Finale (Caraval #3)(31)
The mark was not nearly as brutal as the first time Tella had seen it seared into his skin. It was now so faint she could barely detect it, as if it were healing and disappearing. But she still remembered what it had looked like before—and what it signified. The Temple of the Stars had branded Legend in exchange for allowing Tella to enter the vault where her mother had hidden the cursed Deck of Destiny trapping the Fates.
“I vowed to the temple that I would bring them the witch who helped created the Fates. When I did, I swore it on my immortality. If I hadn’t delivered Esmeralda to them, I would have died that night, and nothing would have brought me back to life this time. I know you’re angry with me right now, but I’d hope you wouldn’t want me dead.”
Of course she didn’t want him dead. Just thinking Legend was in trouble had driven Tella to chase him into another world. But saying that felt like giving too much away when he still wasn’t giving anything away.
When Legend had first accepted the brand from the Temple of the Stars, in Tella’s place, it had felt like such a great sacrifice on his part. But knowing the lengths Legend was willing to go to in order to get what he wanted, Tella was no longer sure if he’d made the bargain to prevent her from being owned by the temple, or if he had gone through with it to ensure she’d enter the vault and retrieve the cards for him.
She wanted to think he’d done it for her, but she still wasn’t certain, and right now that wasn’t what mattered. He might have given her answers about the witch, but he still hadn’t given her the answers that she wanted most.
“Is that why you won’t tell me your weakness?” she asked. “Have you actually thought I wanted you dead? You think I’d use your weakness against you?”
He looked into the fire, avoiding her gaze. “The weakness I share with the Fallen Star won’t do us any good when it comes to defeating him.”
“Since when do you care about good?”
“I don’t—” Legend broke off. His eyes shot past her, as if he’d heard a noise outside of their illusion.
Whatever it was, Tella couldn’t see where it came from until a door appeared on the wall next to the fire, and Armando stepped through it.
Tella cringed away, moving closer to the fireplace, and to Legend.
Armando was the performer who’d played the role of her sister’s fiancé during the sisters’ first Caraval. Tella couldn’t stand the sight of his smug smile, his calculating green eyes, and the irritating way he tapped his fingers against the blade he wore at his hip. Like Jovan, he was also dressed like a member of Legend’s guard, in a navy military coat with a shining line of golden buttons.
“Why is he here?” Tella asked.
“Armando has agreed to guard you when I can’t be around.”
“No,” Tella said. “I don’t want him following me, and I don’t need a guard.”
Legend pierced her with a look that was hotter than the flames at his back. “I didn’t free you from the cards just to see you killed by the Fates.”
Tella opened her mouth, but she couldn’t find the proper response. Legend never talked about what he’d done to free her from the cards. The only time he’d acknowledged it at all had been that same night, when he’d told her that he hadn’t been willing to sacrifice her. But then, after she’d called him her hero, he’d walked away, making her question everything.
“You’re welcome to stay here in the palace.” Legend pushed off the fireplace mantel and picked up his jacket from the clamshell chair. “Your old room in the golden tower is still yours if you want it, and your sister’s old room is hers, too.”
Tella narrowed her eyes. “What do you want in return?”
“I never wanted you to leave in the first place.” Legend turned and walked through the walls of the illusion, as if he’d just said too much.
Although to Tella, it didn’t feel like nearly enough.
17
Scarlett
While Tella and Legend talked about Fates and illusions, Scarlett wished she were only experiencing an illusion.
Everyone’s feelings were everywhere. They came in too many colors for Scarlett to keep track of or ignore. Scarlett had never felt anything like it. It was far more intense than the brief flashes she’d seen with Nicolas and Julian. Mournful nevermore gray covered the ground like deathly fog. Anxious violet vines licked the palace hallway. And dark, fearful greens turned everything else sickly and toxic.
Scarlett couldn’t breathe.
She could barely even tell Jovan and Julian she needed air before she stumbled toward the heavy door leading to the stairs. Although Scarlett and the others had left Tella and Legend alone in the dungeon so they could talk, Scarlett could still feel the crushing weight of Tella’s heavy-gray grief and the spiky rage of her burning-red anger at the Fates. Scarlett hadn’t been able to see Legend’s emotions, but she swore they were the ones making it so hard to breathe. Or maybe it was Scarlett’s own unexpected grief at the loss of her mother.
“Crimson.” Julian rushed to her side.
“Don’t.” Scarlett shook his hand away. His concern was more than she could take. Stormy, stormy, stormy blue, swirling and fierce and— Scarlett’s vision filled with black.