Finale (Caraval #3)(68)
He had to remember. But he refused to look at her. He practically treated her like a stranger. It was the same this morning at the other ruins they’d visited. When he spoke, it was either in short answers to one of her questions, or terse commands.
It was unfair that out of all the plans Tella had recently made, the only one that had worked involved pushing him away. She thought she could handle Legend not loving her, but she wasn’t doing very well with the idea of him despising her.
She circled the fountain again, even though they’d already scoured these ruins for images that might have represented the Immortal Library and led her to the Ruscica. They’d taken turns dripping blood on anything that appeared symbolic. But either the entrance of the Immortal Library wasn’t here, or it would take more than blood to open it.
Legend raked a hand through his dark hair before finally turning away from the fountain and silently starting toward the crumbling steps that led back down to the streets. They were both dressed in the sort of ordinary clothes that made people easy to overlook. Tella was wearing a short-sleeved dress the color of muddy lake water, while Legend wore simple brown pants and a homespun shirt with fraying sleeves—yet the bastard still managed to move with the arrogance of someone who knew eyes would turn his way no matter what he wore. His steps possessed the sort of confidence that some people searched their whole lives for.
“Are you coming?” he said, tone gruff, as he reached the top of the stairs.
“Depends on where you’re going.” The voice that traveled up from the base of the steps below them was crystallized loveliness, clear and delicate and unbreakably strong.
Tella swept closer just to hear it better. Legend tried to step in front of her, but Tella had to see who the voice belonged to.
The woman who appeared at the top of the steps was almost as pretty as the sound of her words. A gauzy peach dress billowed above the cracked ground as she moved, the same way the Maiden Death’s tattered gown had, as if a magical breeze followed wherever she went. She stood taller than Legend. Her skin was pale and hard as marble, her hair nearly shorn to the scalp, and on top of her head rested a thin gold circlet, which made her look like an ancient princess.
“Aren’t you a handsome one?” she said to Legend in that same hypnotic voice.
He replied with an irresistible smile. “Most people think so.”
“Do you think so?” The entrancing woman turned back to Tella.
But as soon as she had asked her question, all Tella could see were images of Legend. She pictured him during Caraval, when he’d waited for her in front of the Temple of the Stars, with only a wide cloth wrapped around his lower half, revealing his glorious chest in all its sculpted splendor.
“You should see him without a shirt on. He’s magnificent.” Tella’s mouth hung open as soon as the words were out. She didn’t even know this woman. And she wasn’t supposed to be in love with Legend anymore.
But Legend didn’t smirk or grin as he normally might have. In fact, he looked murderous.
The woman laughed, the sound as captivating as her voice. It begged Tella to laugh with her. But this time Tella fought against the urge to give in as she took in the woman’s appearance once more. Tella’s eyes darted back up to the circlet around her head. It was covered in ancient symbols, which Tella couldn’t read, but she imagined that if she could have deciphered them, the symbols would have told her that this woman wasn’t an ancient princess, but the Fated Priestess, Priestess.
Her magic was in her voice. That’s why Tella had answered her so honestly. Whenever Priestess, Priestess asked a question, a person had the choice between answering it truthfully or fighting the question and dying. Her voice wasn’t just compelling, it was deadly.
“I can already see that playing with you two is going to be fun,” said the Fate. “Would you like to stay here and play with me?”
All of the hairs on Tella’s arms rose. The word no crashed against her skull, followed by never, and then the words I’d rather kill you. But she knew it would be a mistake to scream any of those the way she wanted to.
They needed to get away.
But the words no and never kept pounding at her skull. Pounding and pounding and—
“I’m afraid we have somewhere else we need to go,” Legend answered smoothly.
Tella regained the ability to think, but it only lasted for a moment.
“That’s disappointing.” The Fate’s mouth fell into a pout. “Where are you two going that could possibly be more interesting than spending time with me?”
Images of the Immortal Library ripped from Decks of Destiny took over Tella’s thoughts. She saw magical bookshelves full of forbidden volumes, and then the Ruscica open to a page with detailed instructions of how to kill the Fallen Star.
“We’re going to ruins around Valenda in search of the Immortal Library,” Legend said. His voice was still completely level. Tella didn’t know if he wasn’t even trying to fight the questions, or if the magic affected him more than her, making it impossible to hold off from answering.
Sometime between now and the last question, the Priestess had moved closer to him. Her long white fingers were on his arm, trailing up to his neck. “That place isn’t meant for humans. What would I need to do to make you stay here with me instead?”
The question wasn’t directed at Tella this time—it didn’t press against her skull. And yet she sensed the Fate had placed more magic behind it. Tella could feel the question filling the ruins with a sickly sweet stench as the Fate’s hands climbed into Legend’s hair, the same way Esmeralda’s had, and Tella feared the Fate wasn’t just using her powers to compel Legend to answer a question. She wanted to possess him.