where your body is.”
“It isn’t.”
Before I could ask what this meant, howls shook all of existence around us.
Ariane ducked back into her river, looking up at me in desperation. “Fairuza, if you can leave, you need to go now!”
“What’s happening?” I cried.
“He’s coming!” she hissed, shaking with terror. “He’s coming, and if he sees you, you won’t leave!”
I didn’t need to ask who He was. The howls grew in volume and number, an ominous chorus of hellhounds ushering in their master. The Horned God.
Paralysis had long sunk its claws into me before I saw the shadow of his antlers elongating along the ground. Just as soon as I did, I felt myself being yanked back through a tight, dark tunnel.
Within my next heartbeat, gone was the Underworld. In its place, a circular room flared around me, full of floating candles, with a group of hooded women sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounding me, chanting.
Where had I travelled to now?
One stood and threw off her hood, bearing a face I had never wanted to see ever again. A haggard face, with ash-pale skin, long blackened nails, red sunken eyes, and a vicious smile that brought to mind the silent snarl of a predator.
Marzeya, the Witch-Queen of Zhadugar, that autonomous magical city in the north of Cahraman. And the deranged woman who had thrown me to the ghouls in Mount Alborz.
“I see you’re having an interesting trip.” Marzeya moved her arm through my middle, a sensation that made me shudder. “I’ve been wondering how you’d have your out-of-body experience.”
This reminded me of what was arguably the most important thing about this witch: her access to knowledge seen only through the veils of time, past or future. She’d known Ada was an imposter, and had given her accurate predictions. She seemed to have known about my current condition in advance, too.
Maybe she could tell me what was going on, and how to reverse it. “You know what this is?”
She inclined her head. “Yes, the amendment to your curse left you stranded between life and death.”
“Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong about breaking it?”
“And why would I do that?”
“Last time I saw you, you gave two girls of my party predictions about their fates. The least you can do after subjecting me to those ghouls, is offer me the same courtesy.”
“Oh, yes. Ada didn’t heed all of my warnings, got herself into a spot of trouble, but it all turned out in her favor in the end.” Marzeya’s red eyes lit up, intrigue curling her dark lips. “As for that big blonde beast, she’s in for a world of excitement.”
She meant Cora. I waited for a clarification of what she meant by “excitement.” When she didn’t, I asked, “Is she?”
Marzeya coughed out a smokey, deranged laugh. “Exciting for me as a spectator, certainly.”
I thought of the strange, wandering dream I’d had as I’d first left my body, of the blonde girl in the farmland, and the being that emerged from beneath the earth to snatch her away from the moon. Did those visions have any weight to them?
I shivered. “What’s going to happen to her?”
“Aw, since when do you care for anyone but yourself?”
Once, that had been true. Beyond being involved with my own curse, I’d always felt I couldn’t spare worry beyond my immediate family, with my father being at war, and my brother devolving into a monster. But since my life had been derailed in Cahraman, I’d learned that empathy wasn’t finite, it could spread to anyone who needed it. Now, with Robin’s example, offering help wherever he went, at any cost to himself, the least I could do was care.
And then, despite how antagonistic our acquaintance had been, Cora had come to my rescue. Had I been the same self-absorbed princess I once was, I would still owe her a debt of gratitude.
I glared at Marzeya with the intensity of my newly-forged conviction. “I care.”
Marzeya only turned her gaze downwards, like she could see through the ground, and into someplace far below. “It is rarely a good thing to be worth the gods’ attention, or their envy. So many pretty girls earn the ire of goddesses, just by existing, but that girl…” Marzeya chuckled ominously. “She’ll turn the heads of deities, and will pay dearly for it.”
I felt my very being chill at her dire predictions.
As if that wasn’t enough, Marzeya’s gaze flitted back to me. “As for you, there’s not much to say as you’re already hanging in