Page 109 of Omen of ice
Levina narrows her eyes. “What mercy do you owe him?”
I peek at Valen through the curtain of my hair. “Mercy has nothing to do with it.” I think about our journey here. About the times we fought and laughed. The times he saved me and the times I saved him. I think about the kisses… When I lift my head, it isn’t Levina’s gaze I catch. It’s his. “Valen has his faults. Many,manyfaults. But I… I care about him.”
Nothe’s my friend. Nothe doesn’t deserve this.
I care about him.
It isn’t until I speak the words that I realize something elsehasbeen happening between us. Something I’m not quite sure what to call. It’s strange, and it’s strong, and it scares me a little bit, but I don’t want to lose it. I can’t.
My family, my beliefs, my mentor, my past… I’ve already lost everything else.
Levina laughs. “Youcareabout him? Are you trying to say you have feelings for that filthy Fae?”
“I—” It’s impossible, yet…
“Watch your mouth, druid,” Liani says with a growl. “This alliance is tenuous as it is.”
But Levina doesn’t seem to hear her. She keeps laughing, growing more and more hysterical by the minute. “Do you have any idea how theytrulyview us? We are things. Toys to be used and abused, and when they’ve decided they’ve had enough, they punish us. They steal from us!”
“I’m not going to kill him,” I whisper, forcing the words past my lips. “And what good would it do you if I did? The rebirth sigil is inked to me. If what you said is true and I don’t die, why would you ever believe I’d give the power to you?”
Levina chuckles. “Don’t you think I planned for this? Not your disgusting sentimental attachment to the boy, but your refusal to hand the magic over? I placed my own rebirth sigil on you the night before you left.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I did. Obviously, my intention was to reason with you. I don’t want you dead, Keltania. But just in case…”
“No…” Though when I think about it, that night is hazy. I chalked it up to Levina keeping me up all night so I could memorize the sigil, but there has to be more to it. She’d given me the drawing to memorize, then brought me tea in the early morning hours. “You drugged me.”
I surge forward, fingers hooked and itching to tear into her flesh, but she simply smiles and moves just beyond my reach. I come to the end of the chain and am jerked back violently. Valen catches me before I fall.
“I went to great lengths to ensure you ended up here. Everything from giving you the improper placement of the sigil, which dissolved the Heartbreaker, to showing you the altered version, which caused the link. Then, to be sure, I followed you every step of the way. Kept my eyes on you—”
“The crow…” I shiver. “It was you.”
“It was,” she says with a smile. “Being tuned so closely with nature that we can become nature is just one more thing the Winter Fae stole from us. You should bethankingme.”
“That still doesn’t make sense. You’re human. It would just do to you what it’s doing to me.”
Levina smiles. It’s wicked and wrong and turns my stomach to lead. “I’m…a little something more. I would be just fine.”
“You… How could you do this to me? You raised me. You were like a mother to me.”
“And I still am. I told you—I don’t want you dead. I want you by my side.”
“As long as I kill Valen.”
“Yes.”
“No,” I snap.
“Enough chatter.” Liani pushes past Levina and picks up the knife, then presses it painfully into my hands. “Do it now.”
I slacken my fingers, and it tumbles to the ground again. “How can you let this happen? Valen loves you.”
But it isn’t Liani who answers. It’s Levina. “Did you think her the dutiful aunt?” She smiles at Valen. “All this time you’ve loved her, thought her on your side, but do you know what she’s done? She’s used you, knowing what you are—knowingwhoyou are.” Unlike Liani, her voice is soft, mellow. Her words are razor-sharp, but she delivers them as if plated with sugar.
Liani sighs. “Must we do this?” She taps her foot impatiently.
