Page 128 of The Witch Queen

We do not need to take it.Shade replies.Use the witch to lure the others. That is what she desires, is it not? To summon them?

Lure the others. I briefly considered such a plan when I first captured the other witch but guessed that Jacquetta would never fall for the trap. Shade is right, though. Jacquetta has been begging me to call the Heirs. I could agree. Let her think she’s won. And then…

My attention drifts to the crown. Deep within the broken shards of the Bloodstones, I think I see the faint shimmer of the witches’ magic. I could seize the rest of it, just as I vowed to do when I broke the Veil and released Malum.

“Would it work?” I ask. “If I do this, could I be…as powerful as her? The creature?”

Yes, my queen.Shade’s eyes glitter in the dimness.Even more so.

That deep, hungry instinct rears up inside me. Memories of the last attack resurface: The chasm in the Great Hall. The statues waking. As horrifying as the ordeal had been, I cannot deny my own fascination with such power. What would it feel like to wield that force? And yet…

“Jacquetta and I made an agreement,” I say, more to myself than to Shade. “I promised her that she could leave if she helped me.”

Shade’s shadows twist around my torso.

And how many promises has she broken?

Too many.

Still…if I take this course, it would close the door on any possibility that Jacquetta and I might make our way back to the witches we used to be. Once, I wouldn’t have cared. Would have slammed that door shut myself. Thrown away the key. But Jacquetta fought beside me during the battle at the ball. She healed Nox. Helped me rescue Blodwyn. And then there was the way she looked at me in Ignatius’s lair.

You’ll be next,she’d said. Like she cared.

Does she?

“Let me think about it,” I say to Shade.

He’s quiet a moment, his shadows wending around his body.

As you wish, my queen,he rasps.But do not forget the promises you made to us.

One of his shadows brushes against me as Shade fades into the darkness. In the silence that follows, the long-ago words of the prophecy come back to me:

Every throne carries a cost.

For the first time since I shattered the Veil, I wonder if I’m willing to pay it.

—

The very next day, reports begin to flood in from around the realm, detailing more instances of what Shade showed me in the mirror: Whole forests withering overnight. Animals found dead, their corpses mangled and leaking that strange, blood-like substance. Even Roland has sent word that the Mines are worsening. Entire tunnels have caved in for no apparent reason and an increasing number of Dwarves are missing. It’s as though the realm itself is breaking apart beneath my feet. And this is only the beginning. Should the creature return…

Shade’s plan rolls around in my mind. Every instinct screams at me to act on it before it’s too late. But I can’t. Not yet. Not until I’m certain.

Certain of what?that voice whispers.

I still don’t know.

“No, no, Fitz,” Joan chides, nudging the dog away from something dead. “Don’t eat that.”

After a particularly contentious council meeting, I decided to escape the palace for an hour or so. Given the recent events, the court is confined to the immediate grounds. I ran into Joan wandering the gardens. It’s only been days since the scene with Anora, but Joan already looks older—tired and sad. I recognize her grief from the weeks after Jacquetta left Stonehaven. That empty, hollow feeling that absolutely nothing will fill.

“How are you?” I ask gently.

“Fine,” she says with a shrug. “I mean, not, obviously. Part of medidn’t believe Anora would really leave. Even as I watched them load her carriage, I thought,She’ll turn around.She’ll come back.Foolish, I know.”

“It’s not,” I say. “And I’m so sorry.”

Joan blinks her tears away before they fall. “Don’t be. Perhaps I should take a lesson from you from now on: guard my heart more carefully.”