“Did he?” His eyes gleam as he curls a hand to study his fingernails. “Because I heard he was in Cerna just this morning.”
I swallow nervously.
“I’ll bring the plate right up, Valik,” Vera dismisses.
Valik nods his head toward the bottle of wine. “Aren’t you going to offer me a glass?”
“It’s only table wine, nothing special.”
“I’ll take a glass,” he insists.
Vera flicks a hand, and a glass floats down from one of the cabinets. She pours it with trembling fingers and hands it off to him.
“What’s the occasion?”
“What?”
“You said you were celebrating?”
“Oh—it’s Pa—Syra’s birthday,” she lies.
“Is it?” He asks, smirking in my direction. He takes a couple of steps forward. “I’ll admit I did not expect this to be under that God’s awful contraption they sent you in. I suppose you do have your uses, don’t you? Is this why Nightshade has kept you so carefully contained? Maybe that’s what the so-calledtouch of ruinis referring to.”
“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie, taking a step back. My body locks with the unwanted embrace of his magic around my legs. I fight against it, eyes straying to Vera behind his back whose eyes are wide with horror.
“The prophecy,” he says calmly. “The nought that bears the crown.”
“S-sitri said that wasn’t real.”
He leans forward, muscles tight in his jaw. “You won’t find me betting against the soothsayer,” he seethes, cold grey eyes penetrating into mine. His face loosens and I tense as he raises a hand and strokes a knuckle down my cheek. “But you are rather defenseless. Not a lick of magic. You should be careful around here. Do you even know the kinds of things noughts did to our kind?”
“It wasmy kindthat was killed and tortured by yours,” I snap.
The corner of his lip quirks. His magic snakes up my waist and lifts me from the ground until we’re at eye level. I clench my hands into fists and lift my chin as the daemon fires to life inside of me.
“Is that what they’ve told you? You really don’t know, how they used to identify uswitches?” he says spitting that last word distastefully face so close I can feel hot breath against my cheek. “They would flay the accused alive. Cut off strips of their pretty skin.”
I grit my teeth as he traces a nail across my jaw. “Do you think you would scream? If the accused screamed it was obviously evidence of their guilt. Other times they were certain they could identify a witch by their heart.” My heart thumps erratically as his hand finds its way to my sternum. I look down as he closes his hand into a fist and thumps me twice. “Naturally, they had to cut it out to discern that and by that time the accused was already dead, guilty or not. They killed many of their own kind that way too but sometimes they got lucky and found a realwitch.If the witch was burned alive it was said to prevent their body from unleashing curses against them. And then sometimes drowning, hanging.”
His hand travels up, lacing itself around my neck. I raise my hand and grip his wrist to tug him off and he flicks his other hand. His magic locks around my wrist and forces my arm back to my side. “I would never be so cruel but I could do Samore a favor just to be certain no prophecies come true. Just a quick snap of your neck. I doubt it’d even hurt.” My heart thunders, daemon lancing through me in sharp hot flashes.
“Valik—I—I—think the prince will be pretty unhappy if he comes back to find you like this,” Vera says nervously.
“Ah, but I think we already established the prince is not here.”
His hand tightens around my throat. Not a single second passes before the daemon crashes out of me. Slamming straight into his chest, it flings him back. The magic holding me unleashes and I stumble back, barely catching myself against the counter. He smashes into the cabinet against the opposite wall so roughly it sends him hurtling to the floor. He’s back on his feet in a flurry of movement, our open mouths of shock mirroring each other.
“How did you—“ he snarls. “You don’t—“
Never has the daemon struck a person before. He wheels to Vera. “You!” he accuses. “How dare you strike a Mask? You have no right to do so. A punishable offense,” he spits as he advances on her.
Vera shakes her head, face pale. “I—I—I—didn’t—“
“It wasn’t her, you idiot.”
Valik jolts. We all do as Sitri strides forward. “What’re you—“ Valik looks around the room as if this is all some sort of trick. “You were in Cerna just this morning!”
“Don’t know where you get your information but you would be wrong.” Sitri’s face is pale, his eyes bloodshot and a sheen of sweat glistens above his brow yet his demeanor is cool and even.
