Page 16 of Oracle of Ruin

I know this should not be my first question, but I cannot help the gnawing jealousy in my gut. “Who broke off your engagement?”

“I did.” Mavis smiles into her cup. “I stabbed him in the thigh and stole over half of his underlings as my own, then took the territory that was mine by birthright. I wanted full control of the Nightwalkers, but his inner circle—I think you’ve met them now—fought for him. They were the ones I was after. The gunslinger, the assassin, the mechanic. Each of them the best at what they do, I wanted them on my side. You can thank me for meeting Rowan that night, by the way. I’d been dropping false clues on where I was for months, and him being so hellbent on revenge, he fell right for it.”

Kya was stabbed that night, I remember, all because Rowan was following her trail. I was cut and poisoned. I met Aiko and Finneas, too, that night, two people I haven’t seen since my birthday. My stomach drops and I set the cup down with a clatter.

Mavis sips daintily. None of her lip stain transfers to the pristine cup. “How are they, by the way? I do miss them. Amír is the one who taught me how to shoot, and Kya taught me that fun party trick with the shadows. It does make the entrance more dramatic.” Mavis throws her hand up with a flourish. “Derrín would run all his inventions by me, and oh! Emilie. Emilie was the mother I never got to have. I miss her the most.”

I can feel my face growing hot as I stare into my lap. Mavis is only trying to get a reaction, I know this, but it is so easy to see her fitting in with them in all the ways I don’t belong.

“I can see why they replaced me with you. You are everything they wished I was, and everything I am, too, but I’m guessing they try to ignore those parts.”

The stool I sit on falls backwards with a heavy thud as I stand. Mavis crosses her ankles daintily. She looks so at ease sipping from a teacup despite being dressed in fighting leathers and undoubtedly armed to the teeth. I suppose that is what gives her comfort.

“What games are you playing?”

“I’m not playing any game.”

I open my mouth to protest, but Mavis lifts a finger, effectively silencing me.

“As a show of good faith, allow me to answer your questions.” The woman moves quicker than I’ve seen any other before. Quicker than everyone except one person—the person who taught her such stealth. Mavis’s cape billows a midnight tide in her wake. It doesn’t suit her as well as the red one did. She clasps her hands together before her and brings her face close to mine. “Why am I here? Because I want you to be.Oh, but Mavis that isn’t an answer.Well, if you insist upon knowing, it is because I need you.Need me for what?To save us.How?” The woman pauses her charade and taps my nose fondly. “By teaching you dark magic.”

My blood runs cold.We need you. Save us.Words that ring all too clear in my mind more often than I’d like to recall. Broken things torn from the throats of children who watched their parents be slaughtered in the night. Fathers who lost their children. Women who lost their lovers. Their homes. Their lives.

Dark magic is the cause of their suffering. The one I called Father is the guilty party behind all of this. I won’t play into his hand and condemn my soul as well.

“No.”

“Aw, cute that you think you have a choice. Your lessons start tomorrow.”

I scoff. “Gods, you just like to hear yourself talk, don’t you? I said no.” I take a step back towards the door, feeling her piercing stare gutting through my spine. I ignore the foreboding feeling and close my fingers around the door handle. I swallow a whine of frustration when it refuses to open, then shriek when slithering dark flames begin to wrap around my arms, all the way to the base of my throat.

Mavis stands, her hands by her side and hips swaying. The steel toes of her boots clink against the floor, echoing in the barely furnished cavern. She pauses only a pace away. The powerful force intensifies, suppressing my senses and blurring my vision.

I fight the urge to fall to my knees as my legs begin to shake. “Why are you doing this?” I cry out, the tendrils of darkness flickering before my exposed flesh, though none dare to touch me.

Mavis watches curiously, her two-toned gaze cast heavily upon my face. “Because,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper, “when I cut you, he bleeds.”

The skeins of darkness rescind and slither towards the shadows where their master beckons. She watches my chest rise and fall rapidly, then flicks her wrist as if to say,run along now. Like I am but a child.

“As far as I am concerned,” Mavis leaves me with a final warning, “you are the queen of this land. Learn to act like it.”

The door squeaks, but opens this time when my hand closes around the handle. I turn back around briefly to see that Mavis sits with her legs crossed on that small stool, sipping from her cup. She smiles over the rim, her lips curling in a serpentine manner. I rush through, then close the door abruptly and press my back to the wall, tears pricking the corners of my eyes.

When I cut you, he bleeds.

Blaine told me when you find a Krycolian Viper, you shouldn’t engage or turn your back. Your best chance at leaving alive is to either avoid or immobilize them. Don’t let them cut or bite you. If you turn your back, they’ll rip your throat out with their fangs.

I lace my fingers around my throat, feeling my pulse.

“What do I do if they attack first?” I asked him. “How do you survive?”

He pulled a flower from its roots then, and snapped the head from the stem.

“Bite first.”

Chapter9

Rowan

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