Fraleigh responded with a calm smile. “Riyan’s sacrifice was a gift…but it is still incomplete. A life for a life given in love—the Man of the Mountain will fight death for you.”
I held my breath, listening to the soft pounding of my heart in my ears to ground me to the earth. Did she mean…immortality?
Fraleigh swallowed. “The Man of the Mountain wanted someone to walk the earth in the place of his lost bride, carrying her gifts so that she may live on…but he knows what I am doing is not living. He has searched for someone to replace me.” She let out a breath. “When I saw you at that chastity examination, the Man of the Mountain spoke in my mind.”
A chill ran up my arms.
I see you, Serafina Ravenwood.
I was seen, wanted, chosen…but it all seemed too perfect of a coincidence. I only had the gift of sorcery in the first place because Riyan took me to the healing spring after I had been poisoned. I was only poisoned because Rosaline told us to seek out Daigen…
I set my jaw. If Fraleigh could not refuse direct questions, then I was going to get some answers. “Did you tell Rosaline to instruct me to find Daigen?”
She swallowed and faced north. “The Man of the Mountain gave me an order…and one does not refuse orders from him.”
I did not like that answer. “Did you poison me?”
“No.” She turned to face me and her golden eyes were shining. “I never wanted you to get hurt, Serafina. Ever.”
Her plea of assurance made the truth of a promised eternity sink into my skin. The Man of the Mountain wanted me to be the next Great Sorceress—ageless, deathless, and powerful beyond my comprehension.
I looked around at the headstones around us, my eyes falling on the open graves. An immortal life would mean I would have to watcheveryoneI knew die. Would I drop a handkerchief on Annalisa’s coffin? Would I lay flowers at Brietta’s headstone?
And Derrick…
I refused to picture myself sobbing at his graveside as my mother had.
“But though the path is laid out for you,” Fraleigh said, “you don’t have to take it.”
I turned away from the headstones and looked back at Fraleigh, whose golden eyes were the softest I had ever seen.
“You can tell the Man of the Mountain no,” she said. “You can keep your magic until you meet Death’s black wings. I can hold on longer.”
I furrowed my brows. “Does that mean…if I choose eternity, you lose your power?”
Fraleigh gave me a wan smile. “What little there is left, and I become mortal once more.”
I swallowed. Eternity on earth was merely an option, though that option did not give me what I needed. “You cannot tempt me with eternity and expect me to forget about the man who allowed me to have it.” I stepped forward in the grass with my arms folded. “What about your freedom? The bargain might be unbreakable, but every agreement has a back door.”
Fraleigh let out a long breath, as if she wished I had never asked the question. She tapped the front of her collar with her sharp fingernail. “Only the Duke can speak these words and release the collar. Then my servitude is over.”
I eyed the words “Ipse Dixit,” as if each letter spelled our salvation.
My white flame warmed my heart. Getting into Anders’s head to force him to say the curse-breaking phrase would have been impossible, but he was no longer the Duke.
Derrick was.MyDerrick.
That was why my magic drew me to him two nights ago. That was why my heart’s desire pushed me to look for him and heal him.
“Derrick is the answer.” A smile broke through my lips. “I have already connected with his mind once. I just have to get into his head, make him say the words to free you, and it is all over. You can be with Daigen again, I can save Riyan…”
The crease between her eyebrows, pinched with a mixture of worry and pity, made me stop.
Fraleigh’s smile stayed calm, even as I felt the slight pull of the magic in the air around her.
“Again,” she said with glassy eyes, “I am restricted on what I can say.”
She stepped backward and dissolved into the air.
