“Veragi told me,” Amalie murmured. “Or, at least I think it’s her.”
“The goddess has spoken to you?”
Amalie nodded. “This is the third time in my life I’ve heard her voice in my mind. Perhaps it’s nothing but an illusion of my own making, but…” She shook her head in disbelief. “She told me to be patient. To bide my time. That help was coming.”
Vaasa’s mind reeled. Veragi, the goddess of witchcraft herself? The deity from which Vaasa and Amalie were granted their magic. “If I’ve learned anything in the past year, it’s that plenty of the unbelievable is possible,” Vaasa said.
Amalie sat down on the bench beneath the olive tree, the sage green of the leaves in such complement to the shades of brown in her hair. “Are you safe?” she asked.
“Me?” Vaasa took the spot next to her. “It’s you I’m worried about. I’ve tried to sneak to the prison, I’ve—”
“Don’t,” Amalie told her. “I don’t know how much time we have, and I…” She let out a small breath. “You need to find a way to kill Ozik, not spend your time fussing about me.”
Vaasa dragged a hand through her hair, sitting as comfortably as she could. Ozik could walk in any moment, so she kept her voice low. “I haven’t figured that out yet. But I found a note from my mother. It was meant to be paired with a necklace, but I think my brother hid it.”
“A necklace?”
“My mother said it was the only thing that could protect me. That I shouldn’t unite the pieces, because the cost was too great.”
“What does that mean?”
“I have no idea.”
Amalie let out a small sigh. “If I hear her voice again, I’ll ask. Maybe Veragi will know.”
Something like hope rose in Vaasa. The voice of a goddess—could it be true?
And if Veragi could speak to or through Amalie… Vaasa thought of Ozik’s red eyes and shuddered. Perhaps only a goddess would know the answers about how something like that worked.
“Tell me everything you can,” Amalie said. “I don’t know how or why I keep hearing her, but perhaps there’s something she wants me to know.”
“Everything?” Vaasa asked.
“Everything we have time for.”
Vaasa took a deep breath, this invisible weight lifting off her.Honesty, her mind whispered. And so she quietly uttered the truth.
That she had made a deal with the devil in order to keep seeing Reid.
That she was tugging on the cords of Roman’s affection to gain access to Amalie.
That she was becoming the very thing she had always hoped to never be—
That the darkness was starting to seep its way back in.
Shame tightened her throat, but when she met Amalie’s eyes, it dissipated to that small sense of self-forgiveness that her coven had taught her to embrace.
She could not hate herself when they loved her.
Truth bubbled from Vaasa’s core as she began to speak every twisted detail of her current situation.
And with every word, her exhaustion lifted. Her fear. Her pain.
Amalie placed her hand upon Vaasa’s, and for the first time since arriving in this city, Vaasa felt strong.
CHAPTER
24
