free-”
“I’m all right.” She coughed around the words, tasted blood and mucus. Pinpricks of blood glistened black on her hands-more streaked her fingers when she rubbed her face, and her dress clung wetly to her skin. She found no wound-the monster had sucked it from her pores. “What happened?”
“He saved you.”
Savedra looked up to see Varis leaning against the wall, pale and cold-flushed and ghastly beneath a cloud of witchlights. His jacket hung open, shirt unbuttoned to reveal the ugly marks on his throat.
“I thought it was the mimikoi toying with me when I heard your voice,” he said. “I decided they wouldn’t show me the princess.” He gave Ashlin a sardonic bow, and his knees buckled as he straightened.
“Uncle!” Savedra fell forward when she tried to stand, and crawled to him across the frozen ground. Her anger was nowhere to be found. “You’re hurt.”
“Just weak. I didn’t expect a banishing.” He stood, lifting her unsteadily with him.
“Was that one of Phaedra’s pets?” she croaked.
“No. An old horror, a remnant of the Hecatomb. I’m sure her magic fanned its appetite, though.”
Her hands tightened on his shoulders and she flinched from the starkness of bone. “She took Nikos.”
He nodded, leaning against the wall again. His skin was translucent in the lilac glare, veins dark and ugly. “I know. I tried to stop her.” He laughed bitterly. “Saints know I’d see all the Alexioi dead, but not like this.”
“What happened?”
“She sent me away. I’m lucky that’s all she did. What they intend is madness and worse, but”-he shook his head-“I’m not powerful enough to stop them. If Kiril-” He shut his teeth tight on that thought, and didn’t finish it.
“I won’t leave Nikos here.”
She expected refusal, but he studied her in silence. His knuckles brushed her cheek, soft as a benediction. “If he deserves even a fraction of your devotion, he’s a better man than I could ever have been.”
She laid her hand over his; blood stuck their skin together. “He’s just a man, but I love him. I love you both.”
She glanced over her shoulder, where Ashlin stood guard against the night, watching the fog to give them privacy. A path unfolded before her, but it was a dangerous one, and it wasn’t only her life she risked. But she couldn’t rescue Nikos only to see Varis executed. Sorcery and debt weren’t the only ways to bind-her mother had taught her that as well.
“Go with Ashlin,” she said. “I need you to keep her safe.”
“You can’t possibly mean that. After everything I’ve done.”
“The princess is pregnant.”
“All the more reason, then-”
The words stuck in her tender throat, but she forced them out. “The child is mine.”
That silenced him, and Savedra wanted to laugh as he blinked. “You can’t mean-”
“Funny, Uncle, that’s exactly what Nikos said. Yes. The Princess and I are lovers. She’s carrying my child.”
“And Nikos knows?”
“He’s accepted the baby as his. Need I be clearer?” she said as he stammered. “A Severos bastard stands to inherit the Malachite Throne.”
She had never seen Varis at a loss for words. After several speechless moments he slid down the wall, buried his face in his hands, and began to laugh. The laughter quickly turned to sobs.
Savedra drew Ashlin close. “Go with my uncle, please. He can keep the spirits off you, but he’s weak. Take him to Captain Denaris and get them both out of here.”
Green eyes narrowed. “Don’t try to set me aside.”
“I’m trying to keep you safe! Damn it, Ashlin. I may still lose Nikos. Don’t make me lose you too.”
“I might say the same,” Ashlin replied, but her resolve was weakening. “What am I supposed to do if you die?”
“Hold the throne. Keep the heir safe.”
“Unfair,” she whispered.
“I know. But I’ll ask it anyway.”
In answer Ashlin caught her shoulders and kissed her, hard enough to split cold-chapped lips. “You owe me,” she whispered on a shared breath.
“Lord Varis,” she said, turning away. “Vedra means to coddle us both like blown glass. May I escort you back to the wall?”
“It would be a delight and an honor, Your Highness. I shall do my very best to be coddled.
“Congratulations,” he said to Savedra, wiping away tears and smudged kohl. “You’ve managed a scandal to put all mine to shame. I shall run mad with envy.” He twisted the orange sapphire off his finger and folded his hands around it, eyes sagging shut. “Here.” He took her hand and slipped it onto her right ring finger; it fit snugly-her hands were bigger. “This much protection I can grant you. As long as you don’t attack, no one should be able to harm you. I wouldn’t test it against Phaedra more than you must, though-her power is doubled in the demon days, and she has fresh blood at hand to spill.”
She couldn’t ponder the source, or she’d scream. “Thank you.”
His eyes were colorless by witchlight, and more serious than she’d ever seen. “I can only try to earn your forgiveness.”
“Start by keeping the princess safe.” She kissed his cheek, cold skin against colder.
She watched Ashlin and Varis till the fog swallowed them. Then she stepped into the tower’s black mouth.
Isyllt didn’t have to wait long before she heard Spider’s voice.
“Isyllt.”
He crouched on a broken pillar, a white-marble grotesque. She was so used to his mocking diminutives that the sound of her name in his mouth startled her. He uncoiled and leapt, landing silently before her. The red haze thinned around him. “I can’t let you interfere. You know that.”
Her blade rasped from its sheath. “Haven’t you always wanted to know how it would really have ended between us?” The chill in her voice was only bravado-after everything he’d done, the thought of killing him made her stomach ache. But she couldn’t face him and Phaedra together. Spellfire licked the edges of her blade.
“I wanted us to be friends.” The quiet sadness in his voice made her wonder how many friends he’d had in the catacombs. How many he’d sacrificed to further his plans.
“Spider-” The catch in her voice was real; the lowering of her blade was a feint.
She threw witchlights in his eyes and lunged, swinging the silver kukri. Fabric opened against the edge, and skin below that. He was gone before the stroke bit deeper, his animal hiss echoing in her ears. Isyllt spun, cold fire in her left hand and spelled silver in her right.
Her heartbeat’s advantage was already spent. He moved in a white blur and she staggered, a sudden pressure on her jaw warming to pain. Copper washed her tongue again, mingling with the acrid taste of nerves. Her jaw wasn’t broken; luck, or had he pulled the blow? She turned the stumble into a crouch, rocking on the balls of her feet as she tried to keep him in sight.
Easier tried than done-he moved silently and weightlessly as any ghost, but much faster. She blocked a blow that would have opened her throat, and it felt like dragging her limbs through honey. She was rewarded with the jolt of blade on bone and Spider’s quite audible cursing. He cradled his hand to his chest, black blood seeping between his fingers.
“This is foolish, little witch.”
“It certainly is.” She flung another blaze of light and lunged again. Her shoulder struck his chest and her knife turned on his ribs, slicing through cloth and skin and desiccated muscle. The smell of musk and anise and bitter earth filled her nose.
Spider snarled, fangs shining inches from her face. He tore the knife from her hand; it clattered across the stones, out of reach. His other hand seized her jaw, redoubling the ache from his last blow.
“I would have let you live,” he murmured as he forced her head back. She kicked and clawed, but it was like
