My power. Somehow inside this random maid’s qareen. Bound there, if the ropes and gag were any indication. How or why, I couldn’t know, but this must have been the other reason Shaya had sent me here. To claim it.
If my power was bound inside her, I could only think of one way to get it out. The same way the Cirra Tribe had planned to take my wish back—I’d have to bleed it out.
Something glinted, catching my eye. I turned to find my maid holding a dagger, the one that Kald had thrown, her eyes still trained on her qareen.
She had anticipated my need and acted accordingly. She was well trained indeed.
I held out my hand expectantly. “Give me the knife.”
She blinked. Once. Twice. Staring at my outstretched palm.
My smile was indulgent. “You have served the Gods-Chosen valiantly. Beyond all expectations. For which you will be greatly rewarded. But I can take it from here.” I wiggled my fingers insistently.
It was just the same as it had been that fateful night, when the Kaldfolk ravaged my palace. Her, gazing at me with those large frightened eyes. And me, impatient to get on with my father’s plans. I really should have recognized her the moment I’d seen her.
I reached for the knife.
The girl stepped back. “No.”
SIXTY-TWOSAMIRA
The Gods-Chosen stared at me, face frozen. “No?”
My heart hammered in my chest. I had never said no to Amunet. Never. Had never even dreamed of it. But my fingers were latched on to Keir’s serrated dagger and refused to let go.
It was me lying on the altar. I was looking down at myself.Mygagged mouth,myglowing green runes,mylit-up eyes that weren’t brown but a bright, piercing orange. But there were no scars on my chest or back.
She looked just like me and nothing like me at all. There was so much on her body that my own was missing. But she wasme. Whatever pull I’d felt had luredmehere. It wantedmeto find her. Wantedmeto use this dagger. Not Amunet Khada.Me.
“Give me the dagger, girl,” Amunet repeated. “That is not a request.”
Girl. She couldn’t even bother to remember my name.
My qareen shook her head fervently and screamed into her gag.
That same disturbing feeling of looking at my reflection in a mirror came over me. I gazed down at my qareen, fear making her otherworldly eyes bulge, her body trembling as she braced for impact. Her bucking had ceased. She was no longer trying to get away. No longer fighting. She just looked up at me pleadingly.
Passive. Resigned. Just as I’d been when Amunet had tossed me to the bears.
And she’d do it again. Right now. She would take this dagger, cut intomyqareen, and then… what? Vanish. It would not be in her nature to help Keir, a Kald, against his qareen—or to help me, a slave too insignificant to have a name. Keir and I would be left alone to deal with his double. And to figure out a way home, if we were lucky enough to survive the scorched creature behind the waterfall.
I stared and stared at my qareen, and the longer I looked, the more disgust filled me. Pathetic, broken, helpless. A scared little girl always at someone else’s mercy.
I hated her. I hated her fear. I hated her choked screams. I hated the tears streaming down her cheeks. It was a loathing so deep, it was an integral part of me. A hatred that had always been there, lurking in the background of my consciousness, that I hadn’t spotted until just now.
“This is your last warning,” Amunet said. “Give me the fucking dag—”
I slit my qareen’s throat.
Glittering blood flooded out of her neck, and she twitched violently. I must’ve nicked an artery, because it spurted out and splashed over my chest.
The moment her blood hit me, the metallic scent punched up my nose, and my hatred and disgust drained away as the horror of what I’d done sank in. My qareen jerked harder, all the veins in her head bulging as she fought to hang on to life, choking on her own blood.
With a gasp, I tossed the knife away like it’d burned me. “Oh gods,” I whispered, covering my mouth. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I didn’t—”
“What have you done?” Amunet shrieked, and lunged at me. Grabbed me by the shoulders and sent me flying into the wall.
My head cracked, and pain burst through me.
