The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(111)

Shaking, Kellan climbed to his feet and faced his mother, who was staring aghast at the dust that had been the body of the king. “Where is she going?”

His mother shook her head. “I don’t—”

“The witch! The other one. Where does she live? We have to get to Blue.” Kellan sheathed his sword and stalked toward the dais.

“It’s been sixteen years, Kellan. I don’t know. I thought Riva had left the kingdom. If she lives nearby, then she’s kept that well hidden.”

A maid rushed into the ballroom, her face pale with fright. “Your Majesty! I couldn’t stop her. I tried, I swear, but—”

“No one could stop the wraith,” the queen said, her eyes still on Kellan.

“Not the wraith, Your Majesty. The princess.”

The room tilted, and there was a ringing in Kellan’s ears as he rounded on the maid. “What about the princess?”

“She followed the wraith, Your Majesty. She was signing so fast, I’m not sure I understood her, but I think she wanted to save her friend.”

“Kellan.” The queen collapsed into her seat, her body shaking.

“I’ll find her. I’ll protect her.” Somehow. If he had to turn over every rock in the kingdom, he was going to find Nessa and Blue before it was too late for either of them. A flash of gold caught his eye from beneath the dais, and he crouched to pull out one of Blue’s dancing slippers. A small, diamond-shaped leaf was adhered to the underside of the arch.

Kellan smiled grimly. The volshkyn leaf Blue had bonded to Dinah’s blood. She’d said it would lead to Dinah. He’d use the shoe to find the wraith, and in doing so, he’d find his sister and the girl he loved.





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.