Quietly, he asks, “In the prophecy, you only murder one Korol, right?”
Goosebumps pebble my skin. “I hope so.”
“But if they’re working together…?”
I shudder. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I say, even though my mind is right there with his.
Killing a girl I’ve never met is one thing. Killing one I know…one who looks identical to a woman I care about is another. If the Cauldron had shown me kneeling beside Ksenia’s corpse, odds are, I would’ve stayed away from Glace.
“If I was Ksenia, where would I hide?” I muse quietly.
“Somewhere very unexpected, considering her own siblings haven’t been able to locate her for the past two weeks.”
I draw Elio to a stop. “What do you meantwo weeks?”
The whites of his eyes gain traction over his irises. “Shit. I don’t think I was supposed to tell you.”
“Well, now that you started, don’t stop.”
He sinks a hand through the curls at the back of his skull. “Don’t you care to keep me alive, Isles?”
“Elio Riccio Genovese,” I hiss, “I’ll tell the palace chefs to add blue cheese on all your food, desserts included.”
His nose twitches with revulsion. “Cruel.”
“Just tell me.”
With a sigh, he says, “She vanished the day before you left and hasn’t surfaced since. I imagine you weren’t told because they worried how you’d react.”
This collective of sneaks were right to worry about my reaction. I grit my molars, murdering the front door with a glare.
I didn’t care if Konstantin didn’t want to see me. He was about to see me. And to hear me.
I don’t stay for tea. I streak out the Countess’s house and morph. The instant I’m back in feathers, I reach out to my father and ask him if he was aware of Ksenia’s absenteeism.
I was respecting Konstantin’s wishes,he says, even though I bet he kept mute so I made the trip home instead of staying behind and taking matters into my own talons.
Beak gritted, I hiss,You should’ve told me.
A beat of silence trundles between us.
I sent Colm and Fionn and many others. No one’s found her.
Because she’s mine to find! They’re both mine to find!My explosion is met with more rife silence.Ikill Mestyla,I remind him.
Yes, but we don’t know what happens before or after,he finally says.
I stop beating my wings and float as a realization strikes. Mestyla dies from a dagger to the heart. One embedded with diamonds in a pattern of a snowflake.
What ifI’mnot the one to kill Alyona’s daughter?
What if Mestyla dies at Izolda’s hands, and I only arriveafterthe murder?
That would mean that Izolda will find herself alone with her niece!
I need to make my friend swear to stay inside the castle, and I need to make Aodhan swear not to leave her side.
37
