Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns #1) - Kendare Blake Page 0,109
move. She could have been standing there for a very long time.
“Kat?” Natalia asks.
The figure does not respond. As Natalia walks closer, she begins to fear that it is a figment of her imagination. That her mind has fractured, and at any moment, the girl will vanish or dissolve into a pile of lice.
Natalia reaches out, and Katharine looks up into her eyes.
“Katharine,” Natalia says, and crushes the girl to her chest.
It is Katharine, dirty and cold but alive. Cuts mar every inch of her skin. Her mangled hands hang limp by her sides, tipped in dark red with most of the fingernails torn off.
“I did not fall,” Katharine croaks. Her voice is rough, as though her throat is filled with grave dirt.
“We must get you warm,” Natalia says. “Edmund! Bring blankets and run a bath!”
“I do not want that,” says Katharine.
“What do you mean, sweetheart? What do you want?”
“I want revenge,” she whispers, and her fingers trail bloody streaks down Natalia’s arms.
“And then I want my crown.”
WOLF SPRING
Though the townspeople would like to see her, Arsinoe spends her time in the Milone house or down in the orchard. She is not hiding, exactly. But it is easier there, where no one stares with newfound respect and where she does not have to explain where her bear is.
Telling the people that the bear was not actually her familiar will be difficult. They may be impressed by her ruse, but they will still be disappointed that she will not be riding it into town.
“Are you accepting visitors?” Billy asks, walking up from the orchard.
“Junior,” she says, and he smiles. He has recovered from their time in the mist, at sea, and looks very well in a light brown jacket. With the young leaves stuck to his shoulder, he hardly looks like a mainlander at all.
“I have never heard you sound so glad to see me,” he says.
“I wasn’t sure you were still here. I thought your father might have packed you up and sailed you home.”
“No, no,” Billy says. “I am to begin formally courting soon, just like the other suitors. He’s a dogged man, my father. He does not give up. You’ll come to know that about him.”
He holds out his hand. In it is a box wrapped in blue paper and tied with green-and-black ribbon.
“He sent this, you see? As a peace offering.” He shrugs. “It isn’t much. Sweets from our favorite shop back home. Chocolates. Dipped nuts. A few taffies. I thought you would like it, though. Since you are mostly stomach.”
“A gift? Really?” Arsinoe says, and takes the box. “I guess the bear changed his mind about me.”
“It changed everyone’s minds about you.” He sighs and then nods to the house. “How are things, here?”
Arsinoe frowns. Since the Quickening, Jules has been miserable. She has barely spoken to anyone.
Joseph walks up behind Billy with his hands in his pockets. The look upon his face is grim and determined.
“What are you doing here?” Arsinoe asks.
“I’m here to see Jules. I need to talk to her about what happened.”
“You need to grovel is more like. To both of us.”
“To both of you?” he asks, confused.
“She must really be something,” Arsinoe says. “That elemental sister of mine. To make you forget every promise that you ever made. To Jules. And to me.”
“Arsinoe.”
“Do you want me to die now, instead of her? Would that make you happy?”
She shoves past him hard on the way to the house. There is plenty more she would like to say to Joseph, but it is only right that Jules should have her turn first.
“Let me put these away,” she says, and shakes the candy box. “And then I’ll go find her for you.”
It does not take long to find Jules walking in one of the southern fields with Ellis, discussing the spring plant. When Jules sees her, her face falls, as if she knows.
“You have to talk to him sometime,” Arsinoe says.
“Do I?” says Jules.
Ellis puts a gentle hand on his granddaughter’s shoulder and walks back down the rows, holding Jake in his arm. The little white spaniel has scarcely walked a step since Beltane. Ellis is just so grateful that he was not taken by the poison, like those unlucky familiars who ate from the fallen Gave Noir.
Jules lets Arsinoe walk her around to the front of the house, where Joseph and Billy wait.
Arsinoe takes Billy by the elbow, and leads him away so Jules and Joseph can have some privacy.