Give Me (Wyrd and Fae #1)(34)

“I don’t like horses,” Diantha whispered. Little beads of sweat broke out above her brow. “Penelope looks mean.”

“It’s not like that.” Elyse swirled her fingers in the air. “You’ll be great friends. Try again. Look at Penelope. Consider how you’ll always care for each other.”

Diantha relaxed. The filly met her gaze and calmed. A small smile turned up the corners of Diantha’s mouth.

The thrill of a spell well done bubbled in Elyse’s solar plexus. She’d wyrded the relationship between horse and rider. All would be well. Mother’s chant came back to her:



“Serve not desire, but enhance delight.

All will be well, all will be right.”



As the groomsmen led the horses away, Galen rose to express his and Diantha’s gratitude for the gifts, how he would miss Dumnos when he was away but wasn’t everyone overjoyed to meet their future queen—not that she would be queen anytime soon because King Jowan had a long life ahead of him. He sat down with a red face amid good-natured applause.

Lourdes’s place was empty.

Elyse looked all around the hall, but Lourdes was nowhere. “Diantha, I beg your leave.” Elyse left her chair. “I must speak with Galen.”

“She couldn’t stop thinking about Frona, so she excused herself,” Galen said. “She said she didn’t want to spoil the celebration.”

Elyse wanted to believe that was the problem, but a bad feeling churned in the pit of her stomach. She left the banquet to find her sister. She found Lourdes in her room leaning out of the window, her arms outstretched. “What are you doing?”

Lourdes whirled around, her face purple. “Can’t you ever leave me alone?”

“What are you doing?” Elyse asked again, but it was obvious. “It’s all been an act, hasn’t it? You’ve never stopped wanting Galen.”

“I should have known you’d be on their side. How can you stand their insults to me?”

“Lourdes, it’s not like that. Don’t take this road.”

“They treat me as if I don’t exist, as if I’m no better than a buttery maid to rut with and satisfy an itch!”

“But you were the one who seduced Galen.”

“What do you know? You always assume the best about him and the worst about me.”

“I don’t.” Elyse hadn’t always assumed it; she’d learned to expect it.

“Cage.” Lourdes made claws of her hands and wiggled them in the air. The boundary she set felt infused with pre-wyrded iron. It hurt Elyse’s knees and elbows. “Let’s see how you get out of that one.” She turned her back on Elyse and returned to the window.

Elyse had assumed that Igdrasil gave Lourdes her strength, but it wasn’t like that—at least not now. Lourdes was sucking energy from the world tree without permission. Igdrasil’s agony compounded Elyse’s pain from the boundary.

“By midnight, there won’t be a happy couple.” Lourdes came down from the window. She gathered a few small items from a table at the wall and dropped them into a leather pouch.

Elyse cried out in her mind, “Igdrasil, help me! Help me stop Lourdes.”

“Wait a minute.” Lourdes dumped the pouch’s contents out on the table. She examined each item carefully then returned it to the pouch. “Wait a minute.” She repeated the process, and kept repeating it.

The boundary dissolved, and Elyse felt immediate relief in her joints. She gave Igdrasil her silent thanks and backed out of the room as Lourdes continued to count and recount the things in the pouch.

Elyse raced down the stairs to the hall with no idea how long the repeating spell would keep Lourdes occupied. Galen was at Diantha’s chair, his hand extended as if asking her to dance. Elyse got his attention and motioned for the two of them to follow her.

In the antechamber she said, “There is no time to explain, but Lourdes has gone mad. She wants to hurt you. Kill you both, I think.” Elyse had broken her promise to Mother to care for Lourdes’s happiness, and now she set aside her sorrow and guilt. Forget happiness; she just hoped she could save her sister’s sanity.

Galen reflexively put his arm around Diantha, but she was the one who spoke. “What do you want us to do?”

“Go find Odysseus and Penelope. They’re likely still saddled,” Elyse said. Poor Diantha’s eyes grew wider than ever. “You can do it, princess. Ride as fast as you can to Igdrasil. My power is strongest there. I’ll be able to protect you.”

Diantha shuddered.

“All will be well,” Elyse said. “Remember?”

Galen kissed Diantha’s hand. “I know you can do it, my love.”

“She’s coming.” The repeating spell had dissipated. Elyse felt Lourdes’s fury. “Go! I’ll meet you there.”

Elyse made her way back to Lourdes, up, up the stairs. Lourdes had asked for mother’s old room. For sentimental reasons, she’d said. But of course it was the highest room in the keep with the clearest view to poor Igdrasil. When Elyse burst through the door, Lourdes was standing in the window casement.

“Hector!” she cried. She glanced over her shoulder at Elyse, wild-eyed, cruel. Filled with more contempt than a hundred Queen Elfryths. Lourdes smiled wickedly at Elyse then turned. She jumped.