“Where’s the prison?” I say. “In your cathedral?”
“No,” she says. “At the very bottom of the catacombs. And I do mean the very bottom. It’s incredibly dark and isolated. But don’t worry. We’ll send you food.”
My heart thuds in my ears. I can find a way out of this. I always find a way out.
Verene pulls off one of her gloves to reveal a bandage around her hand, then starts to unwind it. On her palm, there’s a long gash, barely healed. She slices it open with the knife in one quick motion. She turns back to me, squeezing her hand into a fist, and pointedly lets the blood fall onto the ground by my feet.
“So it’s not just your brother,” I say. “You feed the vide, too.”
“I would do anything for my people,” she says.
I remember her random dizzy spells that I saw in the cathedral. I know how dizzying it is to lose your blood. It seems she’s doing quite a lot for her people.
At my feet, a shadow is starting to form. The air is getting colder. I shiver.
I don’t have much time. I have to get her to tell me something I can use. Anything.
“You know,” I say, “in a way, you’re even worse than your mother was.”
Verene goes very still. Her eyes are fixed on me, dark and intent and, suddenly, unblinking.
“What?” she says.
The shadow has eaten up her blood.
“You think your powers are noble, don’t you?” I say. “Instead of the people of Iris bleeding for you, you bleed for them. But what you conveniently neglect to realize is that when you steal water from the other cities, that’s still water that somebody had to bleed for—”
In an instant, she’s on the ground and in my face. I flinch away automatically, and she grabs a fistful of my hair, forcing me back.
“Don’t—” she says. “Don’t you ever—”
I feel something cold against my neck. It’s the blade of her knife. It’s shaking in her hands. It’s digging in a little too hard.
“Don’t pretend that you know me,” she says. “Don’t pretend that you understand me. I did this for my city. No one will ever hurt them again, and it’s because of me.”
“Am I supposed to be impressed?” I say. “You were born into this life. You were born into this magic. Your power obviously doesn’t look like your mother’s, but that doesn’t make you—”
I falter. Because, just for a moment, I felt her falter, too.
I meet her gaze. We’re close. Too close. I can feel the warmth of her breath and I can smell her sweet hair. And I can see something deep in her eyes. Something that she’s trying to hide. It looks almost like fear. Like she’s afraid of what I’m saying. Like I’m getting too close to asking a question she doesn’t want to answer.
She believes in her power so strongly. She believes in it like it was something she chose.
People don’t choose to have magic. Our rulers are born with magic, and that’s why they’re our rulers. That’s what I’ve always been told. That’s what I’ve always believed.
But so many other things I’ve believed are turning out to be wrong.
I know that I only have a split second to act, so I do the last thing she would expect me to do. Instead of trying to throw myself away from her, I throw myself forward.
The knife cuts into my neck with a sting. Before it can go too deep, she flings herself back. The knife lands in my lap, and I twist around in my bonds until it falls to the ground. A drop of blood flies off it and lands in the dust.
Verene and I both used the knife to cut ourselves. I don’t know if the blood is hers or mine.
Either way, the dark shadow is already underneath it. I scoot away and watch as the vide swallows it up.
It pauses. Like it’s considering.
I look at Verene. Her eyes are wide. She looks like she doesn’t know what’s going to happen now, either.
“What are you so worried about?” I say. “Surely you don’t think a terrible person like me could just… use your magic?”
And then I feel… something. There’s a cold, tingling sensation in my neck.
Experimentally, I look at the vide, and I will it to go after Verene.
It does.
The rush is unbelievable. Verene is scrambling away on her hands and knees, and I’ve never felt so powerful.
I’m so caught up in the euphoria that it takes me a long moment to realize the vide has turned around. It’s coming for me again.
Down the hall, Verene is squeezing her wounded palm. It’s still dripping.
Of course. She gave it more blood than I did. She must have more control than I do.
I throw myself at the knife. I rub frantically at it with the bindings around my wrist, and right as the vide is almost upon me, I manage to saw through and break free.
I seize the knife and cut my hand. I don’t even feel the pain. I splatter my blood on the floor and silently tell the vide to swallow Verene up and take her to her own prison.
She’s already unwinding the bandage on her other hand. The wound there is only semi-healed, too, and when she presses them both into the floor, the vide comes back at me.
I meet Verene’s eyes. They’re burning with pain and righteous fury in equal measure.
She’s not going to stop.
That’s… perfect. I don’t want her to stop. I want her to fight me the way I deserve to be fought.
I back up, leaving a trail of blood for the vide. From the tingling in my hand, I know that it’s swallowing up my offering. Verene hunts around on the ground. She finds a sharp rock and
