“Get me out.” Her voice was shredded. She pushed against me weakly. “Don’t… touch. Get me out.”
I loosened my hold. Lachlan was at the edge of the pool, reaching to help her out. Together, we heaved her onto the uneven stones of the floor. She spat and coughed and curled herself up just as she’d been in that pool, bloody arms wrapping tightly around her knees. She lay still, muscles quavering slightly. Her wings were not out, but her dark-tipped talons were. Some were chipped; one was missing altogether. I didn’t doubt she’d put up a fight.
I reached out and laid a hand to her shoulder.
She yelled a brutalized “No.”
I yanked my hand back, chest crushing. Lachlan sat beside her. He was wet with blood and water and in such complete shock that I felt certain a part of him would never recover from it. He remained motionless and I had to fight a scream. All the years they’d spent apart had been because he’d obeyed when Agatha told him to leave her be. Because she was too damn stubborn, too steely, to let herself be cared for.
Helpless, I glanced around the room. Halla huddled on the floor in the corner, leaning against the wall with inexplicable tears in her eyes. Water rushed from my hair and pooled around me as I pushed myself to my knees. I looked to Theodore, who was already moving toward us, as if he knew what I was about to ask of him.
Help. Please, help.
He took a knee. “Agatha, may I close your wounds?” he asked, gentle and quiet. “I won’t touch you. You’ll only feel some warmth.”
She made the smallest, most devastating sound. Agatha flinched when Theodore began his work, closing all the little marks that spotted her skin. When Lachlan still didn’t move, I crawled to her, stretching myself out on the stones, so I could see her face.
Agatha had always been metal-spined, uncompromising, untouchable, and the empress had broken her. Her black curls were gone; only chunks remained here and there. I glanced up atTheodore kneeling behind her, and a crush of ferocious determination fell over me.
I’d fix this. I’d fix it for the two people I loved most in the world, the two people who’d shown me compassion, who’d given me care not because I deserved it, but simplybecause.
“Agatha,” I whispered. She didn’t blink; she only stared with dark, glassed-over eyes. “Agatha, what happened? The empress put you in there?”
“Offering.”
She spoke so quickly I jolted. “You were an offering? To Eusia?”
She tried to shake her head but only shivered. “I keep it alive.”
It?My brow bent with confusion. One of the bloody gashes in her scalp slowly closed, the flesh knitting back together, then another.
Agatha opened and closed her mouth like she searched for words, then said, “Still in there.”
Shock stole through me. I sat halfway up. “What’s still in there?” I asked. “Eusia? Is Eusia in the pool?”
Agatha finally blinked. “At the bottom.” And then, on wobbling arms, she began pushing herself up.
I reached out, stopping before I touched her. “What are you doing? Agatha, lie down.”
She shook her head and finally looked up at Lachlan. Her face dove into a frown before she nodded briskly at him. “Commander Mela.”
Lachlan’s chin quivered. He raised a hand from his knee like he longed to touch her and let it fall back down. His voice was strangled. “Hello, sweetheart.”
It was like a full glass shattering, the way Agatha’s face bent and the tears began to fall. Lachlan’s arms wrapped around her, and she tucked her small body into his.
Never in my life had I seen Agatha so consumed by feeling. Shewas desolate, terrified and clinging, and it made me feel like the entire world had fractured. I wanted nothing more than to be the one who mended it.
I stood quickly, snatched the dagger from Lachlan’s belt, and walked to the edge of the pool. I could have ended this on my father’s ship. I could have kept Agatha safe, removed the threat that hung over Theodore, and given the entire realm of Leucosia some peace, but I’d selfishly kept myself alive instead.
I was about to step into the water when Theodore pulled me back. His verdant gaze was knowing, as if I’d just spoken my every thought aloud. “Not like this, Imogen,” he begged. “Teach me the Godsdamned spell.”
“Theo—”
“I know nothing of performing spells, but I do know that intention is the crux of the magic’s success.” He firmed his grip on my arm. “No one wants Eusia dead more than I do.”
My thoughts were a maelstrom, imagining every way that letting Theodore perform a spell could go terribly wrong. What if it opened him in some way to Eusia? Would it bring him near enough for her to harm him?
It was a moment before I realized that Agatha’s cries had stopped. That the chamber had gone quiet, save for the squelch of wet fabric. She’d come to our side, Lachlan supporting her from behind. Her reddened eyes locked with Theodore’s, and in them I thought I saw the barest glint of her old ferocity.
