A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) - Amanda Joy Page 0,47

She watched Eva, taking in the spiraling curl of her horns, the splayed wings.

Isa could slip away now—crawl through the window and test her fortune with the village—but she felt rooted to the floor. In the last two weeks, Eva had spent most of their time together talking at Isadore about peace, family, and how little they had left. She insisted she’d brought Isadore along only to fix everything between them.

Isa didn’t believe her then and she didn’t want to now. Eva brought her along to torture her, to make her feel weak. Yes, she loved her sister, but part of her still hated Eva. It had started when Eva left her alone with only their mother and Kitsina, Isa’s nursemaid, for comfort. She couldn’t forgive Eva for refusing to answer the hundreds of letters Isa sent to Asrodei while she was away. That hate had only deepened when Eva returned to Court, constantly reminding Isa how quickly love could turn. She’d held tightly to that hate too long to release it just because her sister had been hurt.

And yet, here she was, begging Aketo and Anali for scraps of time at her sister’s bedside. She was being foolish; she needed to guard herself against Eva, not get any closer. Or it would be impossible when the world—when Court—finally caught up to them and they were back at each other’s throats.

She remembered the night of Eva’s nameday in flashes of clarity and chaos. Isa couldn’t recall what she’d been thinking when her sister nearly slew her, only that she needed Eva to see that while she’d gone to study with soldiers, Isadore had become strong too. Hard as bone.

But it had been a different face in her mind’s eye that night, one much older and fairer. All the anger Isa believed she’d been storing up for Eva was really focused on their mother. She’d set them on this path. Lilith was the one who told Isa that she was destined to one day murder her sister. She’d only been six at the time.

Isa risked touching the wings. Eva shuddered, breath escaping in a dry rasp. Isa felt that tug at her center again, but instead of ignoring it, as she had earlier, she pulled on the cord of magick connecting them.

When nothing happened, she yanked on it once more.

Eva suddenly coughed, half rising from the bed with the force of it.

Isadore gave one last jerk. Eva’s eyes flew open as she continued to cough and retch. Isa went to get a cup of water and pressed it into her sister’s hands.

Eva blinked at her, uncomprehending, before taking a sip. “Isa? I thought . . .” Then Eva shook her head back and forth hard enough that it made Isadore cringe.

“I’ll get—I’ll get—”

The rest of her words were lost as the door banged open. Aketo stood in the doorway, mouth open. Others were crowded behind him, but Isa couldn’t make out their faces beyond Falun. Eva’s eyes went round as they all flooded into the room. As the last came inside, Eva let out a keen of panic.

Isa tried to speak, to warn them not to overwhelm her, but it was too late.

In one movement, Eva leaped to a crouch on the bed. Her wings flared wide behind her as she stared down at the woman, at her final guest. It was the cousin Isa had passed earlier in the hallway.

Eva bared her teeth and growled, “Who are you?”

Chapter 10

Baccha

For two days following Eva’s strange appearance in his head, Baccha looked over his shoulder each time the wind screamed. He felt watched, and worried she would return and demand answers.

But he couldn’t expend too much thought on Eva, because he and Meya—his old horse and oldest friend—were picking their way through Ydara’s Pass. A task that required all his concentration.

Despite having crossed from Myre to the Roune Lands to Dracol in a hundred different ways, he never underestimated the mountains where he was born. The jagged cliffs of the Ydara—a high rift of earth split by the Red River flowing south—required all his attention. It would be easy to get disoriented here, fall from one of these high bluffs, and be deserted in a place that seemed like the very edge of the world entirely.

This high, the air was thin and each exhalation released a puff of white vapor.

Most people who left Myre for the North traversed the pass by boat, but on water there was no way to catch the