Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,152

back.”

“Yeah, but it was a hell of a lot easier to just imagine having it back. Nobody else was watching. And I’m not done yet. I’ve got the firebird and I’ve got Maidenkeep, but I still have the sword to look for. If that’s what you saw at Tintagel, then it has to be close by—it’s pissing the hell out of me that I can’t find it. I’ve already had the whole castle searched twice.”

Tala was silent. The firebird was silent. She could understand why her father had chosen not to reveal her secret, but she was surprised the firebird was withholding the same thing from its master.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Alex asked.

“Talk about what?”

“You know. Your dad.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. I’ve accepted that he was the Scourge.”

“Have you forgiven him yet?”

“Do you want to talk about how you were able to control the Nine Maidens when every historian’s said no king of Avalon has been able to in hundreds of years? What did you sacrifice to learn that spell? The frog curse isn’t the only repercussion of that, is it?”

Alex’s face clouded over. “Are we doing this again?”

“Why is your stuff off-limits but my dad once being a genocidal maniac isn’t? And those weren’t flukes, Alex. Your father purportedly didn’t know how to use the Nine Maidens, but you did. You didn’t want us to bury those people in that village because you knew they were in stasis and you could revive them. You put them to sleep in the first place. You used the Nine Maidens to cast that time spell over the whole kingdom, and you stopped the Snow Queen from reentering Avalon. You admitted as much.”

Alex closed his eyes. “I can’t tell you what I had to give up for it. That was part of the deal I’d made.”

“From the Baba Yaga?”

“You’ll never find her. I don’t know if she escaped the frost. I don’t even know if she’s still alive.”

“When you told me that you possessed a censured spell, knowing how to control those Nine Maidens was what you really meant and not the frog curse, wasn’t it? But why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’d just met you, then. A lifetime of hiding had taught me that two people who knew a secret wasn’t actually a secret at all.”

“But then afterward?”

“Afterward, I had let it pass for so long that I didn’t really know how to talk to you about it. And it’s not like I can use the Maidens any time I want to. There were limits imposed to when, and defending Avalon was one of them. You’re still the only one who knows, unless you decide otherwise.” The question in his tone was apparent.

“No. I’m not going to tell anyone else unless you want me to. But they’re going to know about it sooner or later. You can’t keep this a secret forever, Alex. Your ancestors died using it.”

Alex grinned. “And I would have died twelve years ago without it, so this is practically a reprieve. I’m going to keep it hidden for as long as I can, anyway. It’s not just me being overly paranoid. When the Snow Queen took over Avalon and unleashed the frost, she had help from within. There are traitors in my kingdom, Tala. Theirs may not have been the hand that killed my parents, but they provided their murderers with the knife to stab them in the back with. And I’m going to stamp them all out one by one even if it takes me the rest of my life. And the Snow Queen’s still out there somewhere. She’s not going to stop until she has my firebird, but I’ll be ready. I have to be ready.”

“And I’ll help you,” Tala said. “You and the other Banders got off to a rocky start, but I know they’ll all fight for you, and fight with you too. But you have to stop acting like you’re the only person fighting the war, and trust the rest of us a little more.” Because I have to make sure you don’t die from this, you idiot.

Alex’s gaze slid toward her, looked away again. “I’m sorry. I can’t promise anyone else that yet.”

The door opened, and Lola Urduja looked in. She was dressed in a resplendent Filipina terno, an intricate blouse made of stiff abaca that rose up around her collarbone and was set against her shoulders like a pair of expensive bookends. She fluttered her fan. “Are you