Lex shuddered. “Yes. I can’t imagine anything worse. Or more fitting.”
“The witch is waiting for her doctors to figure out a way to control me forever,” Rune said. “If she manages to put me in a jar—”
“We won’t give up until you’re free,” Strad interrupted.
“Yeah,” Lex agreed. “Don’t ever worry about that.”
“Where the fuck is she?” Rune yelled, and barely refrained from her habit of punching her thigh.
“She’s waiting for you, Princess. And I can take you to her.”
And as they swirled around, blades in hand, Snow stepped from the dark edge of the woods.
Rune put her hands on her hips. “Where have you been?”
Snow smiled and walked toward them, her unbound white hair flowing like a veil around her.
“Strad, Lex,” Rune said. “This is Snow.”
“Your sister,” Lex said, fascinated. “Remember when you had white hair, Rune?”
“Really?” Snow asked.
Lex stuck out a hand. “Nice to meet you, Snow.” But when Snow clasped her hand, Lex lost her smile. “I can’t feel a damn thing,” she muttered. “I don’t like it.”
Snow gazed up at Strad but didn’t make the usual remarks about his size. “Hello,” she said. “So you’re the berserker.”
Rune frowned. “I never told you about Strad.”
“You called for him in your sleep,” Snow said.
Rune’s cheeks burned. She glared at Snow and knew without looking that the berserker would be grinning.
“You don’t have to say everything that comes to your mind, Snow,” she said.
“I’m sorry.” But the sparkle in her eyes didn’t dim.
“For a sister, you’re a pain in the ass.”
“I’m nearly certain sisters are supposed to be pains in the ass.”
“Maybe you could be a little less sisterly, then.”
“Come,” Snow said, smiling. “Let’s find Mother.”
“Why didn’t you tell Rune you could take her to Damascus to begin with?” Lex asked.
“It’s risky,” Snow said. “Risky for all of us.”
“Tell me,” Rune ordered.
“I can…search for her. But when I do, I must open myself—lower my walls, you might say. She’ll see me as well and will send attackers to delay us.” She looked at Rune. “You love your companions. They’ll be the first to die. That’s all she can do until her doctors—who are terrified and desperate but very, very powerful—find the one thing she wants. One reason she hasn’t already destroyed you is because she can’t. But she can kill everything you love.”
Lex took a step away. “Even if you find her, what’s to say she won’t run to another hiding place before we get to her?”
Snow nodded. “Exactly.”
“Not worth it,” the berserker said.
Rune agreed. “We’ll find her on our own.”
“You’ll find her when she’s ready for you to find her,” Snow said, her voice grim. “They will create what she needs. It’s just a matter of time.”
“Then we’ll have to find her before that happens.” But Rune wasn’t feeling quite as confident.
“There’s another reason she hasn’t already destroyed you. She doesn’t want to. Do you understand? She wants to possess you. She wants to absorb you, to combine with you. She wants your power—all of it.”
“She has my monster.” Rune stumbled over her words, just a little, but her fear was huge.
“Your monster is nothing to her. Your monster is just a hint of the real power inside you. My mother wants the power of Skyll. The power,” she said, spreading her arms, “of an entire world. You should be flattered.” And there it was. The bitterness. The jealousy.
Likely Snow wasn’t even aware of it, but Rune heard it.
“If—when—she has her way, it’ll be like…like a sponge absorbing water. You’ll be the water. There will be no more Rune Alexander. No more princess. She will still be her, but she will also be you. That’s what she wants.”
Rune began to shake. “Shit,” she muttered.
“Can she do that?” Lex asked, when Rune didn’t. “Can she really ever do such a thing?”
“Oh God yes,” Snow said. “She can do anything she wants to do. She just has to figure out how. And that’s what her doctors are for.”
“Rune,” Strad said. “Let me take you home. Let’s leave this fucking place and go home.”
“You have to know she can’t,” Snow said. “She knows she can’t. Killing the witch, defeating the evil, that’s her destiny. It’s not possible for her to leave. She can’t leave, and she can’t die. She has to kill Damascus.”
Rune stopped walking to look at her, her heart fluttering. “What do you mean?”
Snow hesitated. “This world—Mother Skyll, if you will—won’t release you until you’ve fulfilled your destiny. If you don’t kill the