Page 96 of A Bride for the Winter King
I close my lids. “It’s about time you two buried the hatchet…”
“You know me, E. I treat my grudges as treasure.” Devi reaches behind her and grabs an arrow from her quiver. “Here. One arrow. One night. Same as always.” She presents me with the arrow with a mock curtsy, and I swallow hard.
Ice frosts over the arrowhead as I pick it up and hold it to the light. Funny how something so small can destroy so many lives…or bring a lost soul one night of solace, in my case.
Beth’s hand curls around the boutonniere she’s still holding. “What? No… Don’t do it, Elio.”
“Why not? I do it every year.”
Beth’s jaw hangs open, shell-shocked, and Devi snickers.
“How do you think he’s survived this long? With this stupid contest coming year after year, each new wife buried by the timespring comes around? Besides, its effects only last one night. For the wedding.”
“It’s fake love,” Beth whispers, all the blood gone from her face.
I straighten my jacket, suddenly feeling a little hot. “If I’m cursed to cause my wife’s death, over and over again, I might as well offer her one great night. It’s bad enough to have an audience. I won’t ask her to suffer my indifference, too.”
Beth narrows her eyes at me before turning her ire to Devi. “If you were truly his friend, you’d stop carving forbidden arrows and help us figure out how to break his curse.”
“Many curses were wrung the day Iris died. Not one of them has been unraveled to this day. But you weren’t there, were you, moth? You were too busy wallowing in your self-imposed exile to show up to Iris’s birthday?—”
Beth points her index finger at her nemesis. “There’s nothing I could have done to change what happened. I still can’t believe Iris…” she shoots me a sideways glance.
I huff in frustration. “Say it.”
She always tiptoes around my feelings like I don’t remember what happened that day. Like I don’t see it play out in heart-breaking detail every night before I go to sleep and wake up with the same gaping hole in my chest every morning.
“I still can’t believe she jumped out the window. No matter how nasty things got back at the academy… I never meant her ill will. You loved her, and that was enough for me to believe she’d changed.”
Devi and I exchange a glance. Beth doesn’t know what really transpired between Iris and me, but what good would it do to set the record straight now?
“Did you hear? Aidan just got engaged,” Devi rasps.
My eyes bulge, and I pinch Devi’s arm as hard as I can, furious that she would bring this up now. “Shush!”
Beth’s face turns from white to a sickly sheen of green, and the spark in her eyes dims, her gaze flying to the cracks in the stone floor. “I’ll leave you two to do your thing. I can’t stand by and watch you harm yourself like this. I’ll see you later, Elio.”
The tension in Devi’s shoulders eases. “She’d forgive you if she knew the truth, you know. You shouldn’t let the past gnaw at you anymore.”
I grip the jug on the table and chug down what’s left of the cider. “Iris died, Ezra too, and I condemned an endless string of innocent women to cold, untimely deaths. I’m beyond anyone’s forgiveness.”
Devi purses her lips, deep in thought, before she says, “Ezra isn’t dead…exactly.”
I prowl forward, a fresh rush of adrenaline rising in my blood, making my cold heart stir. “Do you know what happened to him? If you’ve been covering for that fucker?—”
“Settle down. He got what he deserved.”
I curse myself for the cider I’d consumed, my mind too foggy to navigate this conversation. “Do you know where he is?”
Devi unhooks the clasp of her golden bow and pinches the string, tracing the entire length of it with a faraway look. “The only thing you need to know is that you didn’t kill him, so you can wipe that clean from your conscience.” A sigh heaves her chest, but she shakes the emotions off her face until only the smirk of the ruthless archer remains. “Now, strip. I don’t want to miss.”
A smile tugs at my lips. “Since when is the great Devi Eros scared to miss a shot?”
“Humor me.”
I should ask for answers about Ezra, but I toss off my shirt and spread my arms instead, desperate for Devi to shoot the misery out of me. “Do your worst, devil of Spring.”
She draws her bow, the string stretching with a lowcreak, but Sara bursts into the room with a frantic, “Wait!”
