CHAPTER 41

VIENNE

I hurried forward to check on Urban, but Yasmin tsked and pointed at me, freezing me into place.

“Oh, no,” she said. “We can’t have you bringing him back to life again. That’s becoming all too tiresome from you two.”

Meanwhile, Allera knelt before her brother so she could cup his face in her hands. “Breathe, Urban, breathe.”

Behind her, Brentley drew his sword. “Yasmin, stop this. Let Vienne and Urban go, ~now~!”

“Or what? ~You’ll~ stop me?” Rolling her eyes, Yasmin pointed at him and snapped her fingers. A crack of splintering cartilage followed. Then Brentley’s head tipped drunkenly to the side, his neck broken, before he collapsed to the floor, dead.

Allera gasped, abandoning her choking brother to leap to her husband and try to catch him as he fell, gentling his landing.

“No!” she sobbed. “No, no, no. ~Brentley~...”

Yasmin pointed at her next, immobilizing her in place, just as she had me, making Allera’s body freeze in an awkward position, hunched over Brentley. If she’d been left in the same state I was in, then she could still see and hear and smell and use all her senses, but she couldn’t move a single muscle.

“I’ll deal with you in a moment,” Yasmin promised the motionless Allera before she turned her attention to the last untouched person in the room.

Nicolette’s eyes widened. She let out a gasp of alarm before turning tail and racing from the dining hall.

Yasmin laughed and let her go. “And here, I always thought she’d step up and fight for the ones she loved. What a disappointment.” She clucked her tongue. “Oh, well. It’ll amuse me to know she’ll live the rest of her life with nothing but her guilt and shame for abandoning you all as she mourns your deaths.”

On his knees, Urban’s choking grew louder. His face turned blue and his eyes began to redden and bulge.

“Oh, for God’s sake, ~die~ already.” Yasmin snapped her fingers and broke his neck the same way she’d done Brentley’s.

As he tumbled face-first to the floor, I screamed inside my head, the sound unable to break free of my mouth as agony bloomed in my chest.

But no. This couldn’t be happening. My sister couldn’t win.

“Now,” Yasmin murmured pleasantly as she clasped her hands together and turned to me. “Finally. It’s just us girls left to talk. Sisters to the end.” Her expression morphed into a glare. “Until you decided to let your precious little lover boy ~kill~ me just now. What the hell was ~that~ about, Vienne?”

Though I couldn’t move a muscle, I swear I still managed to narrow my eyes at her.

“Oh, Vienne,” she murmured sadly, patting my unmoving cheek. “Sweet, foolish idiot, Vienne. Look what you made me do.” She spread her arms to encompass the room. “I had no plans to reveal my secrets tonight. My ~magic~. Why, I wasn’t even going to use my powers. Not on any of you. But you forced me. ~You~ caused this.”

Sighing, she glanced at both Brentley and Urban. “I never planned to personally kill anyone with my own hands. I’d always been able to convince someone else to do it for me, to kill our parents, Caulder’s parents, Caulder himself... There was always a willing accomplice, desperate to please me.”

She turned her attention lovingly toward her husband’s body. Then she turned back to me. “That High Cliff priestess was meant to be my first and last murder. Honest. But you know, now that I’ve taken ~three~ lives with my own hands, I find it’s really not as troubling as I thought it would be. In fact, with each one, it grows more and more fascinating. More enjoyable. And this power you get from magical folk. My God, Vienne. It’s ~so~ addictive.”

Letting out a refreshed breath, she smiled and rolled her shoulders. “I’m certain I’ll do all my own murders from this point on. I’m actually eager to try different techniques, different…methods.”

Her gaze caught on me with curious regard, as if she were trying to decide which inventive way I should die.

A tear slipped down my cheek.

My sister stepped closer and studied it dispassionately a moment before she reached out slowly to wipe it from my cheek. Then she smashed it between her thumb and forefinger, rubbing it into her skin before looking into my eyes.

“I bet you’re wondering how long I’ve had magic, huh? And ~dark~ magic at that,” she added with a spooky, shaking voice before laughing.

