Page 130 of Foul Days

Kosara hesitated. What could she possibly say to that? I’m sorry? Was she even sorry she’d done it, or was she only sorry she got caught?

Did it even matter? He was right. They weren’t friends.

“I told you I have no unsafe magic on me,” Asen said. “Why can’t you just trust me?”

Because trust is dangerous. Kosara had trusted the Zmey. She’d trusted Sevar. She’d trusted Roksana.

Truth was, most people didn’t deserve to be trusted. Asen had just proven it to her, too. She would bet his wife had trusted him.

Kosara turned around and walked back to her end of the cage. She lay down on the cold floor, shivering under her soaking wet coat, and tried to sleep.

Asen was quiet for a while, and then the screaming started. She didn’t get up to calm him down. Let him scream his throat raw. He deserved it.

She didn’t need friends. Friends made you vulnerable. Friends made you weak, and ashamed, and scared for their lives, not just your own. Just like she felt now.

* * *

The moon crept up the sky, then slid back down. The horizon grew brighter. The stars disappeared, one by one, like streetlamps getting extinguished.

Kosara drifted in and out of sleep. Every time she woke up, she expected to find herself in her own bed. All of this was obviously a bad dream. She’d never be stupid enough to attempt to sneak into the Zmey’s palace. Would she?

Finally, she sat up and rubbed the sleep off her eyes. The yudas were flying away now, tired of circling the tower, their wings gleaming pink and orange and yellow in the rising sun. Kosara had got so used to their shrieks, it was suddenly very quiet. Quiet enough she could hear her thoughts. She didn’t like it.

This was going to be her life, she realised. The Zmey would never let her out unless she gave him what he wanted. And she couldn’t do that. Embedding magic was dead for a reason.

Besides, even if she taught him, what was stopping him from killing her afterwards?

She’d spend the rest of her days in this cage. How long did she have? A few weeks at most. The sickness would slowly take over until nothing remained but shadow. Asen wouldn’t survive much longer without her to take care of his wounds.

Kosara would be trapped here, with the yudas screaming outside and that damned liar’s bones in the corner. She’d haunt this place forever, adding one more layer of terror to the nightmare that was the Zmey’s dungeon.

And it was all her goddamned fault for being stupid enough to have come here in the first place. What was she thinking—that she’d simply convince Roksana to give her shadow back? And then what? She’d confront the Zmey?

Nonsense. She was a mediocre witch. She could never fight the Zmey. She would never get her shadow back.

She buried her face in her hands. Stupid witch, said the Zmey in her head, and she couldn’t find the energy to make him go away. Useless witch. Weak witch.

“Shut up,” she whispered. He didn’t shut up. He kept repeating the words over and over and over again. Stupid witch. Useless witch. Weak witch. Stupid witch. Useless witch. Weak witch. Stupid—

“Kosara?” said a familiar voice. Kosara ignored it. There was only space for so many voices in her head. Stupid witch. Useless witch. Weak witch.

“Hello—Kosara?” the voice insisted. “Kosara!”

Kosara finally looked up. She blinked several times to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. Perhaps she’d managed to fall asleep after all and was dreaming. Perhaps the yudas’ shrieks had already driven her mad.

“Roksana?” she said.

Roksana sat on Sokol’s back, holding tight onto her feathers. The yuda’s face was just as unreadable as always. If anything, she seemed bored.

“What are you doing here?” Kosara asked.

Roksana laughed. Her two braids blew in the wind. “What does it look like?”

Asen stirred on the floor. He opened one swollen, crusty eye. “What’s going on?”

“I’m bloody saving you, that’s what,” Roksana said. “Well, are you two lovebirds ready to go, or do you need a minute to finish wallowing in self-pity?”

Kosara hesitated. This could very well be another trap. No, this was almost certainly another trap.

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