Page 27 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

“Resorting to such crude language won’t save you from the truth, Blair. Not this time, not with me. Because I know what you are, Blair Alaric.” Perenilla’s voice has fallen dangerously low. “You are a traitor, after all.”

The queen steps up to her, bringing her gaunt face as close to Blair as if she wants to kiss her through the bars. “Awww, so taciturn for once? Did you really think I didn’t know your dark little secret, Blair? You were there the night Caryan killed your aunt. You were there, in that very room, with your aunt bleeding out, and yet… yet you didn’t do anything as they butchered her. No, you ran like a coward! Now tell me what all your witches will do to Aurora and Sofya if they learn of that? Those two women who practically raised you. Tell me, what will they make of that? Once they learn what a big traitor and failure you are?”

Blair blinks a few times against the truth, against the lump in her throat and the sting of panic clutching her heart.How the hell does Perenilla know that?Everyone is dead except for Caryan, Kyrith, and Riven.

Perenilla’s thin lips tear into a cruel grin as Blair reads the answer from them. Ciellara. Sure. The elven bitch ratted her out before she kicked the bucket.

Perenilla’s washed-out eyes follow Blair’s train of thought before she says, “Yes, the last silver elf. Did you think she didn’t talkwhen I sought her out in the human world, Blair? You thought the king of Evander did you a favor when he cut her in half, and let her die with her secret. But she told me, Blair, before Regus found her. What a burden it must have been to keep this from your mothers all those years. You and the feared angel, what a story. Not even your aunt knew, did she? I wonder, did it give you a feeling of triumph over your aunt when you screwed him, Blair? Did it make you feel special? You must have been tired, being cold in her shadow day in and day out.”

Blair stays silent, too shocked to even breathe. Her words seem far away, as far away as the rest of her body.

“Huh…” Now it’s Perenilla who taps her lips a few times with her forefinger. “You know what truly interestsme, Blair?” Blair does nothing as Perenilla runs her long, sharp nail over Blair’s cheek, leaving blood in its wake before the witch sucks it off. “How did it feel when he eventually killed her so you could advance up the line? Was it a dark sort of triumph? And did you tell him to do it, too fine to make your own hands dirty?”

“You know that’s not how it was!” Blair bleats.

Now it’s Perenilla who throws her head back and laughs as if she’s heard a truly funny joke. “Oh, yes, I know, Blair. Because I know you. And you just don’t have it in you. I waited for years for you to stand up against me. To challenge me for the throne and claim your heritage, but you never have. You’ve stayed calm and quiet, performing your little, childish rebellions to anger me, but you’ve never, ever truly thought of acting against me. It is heartwarming, in some way, and touching to see how utterly wrong your aunt was for thinking she could groom you into her successor. I know you really loved him, Blair. And I know you couldn’t stop him because deep down, you hoped you’d rule together one day and have little angel-witches running around your feet. How bitter to learn that he used you and moved on, not even caring enough about you to kill you.”

Blair can’t breathe. She just can’t gulp down air. Magic alone keeps her heart beating, keeps her alive and standing, when it feelsas if the ground beneath her feet has opened up, as if, again, she’s tumbling back down and down into the hole she clawed her way out of.

“If you know, why haven’t you killed me?” Somehow, she manages to form the words. To utter them.

Perenilla looks at her with a smile that is half pitying, half evil as if she couldn’t quite decide what to feel.

Because, somehow, Blair has become pathetic enough to be pitied instead of executed.

“As Gatilla’s direct heir, you still pose a threat to me, even if you never act on it. If I had smothered you unprovoked, it would have raised tempers. So I watched you and waited, but you… you were so broken and full of self-loathing. I realized that all I had to do was lean back and watch a while longer, that Gatilla’s big heir and hope of the witches would do it all by herself—deconstruct herself, bit by bit. Because the truth about you is that you’re nothing but a dreamer, Blair. A dreamer and a failure. But the others don’t know that. To them, it will look like betrayal. Like you committed treason. They will want to see your head roll.”

Blair doesn’t know how she keeps standing. Why her body just doesn’t let out. All she wants to do is curl up on the ground and drink so many potions she will never see daylight again. Secretly, she’s been waiting for an ambush all these years. There are enough witches who remember Gatilla with Blair at her side and still bear a grudge. Women who would gladly push Blair off a cliff, make it look like an accident. She’s always wondered why Perenilla never killed her openly, squashing Gatilla’s heir in front of their eyes. Now the truth is finally out.

The queen’s face smoothens into a mask of contempt as she watches everything settle in Blair like dust after a storm. “Yes. There’s nothing more effective and shattering than seeing that the beacon you so fiercely believed in is nothing but a hollow dream. I just wonder what they will do to the women who raised you. Whether they’ll blame them. Whether their heads will roll too. What do you think?”

It is that searing hot spear of panic that pulls Blair back. That tethers her to the ground and back into her body. That makes the black, devouring hole under her feet close, flushing out her anger instead.Aurora and Sofya.

“What do you want?” Her voice comes out raspy, as if she hasn’t spoken in weeks.

Perenilla just gives her the hint of a smile. “You know what I want, Blair. I want that girl. I don’t care what you do, but bring her to me and I shall forget about your failure. About your cowardice. I shall let you and yourmothersSofya and Aurora live. A promise, given by me, here and now. Ambush him once he sets out with the girl to find the relics.”

Blair sucks in a sharp breath. The promise of a fae is an unbreakable thing. They can’t lie. There’s no way they can break a promise they’ve made without dying a cruel death. Yet an ambush… three witches against Caryan. Impossible.

She says, “This will never work. At least give me the red coven for an attack.”

Perenilla shakes her head. “No, Blair. I won’t spare any other witch for this. I can’t. There is a war coming, and there are only a few of us left anyway. This is down to you.”

“What do you expect me to do? Throw myself at him alone? You might as well kill me here.”

“Use the ties you had. Maybe he has not forgotten.”

“You can’t tell me you expect me to just waltz up to him.”

“I do, Blair.”

“And then what? Seduce him? Beg him? You don’t know him like I do.”

“I do not care what you do. But I do expect you to doeverything in your power to get me this girl. Because you want to save your mothers, after all. And now, this conversation is over.”

Blair nods slowly. She has no choice. She either brings the girl or dies trying, because there is no alternative.

“I know you have a sense of reason, Blair. Do not disappoint me again.”

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