“Well…” Drawing in a deep, revived breath, she began to circle me slowly. “It’s quite an interesting story. I always wanted to tell you about it and lord it over you, but sadly, I knew you’d find some way to take this from me too. It all happened at finishing school, you see. My first semester. You’d been there a year before I showed up and were already the ~golden~ child everyone loved, just like you were at home. I was doomed to be the second, neglected by no one once again, forced to live in your glorious shadow. But alas, I met this girl from Lowden. Quilla Graykey. Yes, one of ~those~ Graykeys. She said there was dark magic in her. It was born inside everyone in her family, I guess, some kind of ancestral curse or whatnot, but she didn’t want hers. Didn’t ~like~ it. And the only way she knew to get rid of it was to transfer it to another willing host.”

She stopped in front of me so she could roll out a disbelieving laugh and shrug. “Can you believe that? All that power and magical ability, and the idiot didn’t even ~want~ it? What a waste.”

Glancing down at herself, she touched her own shoulders and smiled in approval. “I don’t know what she was so scared of.”

Spreading her arms wide, Yasmin caused all the bowls, statues, and pieces of art in the room to lift a foot from their resting places only to come crashing down to the floor, breaking and shattering each piece to bits.

“I find all this to be ~quite~ delightful.” Grinning gleefully, she leaned closer so she could whisper to me. “Do you want to know what the ~first~ thing I did with my new magic was? Well, I’ll tell you. I charmed all the tutors and instructors, opening their eyes to what you ~really~ were… a thorn in my side.”

With a shrug, she confessed, “It took a lot out of me, I’ll admit. I wasn’t able to use my powers again for quite some time after that. But it was ~worth~ it. God, it was so worth it, because finally…~finally~, you were no longer the golden child anymore. It gave me such a thrill to watch them beat you over and over again! And then, when Caulder and Soren arrived at our home to meet us and choose their brides, it was absolutely nothing to use a little of my magic to make them both fall in love with me and want me. Not ~you~. And so ~I~ became the queen, the beloved one that all of Donnelly worships.”

She tittered. “Well… After Soren and I got Caulder’s parents out of my way, that is. You know, it was so much more difficult to pull off ~their~ deaths than it was Caulder’s. Our parents, however…” Sniffing out a laugh, she waved a dismissive hand. “Now, their deaths were the easiest of all to plan.”

My cheek twitched as I tried to snarl at her.

Yasmin frowned at the move, but then shrugged, ignoring it. All the while, I kept thinking her hold on me was weakening and I was slowly regaining my ability to move again. If I could just get my muscles to listen to me, I could...

~What~?

I’m not sure what I could do against this wicked bearer of dark magic. She’d killed both Urban and Brentley with a single snap of her fingers.

Oh God. ~Urban~.

He lay dead at my feet, and if I couldn’t get to him soon, he’d remain that way.

“Honestly, you didn’t think I could let them live, now did you?” Yasmin kept talking. “Our parents were vile ~traitors~ who were supposed to love and protect me above all others. Why, they still wished ~you’d~ been queen right to the bitter end. I swear, they thought I’d somehow stolen ~your~ birthright. The madness, huh?”

Turning away, she walked a few paces with her back to me before pausing and glancing around. “They annoyed me to no end, so I had to get rid of them. And then, after that, it was easier than you might think it would be to convince Caulder to ban the rest of the magical kind from Donnelly, so none of them could figure me out. They’d killed his parents, and High Cliff was busy fighting the evil Graykey family; he was scared to death of magic.”

More tears streamed down my face. While I could do nothing externally, inside I was screaming, pounding my fists of injustice against my own rib cage to break free and attack her.

She’d killed my parents, my love, my king, my friend. She’d betrayed me in the worst ways possible—and all for the sake of her own vanity, in order to get her own selfish wishes.

The frozen baby in my arms felt cold and heavy and motionless. I feared she would slip free of my immobile arms and fall to the floor any moment. But even if I were able to keep her against me, she would probably still die this night, along with the rest of us. And I could do absolutely nothing to stop it.

The idea caused my grief to thicken and smother me, my own tears suffocating me.

“Fucking your husband behind your back was enjoyable,” my sister was saying conversationally. “I have to admit, but only because I knew it would bother you, not because he was any good at it.”

She shuddered and sent me a sympathetic wince. “I mean, ~God~, Vienne. I almost feel sorry for you for having to suffer through such cold, meaningless fucks every night with that lump. Well… until this one came along, anyway.”

