Though I had no idea where the guards were taking Derrick, there was no point chasing them through the maze in the walls when Freya hadminutesleft.
My bare feet pounded on the tile in the hallway as half dressed monsters in paper and lace masks ran screaming past me. I shoved my way through the oak doors and raced across the empty ballroom.
“Freya!” I cried, scanning the ballroom that was littered with glass bottles and discarded masks.
Maybe she was in the garden. I pushed on the glass doors leading to the garden and ran out into the summer air.
“Frey—!”
My lips froze in a silent scream. Anders Hyton was skewered on the right golden horn of the rearing bull statue—impaled through the stomach like he had fallen out of the sky. His unmasked face was frozen in eternal surprise as he faced the moonless night.
I trembled as my eyes followed the trails of blood that ran down the stone bull.
My stomach twisted and my throat burned. I bent over on the stone steps and retched. My sickness was purple and slimy as it rolled down the steps toward the gored Anders Hyton.
My throat burned as if I had vomited molten iron. Tears ran down my face as I released the Cupid’s Blood from my body.
It tasted worse than anything I had ever experienced. The poison coated my tongue with the bitter sting of shame.
Derrick’s mouth had been on me…andinme. How could I have let it happen?
I heaved and shook as the last of the Cupid’s Blood left my body. Standing on shaky limbs yet seconds away from breathing fire, I slowly raised my eyes at the corpse of Anders Hyton. I spat out the last remnant of the poison from my mouth.
Good fucking riddance.
I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand and ran back into the ballroom. I ran up the stairs toward the Duchess’s dressing room when a shrieking roar echoed through the hall.
I shoved open the dressing room door and immediately found Freya sitting on a couch. Her curls trembled around a radiant golden crown. Her pink robes were soaked with crimson at her belly and blood pooled at the hem around her ankles. Amethyst and Sapphira were holding her hands. Emeralda, Pearl, and Rubia—unmasked but still in their gauzy costumes from the ball—knelt beside her and gripped her robes as they wept their final goodbyes.
“Bri-etta?” Freya choked, her eyes still squeezed shut. Black streaks ran down her cheeks as her makeup mixed with her tears. Blood dripped from her mouth.
“No, Mama,” Amethyst said in a breath.
I ran forward, stopping before I stepped in the growing puddle of blood. “Derrick loves you, Freya. Your Midnight wanted me to tell you he loves you.”
The door flew open and Annalisa ran in, pulling an unmasked Brietta by the arm. “Mama! I got her!”
“Freya!” Brietta shrieked. She knelt beside Freya and blood stained her knees. “How can I—what can I—?”
Freya peeled open her eyes and her whole body shook. Blood stained her teeth. “My desk. Find the letter. You know where.”
Brietta nodded as tears rolled down her cheeks.
I waited for Annalisa to join us as we helped Freya into the next life, but instead she quietly crossed the room. Garnet, the only person other than Annalisa not dressed in a costume for the ball, silently wept in the far corner. Annalisa gently took her older sister by the hands and led her over to us. “Come on, Gar. We need you too.”
Annalisa and Garnet stood behind their formidable mother as she rattled with her final breaths. Annalisa had one arm around Garnet and then she threw the other around Sapphira’s shoulders. The rival sisters’ foreheads touched as they leaned into each other.
“You can rest Freya,” Brietta whispered as she blinked out tears. “We will take it from here.”
The door flew open again and a group of palace guards rushed in.
“Duchess! Come with us,” one of the guards ordered.
My heart jumped as the guards wrapped their hands around Brietta’s forearms.
“Let her go!” Freya roared, shaking as she forced herself onto her feet. “I still breathe, damn you!”
Brietta’s brown eyes went wide as the guards led her out of the room. She did not even bother fighting them off.
