“But she is here and likely to die from her other wound anyway.”
“You don’t need to curse the trolls again,” I said, desperately trying another tactic as the blood soaked into the carpet beneath Sabine. “I tried to break them free and I failed. I can’t do it. I don’t want to do it.” The lie slipped easily from my lips.
“And yet this one is free.” Rising to her feet, she walked around me to stand in front of Tristan. “Which means it’s possible, and a more permanent solution is in order.”
Taking advantage of the moment, I dropped to my knees next to Sabine. Tearing a strip of fabric from my skirt, I bound her shoulder as tightly as I could manage. My friend was pale and shaking, and if she didn’t get help soon, she’d bleed to death. She smiled bravely, then catching my hand, she placed it on her opposite forearm. Beneath the sleeve of her dress was something hard. A knife. I carefully extracted it, hiding it in the mesh belt of my dress.
“I’m weary of this life.” Anushka’s voice was soft. “I want the chance to live as I wish. Not to spend my days in fear that the trolls will catch me or that a foolish regent will burn me at the stake. Before, I was too blinded by hurt to see what needed to be done. But no longer.”
Kill her! I clenched my teeth against the rush of compulsion. She had the pistol pointed at Tristan, and it might go off if I stabbed her. Still, I edged closer.
She reached a hand to brush the hair off Tristan’s face, withdrawing it only when he lunged at her, his face taut with fury as he strained against the chains. “You have the look of Alexis,” she said. “But I suppose that’s no surprise. You all have the look of each other. Base things that you are.”
Turning away from Tristan, she went to a chest and pulled out a jar. Something moved from within. Keeping one eye on me, she set her pistol on a table next to a basin of what looked like lamp oil. Touching a candle to it, she waited for the flames to flare brightly, then she opened the jar and dumped in the contents. I caught a glimpse of a large spider, legs thrashing, and then it was gone, consumed. She murmured some words under her breath, and suddenly I couldn’t move, my legs frozen in place and my arms paralyzed at my sides. Helpless.
“You see, Cécile,” she said, leaving the pistol where it lay and coming toward me. “That’s what they are. Base. To the human eye, they are so very lovely, but to their ancestors, the immortal fey, they are wretched, ugly, and colorless things. Trolls. With his death, I will curse them never to draw another breath, and no one in this world or the next will mourn their loss.”
I spat in her face, because it was all that I could manage.
Lifting one black sleeve, she wiped it away. Then she slapped my cheek hard enough to whip my face sideways. “Of all the disobedient daughters I’ve had over the centuries, none caused me half as much trouble as you.”
My eyes watered from the pain and I blinked. “I’m sure if they had known the truth about you, they’d have fought harder.”
“The truth?” The look she gave me was ripe with pity.
Going to the window, she pushed back the drapes and eyed the moon. “Time enough.” Her heels made muffled thuds against the carpet as she walked back to Tristan. “How did you know Cécile was mine?”
He laughed silently. “You of all people should know that the fey see all they wish to behold.”
She cocked her head to one side. “If that is so, why did they wait so very long to help you?”
He lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “What is five hundred years to those who watched time begin and will endure beyond its final hour?”
She snorted. “Which is your pretty way of saying that you don’t know. Maybe they wanted to see you suffer?”
“Perhaps.” He smiled at her. “But a base creature such as myself has no business speculating about the motives of his immortal betters. Does it unnerve you that, even now, they are watching?”
Her expression tightened. “Let them watch. Let them bear witness to the end of the trolls.”
“We’ll see,” Tristan replied. “Pulling a mountain down on our heads was not enough