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

“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.”

The cut on her lips stung, and Blue reached for it. Maybe she could use her blood to bind Dinah to something awful. Something that would destroy her. She glanced around for inspiration and nearly fell to her knees as Dinah collided with her.

The older woman wrapped her hands around Blue’s throat and squeezed. “If your papa didn’t want to lose his life, then he shouldn’t have helped your mother and the queen ruin mine. Where is the spell to open the wraith’s gate, Blue? Tell me, and I’ll spare you.”

Blue’s throat burned. Her chest constricted, lungs begging for air. She clawed at Dinah’s wrists, digging in and drawing blood.

Dinah threw her to the floor. “Where is it?”

Blue coughed, drawing in ragged gasps of air. “I don’t have it. No one does. Mama didn’t write it down because she knew someone like you might come looking for it one day.”

“Liar.” Dinah leaned down and snatched Blue’s hair in her fist. Yanking on it, she forced Blue to look into her eyes. “The answer is here. Valeraine was too smart an alchemist not to leave her spell with someone. Knowledge of the ingredients would be the only way to shore up the gate’s defenses if they failed. Where is it?”

Blue spit blood in Dinah’s face. “Even if I knew, I’d never tell you.”

“Then you’ll die.”

“Better me than the thousands the wraith would devour if it got free.” Blue raised her chin and reached for a sense of peace as murderous rage settled over Dinah’s face. She would die without begging. Without flinching away from the sacrifice that was necessary to keep those she loved safe. And at the end of it, she’d be with Mama and Papa again. Holding on to that bright spot of hope, Blue kept her gaze steady as Dinah drew a dagger from a sheath at her waist.

“Oh, I’m not going to kill you yet,” Dinah said as she stepped away from Blue and toward the kitchen. “I’m going to kill the little friend of yours who’s waiting for you in the root cellar.”

Blue shot a glance down the hallway toward the kitchen. “Who—”

“And when I’ve fed your precious little Lucian to the wraith, I’ll head to the castle and kill your beloved prince and princess next.”

Blue’s heart seemed to stop beating, and the air refused to leave her lungs.

Lucian.

Dinah turned on her heel and stalked toward the kitchen. Blue scrambled to her feet, her knees shaking as the bright, blinding light of terror rushed through her. Not Lucian. Blue couldn’t bear the thought of losing her friend to Dinah’s treachery. Taking off at a dead run, Blue caught Dinah in the kitchen. Sprinting past her, she threw herself in front of the door to the root cellar.

“You aren’t going to hurt him.”

Dinah simply smiled. “What’s going to stop me?”

Dread sank into Blue, and she pressed her back against the door as if her body would be enough to stop Dinah from reaching Lucian. She should’ve made more potion. Given him some. Simply warning him to stay safe had been a terrible miscalculation.