Page 45 of Ruthless Ends

“A nudge?”

She flicks her wrist again. “You can go see for yourself. It’ll be in his mind, even if he cannot remember.”

“Did you know then? That all of this would happen?”

“Don’t be dense, child, of course not. Even seers have their limits. The future is always changing, and if we don’t know the right questions to ask, we can’t find the right answers.”

“But you knew I’d come here today.”

She nods even though it clearly wasn’t a question.

“Do you know how this situation with Westcott turns out? Have you even tried to look? Tohelp?” I glance at her arm, searching for the mark of the blood deal I saw last time, but it’s covered by her shirt. “Or wouldthatstop you?”

She very calmly rolls up her sleeve, then the other.

Both arms are entirely bare.

She says nothing as the gears spin furiously in my mind. I know what I saw. Iknowit was there. Which means she must have completed whatever her part had been. That, or she’d passed the deal to someone else.

“Was it with him?” My voice is a small, desperate thing as a horrible possibility burrows itself into the back of my mind.

How easily I’ve trusted her, freely given her information. How easily I’ve believed every word she’s said.

Before, I was desperate. She gave me a spark of hope in an endless sea of death, and I latched on to it without question.

She holds my stare and interlaces her hands on top of the table. “Your father and I struck a deal many years ago. My freedom from his psychosis in exchange for a favor. One he did not come to collect until recently.”

I lean back in my chair, putting more distance between us as if already knowing what she’ll say next.

For the first time, the coldness in her expression cracks, and I can’t quite name the emotion that flits across her eyes. Regret? Remorse?

“I was given no explanation. Only a directive. To create a hole in the security of York Academy during the week of the Marionettes initiation.”

“The attacks on campus,” I whisper. “The wendigos who attackedme.” I shove away from the table, hot, angry tears rising to the back of my throat. “It wasyou.”

Her eyebrows dig in, but she doesn’t deny it. “I only created a gap in the protection spells. I knew not his intentions—”

“But you did it anyway! Peoplediedin those attacks—”

Ryan, the human who worked in the library, there was barely anything of him left. I can picture the broken pieces of his body lying by the lake just days after I asked him for help. All this time, I’d thought he died because ofme.And Daniel…he almost…he could have…

She slams her hands against the table and rises to her feet. “And when your father came calling at your darkest moment, how long did you hesitate before blindly agreeing toyourdeal, Valerie Darkmore? You may think the worst of me. And if you do not wish to accept my help now, you may go. Or you can allow me to atone for the hand I’ve played.” She slumps into her chair with a sigh as if exhausted now.

I don’t return to mine, but I also make no move for the door. “But you had the mark when I came to see you about the psychosis. That was weeks later.”

“I was also not to intervene once his plans were in motion until he’d completed his objective.”

“His objective being taking me.”

She nods.

I pace around the small space, shaking my head. “But you gave me the herbs. How did you know that wouldn’t go against your deal?”

“I didn’t.”

I freeze.

“I didn’t,” she repeats quietly. “But I found I could not send you away.” Whatever that crinkle in her forehead means, I think it’s the most emotion I’m going to get from her. She fiddles with the tea set, resituating each piece even though there was nothing wrong with it.

---