The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(102)

Unless she thought she might need Blue alive because she wanted to perform other spells that would need a binding agent like Blue’s blood. As Blue had just discovered, her blood could hold even the most incompatible substances together, and unless someone had a spell that also contained her blood, that bond couldn’t be broken.

Her blood had been the key all along, and now that Dinah knew it, there was no way she was going to leave Blue alone. No, she’d use the wraith to kill everyone she hated, and then she’d keep Blue for the rest of her life, using her blood whenever she wanted.

Blue would rather die than watch those she loved be killed, knowing her own blood had been their undoing. She’d rather die than live the rest of her days as Dinah’s slave, her blood destroying more and more lives.

She stumbled to a halt just inside the grove that led to Grand-mère’s, her heart pounding in quick, sickening thuds.

She’d rather die.

The solution to her problem hit her, a wave of ice that prickled through her veins and settled into the pit of her stomach like a stone.

“What’s wrong?” Lucian asked, pausing as he reached the steps to the cottage and realized Blue wasn’t with him.

She stared at him without seeing him. Instead, she saw the hill full of small corpses. Ana’s arms with two jagged-edged circles torn out, her skin pale as parchment. She saw the wraith coming for her, its gaping maw open wide, vicious teeth glistening as it wailed its insatiable hunger.

“Blue?” Grand-mère called from the porch.

Blue reached out, one hand grasping the trunk of a shirella tree while the hand that held the poison pressed hard against her fluttering heart.

The wraith would come for her if she got close enough to it. It had already tried at the gate. Whatever Mama had bonded to it with Blue’s blood connected them. The firestorm of magic that had driven Blue to reach for the monster had also driven the monster to reach for her.

It would come for her. She just had to get close enough. And when it came, she’d be ready.

She couldn’t throw the poison on it, or stab it with a poisoned knife, or hope that somehow she could wrestle the thing to the ground and pour the poison into its mouth. Especially when she wasn’t sure if the poison was strong enough to kill a creature with fae in its blood.

But there was one sure way to kill it. One sure way to make certain the poison it drank bonded permanently with its own blood, organs, and tissue.

She’d put the poison in her own blood. Bond it to herself so that she became the weapon. And then she’d feed herself to the wraith. When it drank her poisoned blood, her magic would do the rest.

The wraith would be dead. The kingdom and those she loved would be safe.

The fact that she would also be dead sent a sharp ache through her. She let it hurt her, just for an instant. Let herself look down the years she’d no longer have and see all the possibilities. Love, family, memories made in the everyday, ordinary moments that threaded together to create the life she’d always wanted. Simple joys and endless experiments. Magic and moonlight and sleeping in late with Pepperell’s heavy weight on her chest.

And then she put them away, sealed them shut in a corner of her mind, and turned to face Grand-mère, who stood close now, her eyes worried.

“What is it?” she asked her granddaughter, the heaviness of dread already wrapped around her words.

“Dinah got the spell and let the wraith out. She’s going to kill the royal family and whoever else she wants to kill at the ball tonight, and then I think she plans to come for me and keep me a prisoner.”

Grand-mère drew her wand. “Not on my watch, she won’t.”

Blue closed the distance between them and enfolded her grandmother in a tight hug. “I love you, Grand-mère.”

The older woman’s arms wrapped around Blue. “I love you too. Now stop looking like I’m going to let that snake in the grass and her pet wraith take my granddaughter. I might not have the kind of magic that can do more than some simple transfigurations and object movement, but that’s enough for me to send a knife into that Chauveau woman’s heart.”

Blue pulled back and smiled though she wanted to cry. “I hope you get your chance. Now, I need your help. I’m going to the ball and—”

“We’re going to the ball,” Grand-mère stated firmly. “I know you want to protect the royal family, but someone has to be watching out for you.”

“I’ll be fine.” Blue found the words easy to say. A strange sort of calm descended, blanketing the sharp ache in her heart and draining her fear away.

She could see the path before her, every step illuminated as if she held a lantern in her hand.

She’d bond the poison to the blood that ran through her veins. Get dressed for the ball. Send Lucian and Grand-mère through the city to get as many street kids to safety as possible. Dance with Kellan. Let herself feel how much she loved him. Let him see it on her face. It wouldn’t matter once she was gone, and it was one last memory she could hold close as she waited for Dinah and the wraith to make an appearance. As she threw herself at the monster and let it feast.

“You’ll be fine because I’ll be there to watch over you.” Grand-mère’s voice was sharp.

Blue smiled gently and held up the jar of poison. “I’ll be fine because I used my blood to make a weapon capable of taking down the wraith.”