The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(96)

Kellan would dance with all the girls at the ball. Or at least all the girls who would dare catch his eye. He would smile and flirt and charm. And then he would announce his chosen bride and escort her onto the floor for the betrothal dance.

Everyone would believe that he meant every word. Every gesture.

No one would see the boy who dared the sea to take him because he felt responsible for his father’s death. No one would think of the boy who’d shone a light on the dark chasm of her grief for Papa and made it all right to laugh, to cry, and to remember. No one would see the prince who’d faced the blood wraith so he could protect everyone in his kingdom, including the street kids, or the prince who’d kissed the commoner because he loved her even though he knew he could never let his heart make his choices for him.

No one would see the real Kellan, and that made her ache for him.

He should be known as the brave, protective, conflicted boy that he truly was, not as the slick charmer who navigated political warfare with practiced ease.

As she entered her garden, feeling the buzz in her veins as flowers bent toward her and branches lowered themselves to brush against her hair, she let the ache she felt for Kellan sink into her bones, where it would stay.

Maybe it was enough that she saw him. That she understood him.

Maybe it was enough that she’d kissed him, and she’d meant it.

She hopped up the porch steps, opened the front door to grab her gathering basket, and flinched as Dinah stepped away from the wall beside the open door. The woman reached one pale hand to slam the door closed, and then skewered Blue with a look that was pure venom.

“Where is it?” she asked, biting off each word and flinging them in Blue’s face.

Blue froze, her heart racing. “Where is what?”

Dinah’s arm whipped out, her palm connecting with Blue’s face in a stinging blow that crushed Blue’s lips against her teeth. Blood welled, and Blue stumbled back.

Dinah advanced slowly, her tone vicious. “I am done with your games, Blue. I know you faked the spell you gave me.”

“I . . . What?” Blue looked wildly around for help as Dinah came closer, but they were alone.

Dinah’s lip curled as she mimicked Blue’s voice. “Oh, I just happened to look inside my mother’s old cauldron and see what I found! Look at the rare ingredient you can easily find at the castle! Will you leave now that you have what you want?”

Blue’s back hit the wall beside the receiving parlor, and Dinah slammed one palm onto the wall beside Blue’s face. The other hand grabbed a handful of Blue’s dress and anchored her in place.

“You wanted an old spell, and I gave you one!”

“You faked an old spell to trick me.” Dinah’s tone sent a shiver down Blue’s spine. “That means you’ve known all along what I was looking for, and you thought you could keep it from me.”

“I don’t . . . You said an old spell. That’s all I know.”

Dinah laughed, cold and cruel. “Liar. You’ve been getting in my way from the moment I walked through this door. Mouthy little brat. Saying you don’t know where your mama kept things. Refusing to look through the chests in the root cellar. And then giving me a fake spell.”

“It wasn’t fake—”

“It was fake.” Dinah wrenched Blue’s dress, bringing the girl’s face next to her own. “You think I don’t have ways of figuring that out? I tried it, and it didn’t work. Not for what it was supposed to do. And then I had another alchemist analyze the ink. Fresh ink, Blue. Which means you wrote that spell on old parchment because you wanted to trick me. You wanted to keep me from what’s mine.”

Blue shook her head, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. “I don’t know what you want.”

“Of course you do.” Dinah’s eyes blazed, and her voice rose with every word. “And you tried to keep it from me. You, your papa, your mama, the queen and her little brats—all of you trying to keep me from what’s mine.”

“I . . . I don’t understand. What do my parents and the royal family have to do with this?”

“Everything! Your family and the Renards ruined my life, and you’re trying to do it again.” She shoved Blue against the wall, her expression wild.

“How? How did we ruin anything?” Blue’s voice rose. “Your husband was the one who gambled everything away. None of us had anything to do with that.”

“Not now, you fool. Sixteen years ago. Your precious mother, the king and queen, and the witch took the blood wraith from me. All that work, all that power, and it was just gone.”

Sixteen years. Blue’s stomach dropped as the pieces fell into place. Papa’s sudden death and Dinah’s unexpected guardianship. Her desperate search for one of Mama’s old spells.

Not just any old spell. The one spell that mattered. The one that opened the blood wraith’s gate.

Blue lifted her head as the truth rushed through her, full of fire and rage. “You killed Ana. Killed all those children by bringing them to the wraith.”

Dinah laughed in scorn. “Bratty whelps who didn’t deserve the glorious destiny I gave to them.”

“You killed Papa!” Blue shoved Dinah, and the older woman stumbled back a few steps. The hot, sharp thing that had risen inside Blue when Papa died exploded into a blistering fury. “You took him from me because you thought he had something you wanted. You can’t just take things because you want them.”