“Vine.” She was proud of herself for keeping her voice so steady and calm.
“You didn’t free me as you said you would, sister.”
It was only then that Mara realized Vine had used her powers to completely freeze William beside her. He couldn’t move at all.
Wanting to check on him, but terrified her sister would kill him if she did, she diverted Vine’s attention as best she could. “I was trying. Your friends sank my boat before I could get near your island.”
Vine tsked at her. “Think you I believe that lie?”
“We had a bargain, did we not?”
“Aye, we did.” Vine’s gaze went to Duel as he fought against the Cimmerian army. “But it seems you’ve been distracted. Not that I blame you. He is a fine specimen of manhood. Well formed and skilled in all the right ways.”
Mara barely caught the urge to slap her sister, and that wave of unexpected violence shocked her. She stilled her breathing and gathered her composure before it betrayed her and got them all killed. “You’ve never spoken so highly of him before.”
And then Mara saw it. Only a flash, but Vine’s perfect, porcelain complexion was lined with the black veins that exposed her sister’s illness.
“Are you Wintering?”
The veins flashed again. This time, the black twined over her flesh like a living creature, slithering its way to her lips and eyes to turn them jet black. Even her Titian hair and the sclera of her eyes turned.
Mara wasn’t sure what stunned her most about that. The fact that her sister was that far gone and she’d missed it, or the fact that Vine could be so beautiful even while disease-ridden.
Unaware of her physical transformation, Vine glared at her. “What lies has he told you about me that you believe?”
Mara wanted to laugh at the thought of Duel gossiping about anyone, but Vine was being serious. Dead serious.
The Wintering had taken the deepest root imaginable. Was any part of this rotted creature the sister she’d once known? “What happened to you?”
“What happened to me?” She laughed bitterly. “I was locked in a hole for hundreds of years! You … you”—she stabbed Mara in the chest with a long black fingernail—“my husband coddled and sent into a sleeping trance to protect. Meanwhile, he made sure I was to be tortured! Held so that I couldn’t escape!”
“You murdered him, Vine.”
She sneered at Mara. “Have you any idea what he had planned?”
“Nay.”
“He was going to hand us over to our enemies.”
Mara froze at the mere thought. Surely Duel would never have done such a thing.…
“Pardon?”
“Aye. He wanted to put down his sword and start a family! Can you imagine? Dón-Dueli of the Dumnonii … the Dark One … the World-King wanted peace.” She spat the word to make it sound like the worst sort of insult.
Wincing, Mara hated herself for ever doubting Duel. “We are Deruvian Vanir. ’Tis what we dream of. You should have encouraged it.”
“As I did my first husband? A true Deruvian!” Her sneer lengthened, contorting her face into that of a hideous crone. “Let me tell you what such peace brought my first husband, child. A grave! And it’s what would have become of us all!” She grabbed Mara’s hand. “Now give me what I need to bury him, once and for all, or I’ll make sure you die in a way you won’t come back from!”
Mara sucked her breath in sharply at the threat. She wanted to deny that this was her sister. But as those words rang in her ears, others followed.
Duel was right. Vine had never loved him. She’d never really been capable of love. Even when they were children, her sister had been petty. Mara had overlooked Vine’s faults, especially after so many of their family had been slaughtered and burned. Their charred ashes scattered to the winds so that they couldn’t regenerate.
She’d convinced herself that Duel and his kind were the real evil in the world.
But evil didn’t pick and choose who to corrupt. It took root like an insidious weed that sought to destroy whatever garden it could find succor in, no matter who, what, or where that garden originated from. Evil was never picky about its host. That was why it was so important to rip it out and toss it off before it could spread and rot the garden from the inside out.
Take over and destroy the beauty that made the garden whole and healthy.