She glanced down at Urban’s body with a vindictive mutter and kicked his limp leg.

“Stupid idiot,” she muttered. “I almost had him in love with me as well. All he had to do was say your name, and he would’ve been trapped in my spell, but the jackass refused. I was actually looking forward to sampling ~him~, because this one… Mmm.” She licked her lips and hummed deep in her throat. “Oh, yes. This one looked as if he knew how to ~properly~ please a woman. Tell me, Vienne.” She leaned closer. “He gave amazing orgasms, didn’t he?”

She circled the air around my face with her finger, and suddenly the power in my mouth, tongue, and throat could work—so that I could answer her—but all the other parts of me remained immovable.

Hissing, “Fuck you,” I spat in her face.

“Bitch,” she cried, jerking away from me to wipe her cheek clear. Rage filled her features with a red-hot hue. Then her eyes flashed with blue sparks. She slowly lifted both hands above her head, aiming them at me. “Just for that, I’m going to make your death hurt. A lot.”

Before she could cast her spell, however, Nicolette raced back into the room, out of breath, as if she’d been running since the moment she’d left us earlier. Skidding to a halt when she saw the blue sparks crackling around Yasmin, her mouth parted with fear, her chest still heaving from her sprint.

“Well, look who’s returned after all,” Yasmin murmured. “You’re just in time for Vienne’s demise, my dear. Come closer. Get a front row seat.”

Clutching something that looked like a small leather pouch to her chest, Nicolette gulped and hedged a few steps toward us.

Yasmin lifted her face to frown at whatever the young princess was holding within her trembling arms. “What do you have there?”

“This,” Nicolette said, holding it out to show it off. The leather looked old and used, with a frayed string pulling the opening of the pouch closed tight. The more I looked at it, however, the more I saw strange designs etched into the skin—like magical symbols.

And then Nicolette screamed, “~Diabolus hoc relinquet~!” as she flung the entire pouch in Yasmin’s face.

As soon as it struck my sister, the leather casing exploded into blue, pink, and purple dust. Yasmin coughed and tried to wave it out of her eyes, grumbling curses until a moment later she yelped… Then she ~really~ screamed as pain and terror consumed her.

“~No~,” she shrieked. “Nooooo…”

Unable to do much but cry out in agony, she stood there immobile while her skin began to change from a flush, healthy peach to a dark gray, wrinkling husk that sucked in around her bone structure until it cracked and burst, breaking apart into a million pieces of crumbled dust and ash.

As soon as she went poof, her hold on both Allera and me broke so that we were free to move again.

Anniston too. The baby squalled in my arms, clearly not a fan of being frozen.

Laughing out relieved tears, I tucked her in close and nuzzled my face into her soft fuzz of hair. “It’s okay,” I assured her. “It’s okay now.”

But Allera’s sobbing reminded me that things were most definitely far from okay. Watching her fall the rest of the way over Brentley’s body, I transferred my gaze to Urban. He remained unmoving, face-first on the floor.

Not sure if I still had any time left or not, I thrust my daughter at Nicolette, who seemed to be in shock, still staring in gaping horror at the floor where Yasmin’s pile of dust remained.

The young princess gazed dazedly at the baby in her arms and then went right back to ogling the place where her sister-in-law had exploded.

I hurried to Urban, falling to my knees at his side and gritting my teeth as I rolled over his brawny, muscled body. When he flopped onto his back, his arm slapping against the marble floor, I leaned in without hesitation and slanted my mouth over his.

Almost immediately, his lips warmed against mine until his mouth parted and he thrust his tongue, kissing me with a fervor that went well and beyond mere life-saving. But I was so happy to have him back that I greeted the kiss with just as much gusto, pouring my joy into it.

When we finally parted, panting for breath, he gazed up at me and said, “It happened again, didn’t it? You had to bring me back?”

“Yes.” I nuzzled my nose against his. “You really need to be more careful with your life, you know. I might not always be around to save you.”

His blue eyes sparkled with adoration as he smiled. “Then I’ll just have to stay close to you, always.”

“Deal.”

We shared a grin until the sobs of his sister broke through our happy bubble. When he glanced over to find Allera mourning the loss of Brentley, Urban gasped. “Oh, fuck.”

