The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(112)

FORTY-FIVE


BLUE WAS IN deep trouble.

She was full of poison. A prisoner of Marielle’s, being dragged out of the city. There was no one to help her. No weapon she could use besides her own body, and the wraith no longer wanted to consume her.

Blue stumbled along behind Marielle in her one surviving dancing slipper, her skin bruising beneath the wraith’s relentless grasp. They’d left the city by the western gate and turned into an orchard after the city was already lost to view. The orchard ended in a tangle of overgrown rosebushes, fennel, and hazel trees. Blue stumbled again, and her remaining shoe came off. Marielle never hesitated. She tightened her grip on Blue and pulled her forward. Blue’s skirt caught on a rosebush and tore as they plunged through the trees.

How was she going to stop the wraith if it refused to drink her poisoned blood?

And how long could Blue survive the poison that was bonded to her? Already, her skin was cold, her heartbeat slowing. The moment the wraith cut Blue’s finger and tried to use the blood for a spell, she’d know it was tainted. The poison would bond with the spell, changing it, ruining it, and giving Blue’s secret away.

Somehow, she had to make the wraith want to bite her before it was too late.

Starlight barely illuminated the landscape, but the wraith never hesitated. Pulling Blue through a slim opening between hazel trees, she pivoted left and plunged through what looked like an impenetrable wall of greenery.

Blue tripped as they broke through the greenery and into a small clearing. The wraith dragged her back onto her feet and through a garden until they reached a tiny cottage that listed to the right. Two of the porch steps were caved in, and Blue had to scramble to keep from falling again as Marielle’s long strides ate up the distance between the steps and the front door.

The wraith raised a hand as if to knock, and then flattened her palm on the door instead. Throwing her head back, she shrieked, an unearthly howl that reverberated throughout the clearing. The door blew inward off its hinges, colliding with a short, well-rounded woman and sending her against the far wall. The woman slid to the floor, her hand clutching a hazel-wood wand, and then scrambled to her feet as the wraith entered, Blue by her side.

“Marielle!” the woman said. “What have you done?”

“I’ve come to collect what you owe me.” The wraith’s voice shivered with fury and power.

“I owe you nothing.” The woman raised her wand. “Now leave before I have to kill you.”

Marielle laughed. “You had your chance to kill me, Riva. You failed.”

Sparks lit the woman’s eyes, and she took a step forward. “I wasn’t trying to kill you, Marielle. I was trying to save you.”

The wraith snarled. “You split me in two. Do you know what it’s like to feel like you’ve been gutted? To have your heart, your power, and your magic imprisoned while you are forced to carve out a new life for yourself as an ordinary human?”

“If I hadn’t split you in two, you’d be dead now.” Riva raised her wand and took another step forward. “You’d have starved out there in the Wilds. Gone mad with hunger until you withered away to nothing. I thought if I separated you from your magic, you could have the best of both worlds. The throne would stop hunting you, believing you to be caged, and you could start over without the temptation to do such wicked things.”

A sound scraped the porch behind them, and Blue glanced over her shoulder at the still-open front door. Her stomach plummeted when Nessa crept up the porch steps, her finger pressed to her lips in a plea for Blue’s silence.

The wraith needed Blue alive. She didn’t need Nessa. The instant she realized the princess had followed them, she was going to kill her.

I’m going to make some noise to surprise the wraith into letting go of you. Be ready to run. Nessa’s eyes were wide with fear and resolute courage.

Blue shook her head slightly, trying to convey with her expression that Nessa should get out of there before the wraith realized the princess she wanted dead was standing on the porch.

Nessa’s jaw set stubbornly, and Blue’s stomach dropped. The princess was going to do what she planned, and Blue couldn’t stop her. Couldn’t stop the wraith from taking her, either. All she could do was hope to grab the wraith’s attention for herself while she figured out how to make it want to bite her.

I’ll find something to throw at it, and then we’ll both run.

Neither of them could outrun the wraith, and Blue was the only one Marielle wanted to keep alive. Nessa crept past the open doorway, searching the far end of the porch for something to use against the wraith, and Blue looked at the women, who were still shouting at each other. She had no plan, no list of possibilities to try, and no time to do anything but improvise.

Before either sister could be distracted from their argument by the sound of Nessa on the porch, Blue took a step toward Riva, yanking on the wraith’s arm like she wanted her freedom. The women’s eyes snapped to hers, and Blue started talking as fast as she could.

“Dinah . . . I mean, Marielle has been taking street kids from Falaise de la Mer and feeding them to the wraith for years. Did you know about that? Was that an acceptable cost to saving your sister from the consequences of her actions?”

Riva looked stricken. “I wondered, but there was no proof—”