Page 32 of The Midnight Blizzard

If she asked for anything that was absurd, I could simply say no. She didn’t have physical proof that would incriminate Jack…not that I knew of, anyway. But if it wasn’t an outrageous request, I was willing to give almost anything to keep Jack safe.

Valencia spotted me the moment I entered the room. “Noelle, darling, come sit,” she offered, patting the velvet cushion beside her with a cold smile on her heavily painted lips.

Darling?“No, thank you.”

Shetskedsoftly as she ran her gloved hand along the cushion so the fibers stood on end then were smoothed down again on her reverse pass. “So mistrusting when I’m merely trying to help you.”

“Are you now?” I asked, matching her icy tone. “And here I was thinking that you blackmailed me just yesterday.”

“No, no. I’mhelping. I care about your well-being.” Her bottom lip pouted out like she was in her teens instead of in her fifties. Even with her unusually smooth skin, she didn’t appearthatyoung. “It’s obvious that you have feelings for the prince’s advisor.” She let out a high, bell-like laugh. “Why else would you two be constantly finding excuses to sneak out together and hide in closets together?”

I locked my jaw and didn’t answer.Just spit it out!I wanted to shout. “I’m missing seeing the prince for this. What do you want from me?”

“That advisor seems to return your affections as well,”she continued. “I have a proposition that I think would benefit you both a great deal. I’d like to offer a trade.” After a moment rummaging around in her mink fur handbag, she extracted a sheaf of parchment. “If you withdraw from the competition?—”

“I won’t do anything you tell me to.”

“Let me finish,” she cooed. “Ifyou withdraw from the competition, I will provide you with your father’s will and all the documents regarding the inheritance. I’ll even go with you to the magistrate to give testimony of their validity.”

I could have heard the snow falling with how silent the room became.

“That’s it? I simply withdraw?” It sounded too good to be true. If I was given my inheritance and withdrew from the competition, I would be able to reopen the school. I would have the funding to pay the license renewal fee with a day to spare.

“That’s it. As far as I know, you don’t have any romantic feelings toward Prince Stephen, but my girls are both smitten. I think this proposition would benefit everyone, so as a show of good faith, I have a gift for you.” She fluttered the thick parchment at me and smiled graciously, but the warmth didn’t reach her eyes. “It would be such a shame if you inherited the estate without the man you want to go along with it. Just imagine if you two could be together forever.”

Slowly, I took it, not taking my eyes off Valencia until I’d backed up several steps. I skimmed through the document, and my heart gave a leap. This document was the bill Father had been working on, the one to grant full rights to mages—from legalizing marriage to non-mages to allowing them to own land and businesses. It would makeit so Jack could do anything a non-mage could. By the looks of it, there were nine of the ten necessary lord signatures, even Lord Relyn’s who had been the bill’s biggest opponent. Only my father’s was missing. There was even the wax seal from the scribe’s guild to show that it had been reviewed and approved.

“Your father’s greatest work,” Valencia sighed. “He’d been working on it for years before he passed away. He secured one of the final signatures only a week before his death, and I secured Lord Relyn’s the night of the feast. Your father didn’t sign because he intended to do so when he presented it to the king.”

I reverently touched the empty space that lacked Father’s sharp signature.

“I want it to be his legacy,” Valencia continued. “So that even after his death, his ability to help people like your friend Jack lives on. I shared Cedric’s passion, even if we showed it differently. It’s what drew me to him in the first place, and I see that same fire in you.”

Against my will, I was touched at her thoughtfulness. Had I become so blinded by hate and malice that I refused to see the good in the woman my father had married? He truly had seemed happy around her. Perhaps I had missed my own mother so much that I had blatantly rejected her attempts at friendship. Even if we’d had our spats in the past, she was extending an olive branch now. Was that enough to make up from her previous actions?

“Even so, you shut down my school and left me abandoned in the middle of a frozen forest,” I reminded her, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. “So forgive my skepticism. You’re giving me a gift to help mages, just because?”

“You were safe when you had your dog with you, and the school’s shutdown was only temporary while we sortedout the legalities like we are doing right now. You don’t need to trust me; trust your feelings for Jack. We have had some different perspectives on things in the past, so to show you that my heart is in the right place, yes, this is a gift free of any obligation if you want it. But in order for it to be legalized, we both need to sign and agree on this since there is no consensus on who is to inherit the estate yet.”

She extracted a quill and bottle of ink from the depths of her bag.

I didn’t take it. “Why are you doing this?”

She widened her eyes. “Your father always said that the way mages were mistreated was wrong. This is my way of honoring his memory. Besides, I know he would want me to help you, and you’re like a daughter to me. I want to help you. You deserve this.”

I still held myself back, eyes narrowed. My stepmother had never done anything to help anyone other than herself and her daughters.

Valencia, clearly understanding my reservations, smiled broadly. “Your father opened my eyes to so much. Magic by itself is inherently neither good nor evil. It’s what mageschooseto do with their abilities that is far more telling—just as a knife can be the best of tools or the worst of weapons. I think we ought to give mages the same rights that the rest of us enjoy, don’t you agree?

Everything about this sounded right but felt wrong. “So if we both sign this and it’s approved by the royal family, a relationship between Ja—between mages and non-mages would be legalized? And you are giving it to me, no strings attached?”

“None at all.”

“Meaning if I sign, you intend to turn this in to the king, whether or not I withdraw?”

“Correct.”

“Then you sign first,” I challenged. It would be so like Valencia to dangle something as tempting as this in front of me then snatch it back at the last moment. For all my hope that she was extending an olive branch to heal our relationship, I would be a fool to allow her any control over me or my hopes and dreams for the future. Judging by some of our interactions in the past, I wouldn’t put it past her to have me sign and then throw it into the fire once I withdrew from the competition.

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