“What do you think?” Darcke asked, the muscle in his jaw working.
“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully.
His eyes slid my way. “Why would you choose me as your second if you weren’t sure if I killed my people?”
Because I didn’t have a choice if I wanted to save mine.
I shrugged. “I don’t plan on dying before you.”
“And how have your plans worked out so far?”
My wince made him shake his head. Darcke got off the ice, his head turned to the ground as he walked up to the chalice.
“I didn’t do it,” Darcke said as he studied the contents of the golden cup.
“Then why do people think so?” My teeth started chattering.
“People think a lot of things that are wrong.”
There was something in his tone that made goose bumps rush across my skin, and not from the snow peppering it.
“Why do you say that?” I asked cautiously as I picked up the clothes I’d thrown from the snow. I groaned when I found them soaked. The trembling in my teeth moved to my limbs, and I almost fell over as I slipped my freezing feet into my boots.
“We’re all hiding things.” Darcke cleared his throat. “For when you’re ready.”
“What?” I asked.
“The chalice says, ‘For when you’re ready.’” He tried to grip it, but his fingers closed, exactly like mine had. “Strange.”
As I stumbled to his side, jacket and trousers in hand, he frowned. “You look miserable.”
“Th-thanks,” I muttered while I lost feeling in myfingers.
Darcke’s eyes bounced between mine before moving up toward the sky with a sigh.
“Here.” He got out of his jacket and waved it my way.
I wanted nothing more than to tell him to fuck off, but I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be able to take this, and while I agreed with Darcke that this wasn’t real—this couldn’t be real—it stillfeltvery real. And I had no intention of testing whether it was possible to freeze to death wherever we were.
As I accepted the jacket, my fingers brushed the back of Darcke’s hand.
It was like being struck by lightning. I sucked in air when a jolt ran through me, starting in my feet and running up my spine until my shoulders shook so violently I nearly dropped his jacket as well.
I wasn’t the only one who felt it. Darcke’s eyes widened before he flew backward a step to get some space between us. But it didn’t matter. My hand slid up the back of his until my fingers wrapped around his wrist, and while I could feel him trying to shake me off, he couldn’t.
The world tilted again, and nausea ripped through my gut as we went between day and night, flickering so quickly years must have passed.
Images flashed before my eyes.
Our ships going down near an island with a tall mountain, waves almost as high drowning them. Darcke falling to his knees before the shaman and King Gustief, the world stilling as magic died while the rune for water on his chest went red, then white, until it was only a scar—exactly like mine. Darcke and the king standing on a ship in the night, their faces strained as they spoke.
Fire. So much fire.
Then Darcke on his ship, a wild storm surrounding him. Drenched, he screamed into the wind. While I couldn’t hear what he was saying, I could feel his despair, a haunting guilt that climbed down my throat like the sticky honey we collected in the summer.
“Stop,” Darcke ordered. “Let me go.”
I didn’t want to see any more, but it wasn’t my choice. My fingers held on to his arm as if the wind whipping around us would take me with it if I didn’t, and more images flashed before my eyes.
