I shift on the floor, a creeping feeling of dread traveling up my spine.
“Soon, I realized that there was something off about Silvia. I think you used the word ‘wrong,’ and that’s exactly how I viewed it as well. She was charming, but did not seem to truly care for anything except herself. As a child she was cruel to animals and playmates, using them for their inherent magic and leaving them drained and powerless. Once, she was given a salamanderas a pet. Salamanders have incredible inherent powers, but Silvia drained all its power and it died.”
“She was a child. Why didn’t you stop her?”
“I tried! I tried numerous times to intervene, but the Queen was excited by Silvia’s magical talent and encouraged it, not caring that Silvia was hurting others.”
“So she’s like Thorne,” I say flatly.
“I believe so. Thorne was incapable of real love, and in my opinion Silvia is the same. The only thing she wants is total control over her kingdom and admiration from her subjects. She reacts quickly and cruelly to any perceived rejection.”
I raise my eyebrows, glancing around the cell. “I’m assuming you rejected her?”
Amora grimaces. “When Silvia was a young adult she discovered the truth about her true lineage by reading about it in the Queen’s journal. She lashed out in rage and accidentally plunged the kingdom into an eternal winter.”
My mouth opens in surprise. “How the fuck did she do that?”
Amora shrugs miserably. “I don’t really know, magic is complicated. If I had to guess, I think she drew too much power from the land, effectively ‘killing’ it, but it’s hard to say. Regardless, the Queen who Silvia viewed as her mother was killed, frozen solid.”
I sneer. “Did she care?”
“I think she did, in her own way. She certainly experienced remorse over it, if only because now she was truly alone. She came to me and asked for help to reverse what she’d done, but I didn’t know how. When I couldn’t help her she decided it would be more useful to have my power for herself. She didn’t actually kill me, and I was left alive and with a little magic, but nothing like the power I was born with…” she trails off, sighing. “Anyway, she threw me in this tower and I’ve been here ever since.”
“How long?” I ask.
She frowns. “I’m not sure. Decades, I think. You’re the only person I’ve spoken to in at least five years. It’s been a while since the last person who lived in your cell died.”
A shiver runs down my spine. It’s like Dyaspora all over again, but somehow worse. At least there, we weren’t alone. It was freezing and painful to work in the mines all day, but I would much rather go back there than spend decades alone in the dark.
“Do you have any idea of what’s happened since you’ve been here?” I ask.
“Somewhat. Whenever other prisoners were brought in they told me what was happening outside. I believe that Silvia has continued to try to end the winter she created. I don’t know whether she’s still trying to unfreeze the Queen, or at this point it is simply a compulsion, and she can’t give up until she succeeds.”
“She outlawed magic,” I say flatly.
Amora purses her lips. “That makes sense. Probably so that anyone who was caught using it would be brought directly to her and she could take their power for herself. Is she still using the shifters as soldiers?”
I nod, unable to unhinge my clenched jaw to answer out loud.
Amora grimaces. “I heard about that years ago from another prisoner. In my opinion, she did that so that she could consistently draw on the power of the entire army at once. Shifters have a lot of magic.”
I shake my head. “No, we don’t.”
She raises her eyebrows. “Do you think that turning into animals and back again is something that just anyone can do?”
“Fine, but shifters don’t have magic like Fae do.”
“They do, actually, but as I said before, if it’s not taught from an early age it’s nearly impossible to learn later.”
I gape at her, my mind racing. I have to force myself to focus back on Silvia, and not let my mind wander toward what mightbe possible if shifter children weren’t handed swords from the time they could walk and instead were taught magic like the Fae. As long as we’re bound to Silvia, that will never happen anyway.
“If Silvia has all that magic—yours, the other Fae, the army—then why can’t she end the curse?”
“I just don’t think it can be done,” Amora replies sadly. “Not while she’s still alive, anyway, but she either doesn’t realize that or believes that more power would be enough.”
My heartbeat picks up, a terrible idea dawning on me. “She was happy to see Aurelia. She seemed genuinely excited. I couldn’t understand why.”
Amora grimaces. “I can’t pretend to know exactly what Silvia is thinking, but I would guess that she really was happy. She despises being alone, but due to her own nature, she has found herself entirely isolated. I’d imagine that having a twin, someone exactly like her, would be exciting to her.”
