“I thought we’d already covered this with our deal,” Leon says. “You lost that fight, remember?”
“The deal was that I’d come here without trying to escape again, and I did. If you want anything more than that, we’ll need a new set of terms.”
He quirks his eyebrow but says nothing. I think I even see a glint of approval in his eyes.
“If you really care about keeping me safe, you’ll teach me how to block sensic magic too. You said it can be done. The cleavers kept you out of their heads in Otscold. I want to learn too.”
It’ll be no use being able to overpower Leon physically if he and his soldiers can slip into my mind in half a dozen different ways and cripple me before I conjure so much as a spark of sunlight.
He weighs this before giving a sharp nod. “That seems reasonable. You have a deal.”
He offers his hand, suggesting we shake on it. But I ignore it, striding from the antechamber without another word.
Just because I’m cooperating doesn’t mean we’re friends, or even allies. And Leon will only be more suspicious if I start playing nice. He’ll know I’m planning something.
When we’re back in the corridor, Damia nods to the freckled fae.
“They have rooms for us all. He says he can take us there now. I don’t know about you, but I’d murder someone for a bath right now.”
Knowing Damia, I’m not sure she’s speaking figuratively.
“You go ahead,” I say to them, my eyes settling on the green-skinned dryad hovering at the back of the group. I’m going todo something I should’ve done a week ago. “I need to speak to Etusca.”
Chapter 3
Morgana
Etusca fidgets as I close the door behind me, leaving the two of us alone.
The freckled fae found us a private room before he took the others to their quarters. Of course, Leon planted himself on the other side of that door, unwilling to leave me unsupervised for more than a few minutes. But I convinced him this conversation, at least, should be between me and Etusca only.
As I examine her, I see that my nursemaid looks worse than she did at Gallawing. Her face is thinner, and her once bright jade hair is even more faded. I’m reminded of the dryad we met with in Hallowbane—nearly destroyed by years away from the Miravow—and something prickles beneath my skin. Guilt. Sympathy.
I push the feelings away, hardening my heart. I need to remember what Etusca did to me, or this will be too difficult.
“Are you finally going to talk to me? Or did you just bring me here to glare at me?” she asks tentatively.
“How could you?” I ask, the words rushing out of me like a dam bursting. It comes back to me so easily, the horror when it was confirmed what Etusca was doing to me all those years, the anger and hurt. The betrayal.
“I’m sorry, Morgana. I truly am.”
“Were you sorry two months ago?” I demand. “When you were still brewing up the potion and pouring it down my throat every morning? Or did that come later, after you handed me over to the fae on a silver platter? Could you just not stand the idea of me being free at last? Of truly knowing who I am?”
She takes a step closer, her hands lifted, entreating.
“I know it’s a mess, Morgana. But please, let me explain.” She sniffs. “When the prince got that message to me in Elmere, I was sick with worry. I didn’t know what they’d done to you. There were all these terrible rumors flying around. I would’ve done anything to find you again. He promised me we could be reunited, but he also told me he knew what you were.”
She drops her voice to a whisper, eyeing the walls like they have ears. “A solari. He said he knew Trova wasn’t safe for you, but he could take you to Filusia where you would be protected. He knew you wouldn’t go willingly, but he assured me if we could just get you over the border, you’d see reason.”
“So you brewed him a fresh batch of your poison and let him do the rest,” I throw back.
I’m not blind. I see the tears in her eyes, and for the love of the gods, part of me still wants to go to her, to ease her pain. She’s been my family my entire life—one of the few people I ever believed I could rely on. But she betrayed that trust. What she’s done to me can’t just be wiped away.
“I don’t know if it was the right thing to do, Morgana. But making that potion was his condition for me ever seeing you again. And I needed to find you, to make sure you were alright. Because I love you.”
“And I suppose that’s your definition of love, isn’t it? Lying to someone their whole life and keeping them locked up. Even when my magickilledsomeone, you wouldn’t tell me the truth.”
“I didn’t know what to do. If I hadn’t followed your parents’ orders all those years, they’d have sent me away. And then they were dead, and I was the only one who knew. It was horrible keeping it from you, Morgana, you have to believe me. But I did it to keep you sa?—”
