrowed to a squint. Did he see through her ruse? Did he suspect what she kept hidden? The tic deepened in his jaw and his fingers curled tightly at his sides. Then he whirled back toward the balustrade and propped his elbows upon the rail. His energy flared with frustration.
“Is it the other queen?” he asked, voice low. “Is she the reason you hesitate?”
“You seek to end her life.” Emotion crept into her voice, but she didn’t bother masking it. “What kind of person would I be if I didn’t hesitate?”
“She and her son are two people.Two. In exchange for their deaths, thousands of lives could be saved. Are those two lives more valuable than those that would be lost during war? Is it not your duty to put the lives of your people first?” Slamming his fist on the balustrade, he faced her again. “You shouldhateher.”
She sucked in a sharp breath.
“My son mistook you for her.” He took a forbidding step closer, temples pulsing. “He cursed you to die childless. Destroyed your brother’s mind. Tried to start a war in your kingdom’s name. You were banished from your own castle, forced to flee, all because you were the wrong girl.”
Memories of flames flashed in her mind’s eye, the terror of her nightmare echoing in the beat of her heart.
“You’ve borne the brunt of torment that had been meant for her all along. Does that make you feel noble? Do you fancy yourself a hero, Queen Aveline?” He closed in another step.
She launched back, her knees quavering.
Should it have been her?asked the taunting voice from her nightmare.
Darius continued, tone edged with malice. “Do you take pride in the protection you’ve provided? Do you enjoy watching her with her newborn baby, flaunting the joy of motherhood that you’ll never have? Are you glad you gave up your youth so that she could be coddled? Have you never wondered what your life would have been like had Desmond targeted her instead of you? Have you never wished for it?”
Darkness flared inside her, a dangerous pulse. She tried to smother it down, but it begged her to look at it. Begged to swarm around her. But she couldn’t. No, she couldn’t. That wasn’t her. That darkness didn’t belong to her.
He stepped closer once more, towering over her. “Do you deserve the punishment you’ve been given? Do you delight in the sacrifices you made? Or…do you wish the burden had been given to the one who’d deserved it all along?”
“Stop,” she bit out, shoulders trembling. The flames of memory grew brighter. The darkness in her chest grew tighter. It screamed at her, clawed at her, fought to emerge from the prison that was her heart.
Darius lowered his voice to a whispered hiss. “Should that curse truly have been placed upon you, an innocent child? Born in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or should it have been her? Do you wish it had beenher?”
“Yes!”
Silence echoed in the wake of that word.
She’d meant to staystop.
Meant to refuse.
Meant to say anything but that horrible, condemning word.
Her body shuddered with a sob. Something wet splashed on her collarbone, soaking the neck of her robe. Only then did she realize tears were streaming from her cheeks.
Her chest squeezed…
Then released.
The sob turned into a breath of relief.
And the darkness inside her left its cage.
47
Awitch’s challenge was a beautiful and treacherous thing. Beautiful in how much it could grow one’s magic. Treacherous in how the means of one’s challenge only seemed obvious in hindsight. If Cora had acknowledged the darkness in her heart for what it was the first time it had begged her to look at it, she could have grown her magic days ago.
But that was the nature of challenges.
The way of the witch.
