Page 85 of No Greater Sorrow

The answer surprised Aleja. If her hands weren’t bound, she would have raised them in frustration. “What if youcan’t?”

“Let me worry about that. I merely need you to kill Second before he takes advantage of the First’s absence and attempts a power grab.”

“Why would I?—”

“Because you’ll want revenge for what he does to Nicolas to punish him.”

Aleja fell silent, not wanting to give the Messenger more ammunition.

“You don’t have to say anything. Just let me speak,” the Messenger went on. “We capture the Third. Only he has the power to do it. And once the First and the Second are dead, we’ll be truly free—both the Otherlanders and the Astraelis. After that, we can decide whatever the hell we want to do to each other, but it won’t be under the thumb of anygod.”

“Killing them will have consequences. The Hiding Place is tied to the Second’s magic, as your realm must be to the First’s. How can I know you’re not leading us on a suicide mission?”

The Messenger touched her stomach again. “Because I’m as selfish as you are, and you know it.”

“This is… you’re insane,” Aleja finally said.

“No, I’m not. I’m seeing more clearly than anyone else in this forsaken war. What do you expect us todo, Aleja? Even if we don’t all die—which we will—the alternative is to squabble between ourselves until one side eventually wipes out the other.”

“That’s not the only alternative. Your kind could leave us be.”

“None of that matters, can’t you see? We have mere centuries before we must make a choice: work together or perish.”

“Why me?” Aleja said. For a moment, she forgot she was bound; when she shifted in her chair, the chains dug painfully into her skin.

“You’re obsessive when it comes to those you love. Once you realize what is going to happen to everyone you care about if we don’t stop the First from destroying our worlds, you will help me.”

“Maybe so. But there is one death that would make be very happy, and that is yours, Messenger.”

There was a rustle outside—it wasn’t accompanied by shouts, but the Messenger’s attention snapped to the curtain all the same. When her gaze returned to Aleja, she wore a deep frown. “I never expected to have the time to explain it all now, nor for you to believe me right away. But trust me on this: there will come a time when the Second does something to make you remember this conversation. There will come a time when you’ll beg me to help you, and not the other way around. Because believe me, Aleja… I am begging for your help now.”

“You think just because you’re pregnant, I’ll take pity on you?” Aleja said, as if she wasn’t the one in chains.

“No. I don’t want your pity; I want yourhelp. And you will give it to me, Wrath.”

This time, the commotion outside was impossible to ignore. The Messenger’s voice was hushed when she spoke again. “I’ll do what I can to learn more, and by the time you come to me, I’ll have figured out a way to save us both. We can resume trying to kill each other once the deed is done.”

The Aleja of the present could tell the memory was ending. She could no longer feel the pain of her broken body, but outside the makeshift chamber, someone screamed. Nicolas was there. Doing the deed that had changed the course of both their lives.

She fought against the pull tugging her back to the forest where Garm watched over her body. Alejahadto learn more. Her past self had found this memory so important that she’d sliced off her finger to make an Unholy Relic before facing her punishment from the Second.

The Messenger had let her live and sent her fellows away so that Nicolas would find little resistance when he came to rescue Aleja.Why? she wanted to scream. Was it possible that the Messenger was telling the truth?

The bones seemed so mundane now, despite the twist of wire binding them. It was a crude decoration. She pictured her old self spinning the thin gold strands around them, while her missing finger bled profusely.

“Aleja?” Garm asked, but she kept her eyes closed, needing a moment to mourn the women she’d been.

“I’m okay,” she finally muttered, wiping her brow before reaching for the bones and placing them back in the box.

“What did you see?” he asked.

“A nice memory of Nic and myself. I guess she wanted to preserve it somehow,” she lied.

Garm’s head slumped, as it always did when she mentioned Nicolas lately. His breath turned to stream, hard to see amidst the late-morning fog.

“We should get back,” she muttered. Leaves stuck to her clothes as she rose and slipped the box back into her pocket. Even though its secrets had been revealed, it didn’t feel right to toss it into the woods for the scavengers to find.

Aleja thought as she walked, a more difficult task here, where roots bulged from the soil to trip her if she let her eyes stray from the ground. Silmiya waited for her at the edge of the field. The camp was mostly empty now, aside from a few collapsed tents that couldn’t be salvaged—their poles jutting from the mud as if reaching for help. A few yards away, the two small librarians hauled a cart piled high with books across the rough ground. The one in the red cowl oversaw the task, making sure the stack didn’t fall over every time the cart wobbled.

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