He put his hands on her shoulders as his mother gasped. The red ribbons dangled from his wrists. “I did it for love. You told me love was the most powerful magic there is, and now my love is going to save you.”
I scowled. Just as my mother knew the taste of poison, I knew the taste of a lie.
Love hadnothingto do with Ragnar’s motivations.
“Rag—” Ilsa choked.
Ragnar held Ilsa’s crystal in his hand and he sang. “No girl, can’t be undone. I won’t stop ‘till your life is won.”
The crystal glowed weakly.Hewas praying to the Man of the Mountain to fight Death. He was trying to sever his mother’s blood bond with sorcery.
Ragnar’s face lit up. “Don’t you sleep until we’ve run to the West—”
But only a plea of true, pure love can persuade the Man of the Mountain to listen. And because Ragnar was lying…
The light of the crystal went out. Ilsa’s gasping stopped and she fell out of her son’s grip to the floor—theexactspot where I was kneeling in the living world.
“No!” Ragnar cried, falling down with his mother as her face turned as violet as her eyes. “Please, Mama, no! Astrid told me this would work! I thought I could spare you…I thought I was powerful enough…”
But Ilsa did not answer. Ragnar cried bitter tears alone.
The Diamond of the North would shine no more, so there were no more memories left for me to see.
I pushed out of the tragic past and opened my eyes. I mentally traced the twisted fibers of the carpet below my hands and the tears from Ilsa’s last breath and Ragnar’s failure sang back at me.
The General’s lies stained the memory. If he had not murdered his father for his love of Astrid, why had he done it?
The Nordingaard crystal still glowed white as it dangled from my neck. The magic forced a prickling sensation up my shoulders as I tried to hold myself upright.
Another memory was desperate to show itself, but I thought I was done?
I glanced up at the teapot. The steam had stopped curling out of the spout. Derrick would be back soon. I had no time to—
The sound of splintering glass pricked my ears. I gritted my teeth as the grating noise echoed in my mind. The same force from before pushed me to keep searching the memories.
My mind started to fog. My eyelids were heavy. My body might have been exhausted from the intensity of the memories, but the spirit behind the memory would not yield.
The insistence was all too familiar, like a cup forced into my hands.
I glared at the glowing crystal as it dangled. My white flame burned with disdain but twisted through my limbs as I connected with the force that beckoned for my magic.
Show me, Anders.
With a crash through my mind, the Duke’s study materialized in my vision. Starlight streamed through the windows. Young Anders was at the oak desk, the crown of Lycaster resting on his head. His eyes were bloodshot. An empty bottle of spirits was next to one hand as he pushed Ilsa’s crystal around the surface of the desk with the other.
His hands were dry and cracked like he had washed them a dozen times.
The door clicked open and Ragnar walked in. Anders did not even look up.
“We did it.” Ragnar said with a rueful smile. “The Dukedom believes that Baron Thornebow killed Father. Your plan was masterful.”
Anders still scowled as he stared down at the fractals of the crystal.
Ragnar cleared his throat. “He committed high treason anyway, with what he wrote in that book. What a moron. He knew Mama could not even read it herself.”
Anders rose from the desk. “Do you think this is fucking amusing? In the past twelve hours, I was crowned, we executed a Baron, and Nikkolas Bloodstone accosted me about what you did to his daughter!”
Ragnar smiled. “He will calm down once I marry Astrid and his new grandson is named heir.”
