“I was desperate. And so I made a bargain with the Mother of Night.”
“What sort of bargain?” For a second, she’s my older sister, snapping at my stupidity. “Curse it, Vi. Have you lost your mind?”
“Not my mind, no.”
“What did you bargain with? The Old Ones cannot be trusted.”
I stare at her for long seconds. I don’t know if I trust her. She’s given me precious information, but as I said, she always did play the game better than I did.
Maybe I can play the game too. A little bit of information, though not all of it…. “She wanted my firstborn child—”
The blood drains from her face. “Vi!”
“But if I can give her the crown that sits on the Briar King’s head, then the debt will be repaid.”
Andraste shakes her head in horror. “And if you can’t get the crown?”
I merely stare at her.
“No. No!” She rakes her hands through her braids again. “Gods, how could you be so stupid! How could you—”
“I was desperate!” I snap. “And there is still time. There has to be a child.”
“This is my fault,” she whispers, staring blankly at nothing. “This is all my fault. I thought…. I thought….”
Eris appears from the shadows, stalking slowly across the cobbles. “It’s none of your business, Princess of Thorns. Vi.” She gives me a look. “We need to get moving. She’s stalling.”
“I’m not stalling,” Andraste whips her blade free, backing away from Eris warily. “I came alone.”
“Really?” Eris curls her lip. “Then why is there a cloud of dust moving toward us? There’s at least one squad of Asturian soldiers riding this way.”
“What?” both Andraste and I say.
“It’s a trap.”
“Not by me!” Andraste strides to the archway as if she wants to see.
Eris is quicker. Hauling Andraste back into her arms, she sets a knife to her throat. “Drop the sword.”
“Make me.”
Eris presses the knife tight enough to draw blood, and my sister’s sword clatters to the ground.
“Wait!” I reach for them. “Don’t kill her,” I tell Eris. “I need her.”
“She’s the enemy, Vi.”
“I know.” But… for a second. “Was any of it the truth? The goblins? The Alliance? Your intentions?”
Andraste’s chin tilts higher as Eris tightens the knife. “All of it. You need to get out of here. Now! I swear I had nothing to do with this. Take the west trail. If they’re coming from Hawthorne Castle, they’ll expect you to flee directly north, toward the Thornwood Hallow.”
I glance at the cloud of dust. “We can’t leave. Not without the crown.”
“Besides,” Eris says with a smile. “Why would we flee when we’ve got such a pretty hostage?”
Andraste growls under her breath. “I can’t be caught here!”
“You should have thought of that earlier.” Eris withdraws the blade, hauling my sister’s arms behind her back. She takes a thin leather cord from behind her belt and binds Andraste’s wrists together.
“Vi!” Andraste looks to me. “If Mother knows I was here—”
I ignore her. The coincidence is just a little too uncomfortable for my liking. “Let’s head inside the ruins. We can set her free in the forest on the way out.”
“Inside the ruins?” Andraste gapes at me. “The keep is haunted by the Briar King. Only the outer towers are safe to enter. Fae who try to explore the ruins never come back out.”
Eris hauls her to her feet. “It’s all right, bitchspawn. I’m the scariest creature in these woods. Nothing’s going to get the slip on me.” And then she gives me a certain look. “And we can decide what we’re going to do with her later. There’s no need to set her free. Not just yet. She’s your mother’s heir. If we have her in our grasp, then your mother’s not going to strike the first blow, is she?”
This is the sort of ruthless decision I need to make. I’m still acting as though Andi’s my sister. “Fine. Let’s go get the crown. We’ll work out what to do with her once we’re done here.”
It all goes back to the start.
The Briar King sits on his dusty throne, his hollow skull pierced with brambles that twine through his empty eye sockets and out his mouth. It looks like he’s screaming, and perhaps he was when my mother killed him with her thorns.
Each bleached hand lies on the arms of his throne, his fingers curled around the arms, but it’s the crown on his head that draws my eyes.
Black as my mother’s soul, when the light of my torch shines on it, it doesn’t so much reflect the light as it absorbs it.
“What if there’s a trap?” Andraste asks as Eris shoves her into the throne room.
“Then I’ll send you in first to spring it,” Eris says.
“Vi, I need to talk to you,” Andraste says urgently. “Alone.”
“There’s nothing you can’t say to me that Eris can’t hear,” I reply.
“Yes, there is,” Andraste stresses.
“Permission to gag her?” Eris asks.
I stare at the Briar King, trying to work out if there’s an easy way to approach him. “You’re actually asking for permission?”
“Well, you are my queen.”
I shoot Andraste a look. “No more talking, or I’ll let her stuff a sock in your mouth.”
Andraste glares back.
All lies still.
Grimm suddenly appears, sniffing around the base of the throne, his nose itching. “It took you long enough.”
“Where have you been?” Eris demands.
“Investigating,” he replies, and the spider webs clinging to his whiskers tell the truth of his tale. “There’s something in the ruins, and I haven’t managed to work out what it is yet.”
“You’re right.” Eris shoves Andraste forward. “There was something in the ruins, and we had to deal with it.”
“Oh, her. She’s harmless. It’s not she who makes the hairs down my spine creep. This smells like a trap.”
“A trap in particular, or is it the situation setting your hackles on edge?”
The grimalkin leaps up on the edge of the throne, its paws delicately avoiding the skeletal bones. “The situation. I can’t smell
