Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns, #4)(28)

‘No,’ he says. ‘I don’t know.’

‘Did you tell her?’

‘No!’ He opens his eyes wide. ‘Of course not!’

‘The cave?’ Emilia asks, and even the Milones step closer. Only Jules hangs back warily as Billy holds his hands out to keep Emilia and Mathilde at bay, their attention fixed on him like wolves who have just noticed that a deer is limping. ‘Why’—he lowers his voice to a loud whisper—‘why on earth would I tell her?’

‘Tell her what?’ Emilia asks. ‘What happened at the cave?’

Arsinoe faces them. She looks at Cait and Caragh and Ellis and considers for a long moment what to say. Jules trusts Mathilde and Emilia. But Jules’s trust is sometimes misplaced.

‘It’s a long story.’ Arsinoe’s eyes lose focus, remembering the memory pressed into her head by Daphne’s long-dead fingers. Daphne and Queen Illiann standing atop the cliffs at Bardon Harbor, watching the ships of the enemy defy even the Blue Queen’s elemental storms. The argument and then Illiann plummeting to her death. Arsinoe squeezes her eyes shut. Maybe it was an accident. A fall. Maybe Daphne was not truly a murderer.

Or maybe the island’s will always wins. Sister killing sister was nothing new on Fennbirn, after all.

‘It was revealed to me that there may be a way to stop the mist.’

‘What?’ Cait asks, and she and Mathilde step closer. ‘How?’

‘The mist was created by killing a powerful elemental queen. The Blue Queen, Illiann. And so it may be unmade by killing another.’ She looks at Jules, who as always, immediately knows what she means.

For a long time, Emilia and Mathilde say nothing. Then Emilia throws up her hands. ‘And you let her get away! We had the key to eliminating the mist—here, right under our noses—and you let her run.’

‘What do you mean “let her run”?’ Arsinoe shouts. ‘Even if she were here, you wouldn’t touch her!’

‘Stop!’ Billy and Mathilde exclaim, and look at each other with the understanding that only reasonable people must feel.

‘In any case,’ Billy says, ‘it doesn’t matter. Mirabella’s not here. She’s out of danger and out of reach.’

‘I wouldn’t necessarily say that being at the Undead Queen’s court is out of danger,’ notes Caragh.

‘And we will get her back,’ says Emilia. ‘And when we do—’

‘You will do nothing,’ Arsinoe growls. ‘And we don’t even know if it would work. Why take the word of a centuries-dead murderer? Mirabella is my sister!’

‘She is one life. And how many will the mist take if it cannot be stopped? Our rebellion seeks to bring peace to the island. And safety. We cannot just ignore—’

‘Yes, we can,’ Jules says quietly. She looks at Arsinoe, her expression somber.

‘Jules,’ Emilia objects.

‘No. It’s out of the question.’

‘But—’

Jules presses her fingers to her forehead, and Cait moves to disband the meeting.

‘You heard my granddaughter,’ she says. ‘She is the Legion Queen, and she will decide. Now let’s leave her to her rest.’

They all file out, even Billy. Emilia’s eyes flash indignantly at Arsinoe as she goes, but not even she will speak against Cait. When they are gone, Arsinoe lingers with her hand on the door.

‘Do you need anything? Water? Wine? A haunch of something for Cam?’

‘Just you,’ Jules says. ‘Stay.’ She walks to the hearth and warms her hands. Arsinoe steps back inside.

‘How are you feeling? Are you sleeping? I could craft you a sleeping draught.’

‘I’m fine, Arsinoe. I’m well. You saved me again.’

‘Does that make us even?’ Arsinoe asks, burying her fingers in the cougar’s scruff. ‘Or do I need to save you one more time?’

Jules smiles wanly. Her brown hair hangs in unkempt waves to her chin, and they fall into her eyes as she picks at her bandaged wrist.

‘I feel like I’ve been asleep for a hundred years.’

‘It’s not easy to step right back into things. Emilia pushes too hard.’

‘It’s not Emilia’s fault,’ Jules says. ‘I just don’t trust myself. I remember what I did.’

‘You weren’t you.’

‘Then who was I?’ She looks down at her bandages, and at her bad leg, weakened and made painful by the poison she ate, poison that helped Arsinoe discover her true gift. ‘I’m broken in body,’ she says. ‘And broken in mind.’

‘Is that what you see when you look at yourself?’ Arsinoe asks. ‘Because it’s not what I see.’

‘It doesn’t matter what I see. No one should follow me. What I’ve done . . . I’m no leader. But Mirabella is.’

Arsinoe looks at her in surprise.

‘I know I had my reasons to dislike her,’ says Jules. ‘But she was the one. So strong. Strong enough to end us all, yet not a killer. You’re not a killer either, Arsinoe. I’m sorry that I tried so long to make you one.’

‘It’s okay,’ Arsinoe whispers, not knowing what else to say. ‘And you know . . . that Mirabella doesn’t want to be the Queen Crowned.’