“No,” Allera sniffed, patting Brentley’s chest lovingly. “Not you too, Brentley. Not you too. I loved you. I loved you more than I thought I was capable.” She pulled away to offer his body a tragic, tear-stained smile. “You made me smile again. Laugh again. I was happy with you. I was ~more than happy~ with you.”

I tucked my face close to Urban’s shoulder, and he immediately smoothed a hand up my back before kissing my temple.

“Rest in peace, my brave sweet husband,” Allera whispered as she leaned in to gently press her lips to his. “Goodbye.”

But as soon as she tried to pull away, Brentley sucked in a breath and blinked his eyes open.

“Brentley?” Nicolette cried, leaping forward.

“Yeah?” he answered, groaning as he sat up. He lifted his hand to his collar line and rubbed. “Damn, my neck aches like a bastard. What the hell happened?”

“Yasmin broke it,” Allera said, sitting back on her haunches so she could blink at him as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Brentley stopped rubbing his throat to squint at her. “Come again?”

“Yasmin ~killed~ you,” his wife repeated, shaking her head as if she couldn’t believe her own claim. “She snapped her fingers, and it broke your neck. You fell to the floor, ~dead~.”

He blinked slowly. “I…died?”

“You did.” Allera nodded, her eyes wide.

Squinting, he tipped his head to the side. “Then how am I alive now?”

Nicolette laughed and clapped her hands madly. “Because of true love’s kiss, of course.” Hopping up and down in glee, she pulled Anniston up so she could kiss the baby all over her face, making my daughter giggle along with her.

“True love’s…?” Eyes flashing wide, Brentley gaped crazily around the room. “But who kissed me?”

“Hey!” Smile dropping, Allera swung out to slap the side of his arm. “~I~ did, you buffoon.”

“~You~?” He swung back to her, his eyes wide. “But… How? You already had a one true love. And your mark… It’s gone.”

A sly grin took over her features. “It’s not unheard of to have multiple true loves, you know. Rare, but not impossible. Losing Jazon might’ve made my mark disappear, which in turn didn’t alert me to ~you~ when we met, but the power behind true love doesn’t stop just because there’s no mark.” With a shrug, she sent us all a bemused grin. “And here, I always thought it would be cool to have more than one true love.”

“God, Allera,” Urban groaned, leaning against me to bury his embarrassed face into my neck. “Only ~you~ would be so greedy.”

As Nicolette giggled, Brentley gazed at everyone in confused question before turning back to Allera. “So, we’re… We’re really…?”

“Yes,” she cried, throwing her arms around him to hug and kiss him forcefully.

My shoulders shook as I laughed in delight. Leaning against Urban, I touched his arm, grateful to still have everyone in the room who had survived.

As if sensing my thoughts, Urban shifted his mouth near my ear and asked, “Is this the wrong time to ask what happened to your sister?”

When I looked up at him, he glanced around the room with a slight frown, probably looking for her body. But the only dead visible were Soren and Caulder.

“She didn’t get away, did she?”

“No,” I said. “She’s definitely deceased. Nicolette threw something in her face, and she… She withered into dust. There.”

When I pointed, Nicolette moaned, freshly reminded of what she’d done. “Oh God.” She spun back toward the puddle of ash on the floor. “Did I really kill her? Are you sure she’s dead?”

I eased away from Urban so I could take Anniston from her. “Yes,” I said, bringing the baby close. “I’d say she’s quite dead.”

“And thank God,” Allera swore. “If you hadn’t come in when you did, we’d ~all~ be gone right now.” Shaking her head, she let out an impressed whistle. “I just want to know how the hell you ~did~ that. It was freaking awesome.”

“I don’t know,” Nicolette insisted, shaking her head adamantly. “I… It was the High Cliff priestess who tattooed my love mark. When she told me I’d been touched by someone with dark magic, she gave me this leather pouch. She said not to open it or lose it, but to keep it safe until I discovered who was infected. Then all I had to do was throw the pouch at them and recite a couple of words she made me memorize. She said it would destroy the ~magic~. I didn’t know it would kill the actual ~person~. I never liked Yasmin and don’t mind her being dead, but I certainly didn’t mean to be the one who ~killed~ her.”

“Never fear, my child,” a new voice spoke from the doorway. “It wasn’t you who killed her. She killed herself.”