Ottilie. All this time it was Ottilie. How did Skylar not notice how deranged she is? She’d been so focused on her hatred of the king, refusing to see who stood next to him.
Zryan is staring at his mother, color drained from his skin. He is holding himself so still. Axel must be working hard to keep him calm, but Skylar catches the look Ottilie gives him, like she’s checking that Axel’s Influence is holding.
The queen claps her hands. “I’ve only ever done what is needed to keep Vatra safe. You both needed to die. Zryan needed to rule—it was the only way to buy us time, to stop the kingdom from crumbling. But I don’t expect you to understand that. Now, Axel, if you’ll—”
“And, what,” Astrid interrupts, staring at the queen with an expression Skylar doesn’t think she’s ever seen so fiercely before. Pure hatred. “You thought Zryan would be okay with it?”
The queen’s gaze stays level. “I’d thought, as my son, we would be able to find a way forward.”
Zryan pulls at the chains that bind him. “You were wrong. I would never have gone along with this. Never.”
“And I figured that out, when Axel found out what you’ve been up to.”
Zryan looks at Axel—at the man he grew up with, the man whose mother died to save him. “You set me up?”
Axel grimaces. “I’m sorry, Zryan. I knew there were traitors in the castle somewhere. And I couldn’t be sure, but I had my suspicions you’d been working against us for some time.” He drops his voice, like he wants to speak to Zryan and Zryan alone. “We were worried you might betray us in the end.”
Zryan laughs, the sound dangerous. “I don’t think my betrayal is the one we should be talking about right now.”
Astrid has been watching Zryan as he speaks, but now she tears her gaze away. “So it all comes down to this?” She gestures to indicate what is going on outside this room. “This is why you wanted us both dead? This is why Jessa died? All to stop us finding out the Heart is broken?”
The queen laughs, the sound high and unhinged. She looks from Astrid to Skylar and back again. “You still haven’t worked it out, have you? Thereisno Heart.”
56Astrid
There is no Heart.
Every thought retreats from Astrid’s mind.
What is Ottilie talking about? “Of course there is. What do you think has been powering your continent for centuries? Has kept our ecosystems balanced?” Astrid says.
“It certainly did power our kingdom, and ensured the stability of yours.” Her steel-gray eyes, colder than her son’s, fix on Astrid. “How long have you been suffering with the Blight, Princess Astrid?”
“Queen,” Skylar cuts in. “She isQueenAstrid to you. And I am your queen now, should you need reminding.” She looks at the Primes and the Dreki, not bothering to spare a glance for Axel. “Tell us where the Heart is.”
But Astrid is shaking, because it makes sense. It finally makes sense. Why they’re draining the Blooded of their magic. Why there’s Blight in Vatra as well as Arturea. Why they haven’t been able to cure it after all these years.
“She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know where it is.” She’s amazed at how level her voice is, especially with the swirling panic that’s threatening to engulf her. “What happened?” she says to Ottilie. “How?”
The queen’s lips purse. She looks between her son and Astrid, then her eyes flick again to Skylar and the pin in her hand. “It was taken. Stolen from us, more than twenty years ago, and I’ve been searching for it ever since. But when weeks of searching became months, and months became years, I had to do something. The Vitalas we had stored was enough to keep it flowing through the kingdom for a time, but eventually it ran out, and then some of our subjects started tosuspect something. We couldn’t risk anyone finding out, couldn’t risk further unrest—the hysteria if people knew or the challenge to our authority. I had to do something,” she says again, this time speaking only to Zryan. As if pleading with him to understand. She turns away at the hard look on his face.
“Initially we believed it was an attack by Arturea, that the witches had stolen it with some clever magic, but the way your country has suffered, we soon realized it couldn’t have been.” Astrid’s brow furrows. “Oh yes, we recognized the Blight for what it was long before your mother and father did.”
“And you’ve denied her this whole time? Denied everything? You should have told us!” Astrid moves without thinking, but then she seizes up, the blood in her veins slowing, congealing. Her heart hammers all the harder and she thinks she might die, that she might be shredded from the inside out. Bastet roars at the same time Skylar yanks Astrid’s claw from the sheath at her wrist and aims for the Blood Wielder, who goes down, clawing and choking as it lodges in his throat. Astrid slumps to the floor and Skylar’s beside her immediately, arm around her shoulder, helping her up.
Nice shot. She focuses on slowing her heart rate.
Yeah, well, no one fucks with my mate.
Another Prime breaks from formation, but she stops at the sound of metal smashing against marble as it reverberates throughout the room. Zryan has pulled on one of the magically reinforced chains so hard he’s almost torn it from the pillar. He’s pointing at his mother, his beautiful face contorted with wrath. The Prime takes a purposeful step away from him, sweat beading her brow.
“Heed me now, Ottilie. I will kill you myself if any harm comes to her—do you understand? Not a hair on her head is to be touched. Or none of you will leave this place.”
The queen stares at her son, her hands shaking slightly. “You heard the prince: you are not to harm the Arturean princess.”
Queen. Skylar growls into her head.
That is the least of our problems right now, Skylar.
