Page 35 of Taken By the Shadow Prince

“Do youknowyour price?”

“Didn’tyouknow yours?” I counter.

She blinks at me, takes a step back. “So you do, then. Good. At least there won’t be any surprises.” She takes a step back, and the magic that secluded us from the rest of the word drops. “I hope it was worth it.”

My words are far more honest than I expect them to be. “Me, too.”

Chapter 20

Armin

the butterfly effect

Joula watches me warily.

All I’ve done so far is sip my tea.

I blow out an exasperated breath and say, “You look like you fear me.”

She raises her chin, just a little. “I fear what you might have done.”

My lips curl into a grin as I lean back in my seat. Her devoted husband is nowhere to be seen, so I suspect shewantedto have this meeting alone, despite how clear it is she doesn’t trust me. It doesn’t seem all that wise to meet with someone that you don’t trust but I suppose that’s on her. I’ve never really understood the way mortals think. “I didn’t do a thing, for the record,” I tell her simply. “I merely saw what the consequences of your actions would be and figured that such a... disastrous thing would be price enough for that bargain.”

Joula stares at me for a long moment and then nods, her face having fallen just a bit, a little increment, in the past few seconds. She says, “So it truly was our fault, then. What happened to witches?”

I nod slowly. “You mortal people call it the butterfly effect.”

Her eyes are wide as she shakes her head.

“Well?” I ask. “Do you regret it?”

She stares at me for a long moment. “I don’t think I want to answer that question.”

I shrug. “Fine, then. Didn’t realize you were such a coward, girl.”

She is so much older than she was before—but only in body. Her skin is faintly wrinkled and that curly hair of hers has been threaded through with gray in some places. But she still looks the same—perhaps due to the defiance in her eyes, the way in which she carries herself, even while sitting with a toasted biscuit before her.

“I’m no coward.”

“Then why are you hiding from the truth?” I ask her, a challenge.

“Because saying it out loud makes me the shittiest person alive. How dare Inotregret it, after all the pain and suffering it brought to so many people? All thedeaths. It was unwarranted homicide, Armin, but I can’t even say for certain that I wouldn’t make the same decision if I’dknownwhat price I was paying.

“It gave me a life with Kell—and it gave me mydaughter, even if I didn’t get to watch her grow up, if I spent a decade mourning her. She still came back. And I can’t just... I can’t regret that.”

I certainly don’t regret that bargain with her, either. Not now that I am here, with Mavey. Even so, I give her a conspiratorial grin and say, “Selfish, aren’t you, Joula?”

She shrugs her shoulders and bites into her biscuit. When she finishes chewing, she says, “I never claimed I wasn’t.”

That’s fair.

A moment of quiet passes between us before she asks, so quiet and so hesitant, “Why didn’t he ever come for me? Or... or for Ender?”

“Your darling Poe, you mean?”

“She goes by Ender. It suits her.” Joula’s eyes are hard. “Answer the question.”

I blow out a breath. “Because you bested him, Joula. You beat him at his own game, and he couldn’t handle it. Elix is... he thinks himself the best at everything there is, and yet you won when you finally went head-to-head with him. Of course, he wasn’t going to help you—or your daughter.”

---