Ozik.
Vaasa clutched the necklace in her shaking hand. The hum of the iron links worked up her fingers, reminding her of the magic that wanted so desperately to get out.
Kill him, her mind thought.Kill him now.
Rage flooded her veins and all her reasoning, all her careful planning, was lost. She dropped the necklace into her pocket and let her magic spring to life. Instead, she did exactly as he’d once told her to do.
She struck.
Vaasa launched a wave of magic across the greenhouse, the edges sharpening into a glittering wall that slammed into Ozik. He flew backward and hit the olive tree, sliding to the ground in a slumped-over version of himself.
Immediately, the cords within her tightened. Ozik’s head snapped up, his eyes so clear, his skin pale and unmarred.
But he pulled back on her magic, was taking it away again, he was—
No.
In her haze, she felt as if she grasped her hands around those cords and pulled back. Nails sinking into the power, with all her might she fought against the stealing of it. It felt as if the rope had slipped through her fingers, so she tightened harder, grit her teeth, tugged more. It was hers.
It washers.
Ozik smiled.
Something on the other end of their connection gave.
Magic poured into her in a tidal wave, her anger and fear and desperation swirling in her veins like a heady wine. It was red and black, mist and oil, a combination of both their power. That shimmering bond between them overflowed like a well, and she let it fill her, let the strength of it fuel each ounce of magic that sprung to life in her body. The wolf tore from her bones, more real than anything she’d ever conjured. Every placement of its feet, every stone beneath them, she felt so distinctly. She dug her own boots into the ground in tandem with the manifestation.
It growled, prowling forward.
Vaasa wanted to kill him. There was no space for sympathy, no thoughts to consider Julianna or Ellena or why Ozik had done any of this. She had never hated someone like she hated him—it was a depth of rage she hadn’t thought herself capable of.
Unleashed, the wolf sprung forward and tackled Ozik to the ground. He grunted as he slammed into the stones, and Ozik spun, trying to thrash the wolf off him. It dug its teeth into his face, and Ozikscreamed. She tasted his blood, felt the slickness of it on her own tongue, and the metallic tang lit up the part of her that was entirely capable of violence. It felt as it had when she’d taken Dominik’s life. It washerkill.Herchoice.
It was the part of her that was capable of great horrors to get exactly what she wanted.
Ozik roared in his rage and pain, and she thought, for just a moment, that she had done it. That she was finally going to kill him. And then his voice whispered in her mind.A shame to only have one third of a thing, isn’t it?
Vaasa stumbled backward.
Call off our magic, Vaasalisa.
Vaasa hauled the magic back inside herself. Not just her magic—his, too. Melisina was right. She was channeling Ozik.
She forced her body backward, stumbling, mind reeling. She had one piece of the anchor in her pocket, but it wasn’t enough. She needed all three pieces.Thatwas how she killed Zetyr.
Her mother’s note unfurled in her mind:Whatever you do, stay in Mireh and do not unite the other pieces. The price is far too great.
What was the price? What was her mother trying to warn her about?
She thought of Ozik’s bloodshot eyes, of the veins showing beneath his skin. Perhaps that was the cost: To wield the anchor was to give oneself over to it entirely, to slowly lose control of your mind and your heart and your humanity. The anchor of the god of souls could do no right by the person who held it.
That was what Dominik had sought, the reason Lord Vlacik had tortured her. It had taken Ozik, a man capable of such incredible love, and turned him into a vessel usable by Zetyr due to his father’s bargain. Maybe that was what Vaasa’s mother had seen. Maybe she had watched a man she’d loved for fifteen years become a beast.
The wolf disappeared. The tang of blood remained on her tongue. Ozik lay on the ground for a moment, his chest rising and falling. Vaasa hit her knees. The heel of her palm dug into the sharp cobblestones as she gripped them to keep herself from falling face-first. She stared down at the glimmering stones beneath her hands and tightened her grip upon them.
What did it matter if she’d finally figured it out? If she knew precisely the way to kill him and escape her bargain? The bargain itself meant nothing, not now. He had taught her exactly how to use it to her own advantage. He didn’t want their magic linked so he could wield her power—it was so that she could wield his.
“Did you do this to my mother?” She begged for an answer. “Did you link your magic to hers just so she could fight off that deity inside of you?”
