The distance between me and my sister—even my brother—feels wider right now than it ever did, wider even than when I lived in a tower high above them.
I may as well be alone.
Keeping the nail poised, I speak quietly to the Vandawolf. “You can stop fighting now.”
I lift the hammer, preparing to hit the nail, but there I pause, my hand shaking.
My breathing is harsh. My heart is pounding.
I’m hesitating, not because I’m about to cause the Vandawolf more pain before his death, but because I know that once I end him, a part of me will break.
And I will never mend.
Chapter16
The Fae Queen’s voice cuts across the chill air. “I can heal him.”
I look up at her, barely able to focus, my voice an incredulous whisper. “What did you say?”
“I can heal him.” She glides around Elowynn, her gown once again slithering behind her as she approaches me. “Well, not me personally. I can command one of my people to do it.”
She can have him healed?
Outrage floods me. I fight the new snarl rising to my lips. “You let him lie here, clearly suffering, when you had the power to help him?”
Her only response is a shrug. Her demeanor is so nonchalant that I tell myself I can’t believe her.
This must be a sick game and I am, once more, her entertainment. Any moment now, she’ll burst into beautiful laughter and tell me to get on with killing him.
Surprising me, she holds up a finger. “I want something in return.”
Oh. Sothatis the game.
I force myself to breathe. “You want to make a deal.”
That would explain why she waited so long to speak up. No doubt, she wanted me to be so desperate that I’d be willing to bargain for his life.
But deals haven’t gone well for me in the past.
It was my deal with the Vandawolf that landed me in a tower. I offered him my life in exchange for my siblings’ safety, and instead of ending me as I’d expected, he’d kept me alive.
Behind the Queen, Tamra suddenly makes a move, attempting to maneuver around the monarch’s long dress.
She cries, “No more deals?—”
“Hush, darling,” Queen Karasi croons, her dress swishing as she spins to my sister and blocks her way. “I’m afraid you made your feelings clear. It’s too late to help your sister now.”
As soon as she speaks, though, she purses her lips, as if she’s reconsidering what she just said. “Unless you really have changed your mind? Now that you know Asha will have to reach an agreement with me, will you choose to heal this wolf-man after all?”
Tamra chews her bottom lip, while Queen Karasi’s sunlight eyes gleam.
“Will you doom Asha to the Vandawolf’s oppression once more?” the Queen asks softly.
Tamra finally shakes her head. “I… can’t do it. I can’t heal him. If Asha makes this choice, then the consequences are hers alone.”
Her words strike at the heart of me, but I try very hard to close off my feelings. I tell myself I can’t feed the medallion with more pain right now, but I know that’s an excuse. A way of putting away what I’m feeling, of making it cold, because if I don’t clamp down on it… my rage will turn on my sister.
Carefully, I focus my thoughts on simple movements, placing the nail back into my toolbox and my hammer back onto the belt at my waist.
