Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns, #4)(21)

She gestures for Mirabella to walk ahead to the waiting carriages and feels the dead queens surge toward her, like a wave. They rise so forcefully that she feels them in her throat, as she did the day they escaped from her and entered Pietyr, and the thought of them taking over Mirabella fills her with dread. Mirabella is far too strong a vessel. In her their wickedness would be unleashed and unstoppable. She had thought, perhaps, that her sister could in time help her shoulder the burden of the dead queens. To help her control them, or find the strength to banish them back to the Breccia Domain for good. But she sees now that is impossible. She must find another way.

The dead queens stretch their necks toward her sister and she snaps them back.

‘No,’ she says, and clenches her teeth together. ‘You cannot have her.’





SUNPOOL




The morning that they are to perform the tethering spell, Arsinoe leaves the city and goes to look for her bear. Inside the gates, there are too many faces and questions that she has no answers to. So as soon as she can get away, she stuffs a small sack with dried apples and swipes a few of the larger fish from the kitchen before heading out to the woods.

Thanks to the low magic that ties them together, Braddock knows that she is coming, and it is not long before the shrubbery rustles and he bursts through to stand up before her on his hind legs.

‘Come down, boy,’ Arsinoe squeaks. She holds out a dried bit of apple, and his big lips take it from her fingers, gentle as a baby. He shoves his head into her chest and she hugs him, burying her nose in his fur until she feels him rooting around her sack for more apples and the fish.

‘Hold on, hold on. Let’s find us a nice rock to picnic on.’ They walk together toward the beach, and the flat black stones that line the northern edge. There they hunker down in the long dune grass, almost thick enough to obscure her completely, though there is only so much that can be done to conceal the rump of a great brown bear.

Arsinoe rubs Braddock’s head as he eats, and steals a bit of dried apple. But even with him beside her, she has never felt more alone. No one inside the city walls wants to know about the low magic. None of those who know of it wish to see it performed. Not even Billy, who would stop her if he could. And Mirabella is gone.

Arsinoe hopes that she is all right, and that she knows what she is doing. She hopes that she will come back soon.

‘She was always the most levelheaded of the three of us,’ she says to the bear. ‘Well . . . except when she’s really angry.’

Braddock sniffs the air, full of fish now and happy to let her lean against him. They look across the beach out at the cold northern sea. There is no sign of mist. There has not been a single mist attack off the coast of Sunpool, despite consistent reports of continued attacks on the capital. Emilia often fixates on that fact, as further evidence that their side is right.

‘This spell today,’ she says to the bear. ‘It won’t be that different from the way you and I were bound. And it didn’t hurt you, did it?’

He turns his cheek, a request for a good scratch. But she is lying, of course. The tethering spell will be much harder. Much bloodier. And the link it creates between Jules and Emilia will be—

‘Unbreakable,’ she says softly.

‘How are we feeling today?’ Arsinoe asks as she tucks Jules’s blankets up tighter around her throat. The tonic she infused with Madrigal’s blood has worn off, so she keeps her fingers well away from Jules’s teeth, and does not look her in the eye. She cannot stand to see the bright red blood streaked through the whites or the sickly yellow as vessels that have burst attempt to heal. But even though she does not look, she can feel Jules’s eye on her. Tracking her, without a drop of kindness. It feels like being hunted, and when Camden growls, Arsinoe flinches away.

‘I can’t wait until this is over and you’re back to your old selves,’ she says. Camden growls once more and then settles on top of Jules’s legs.

The small room at the top of the tower feels stuffier than usual today, full of new scents forced into the stale air. Amber resin and hot wax blend with herbs and oils and the lingering aromas of sickness and cougar. And it is too quiet. No sounds besides her own breath and the scrape of her shoes against the floor. No one in the room with her since Billy, who accompanied her and helped to assemble the ingredients for the spell.

‘Are we bringing her out?’ Emilia asks, and Arsinoe spins. The warrior leans over the desk and picks up the piece of amber. She sniffs it and makes a face.

‘No. It’ll be easier to go in to her. And I wish you’d stop sneaking around like that. Can’t you scuff your heel on the stones? Or clear your throat when you arrive?’

‘I’m sorry.’

Arsinoe sighs. Emilia is not sorry, not really. She is pleased that Arsinoe finds her warrior ways unsettling. Arsinoe joins her beside the desk and makes one last check of her supplies. She leaves the door to Jules’s chamber open and stiffens when Jules groans.

‘How long has it been since she had any tonic?’ Emilia asks.

‘A day. I don’t want to give her more in case it interferes with the tethering.’

Emilia studies Jules through the open door. ‘That’s all right. Her chains will hold. Though maybe we ought to chain Camden.’

‘You’re welcome to try.’ She takes up her knife and tests the edge against her forefinger. ‘I’ve been thinking.’