Page 1 of Her Cruel Redemption

Chapter One

‘Someone needs to talk to her.’

‘I do talk to her. We all talk to her.’

‘Not like that. I mean someone needs to talk to her the way you talk to me. Greeting her and making a few comments about the weather isn’t talking to her.’

‘Elder Meira talked to her.’

‘And look how well that went.’

‘Mae talks to her.’

‘They don’t talk. They throw knives. I thinkyouneed to talk to her.’

‘You know why I don’t want to talk to her.’

‘Please, Elias.’

Elias sighed heavily, shaking his head at the ground, shafts of sunlight catching on the bronze of his hair. The trees around us were full of bright pink flowers, and they turned their faces towards him, beaming in welcome. The sight made my throat dry with longing. I wished the trees would react that way to me. I wished I was embraced by the Living Valley the way the Yoxvese were, but without magic, the trees were still in my presence, the plants indifferent. I swallowed that ungrateful thought down again. I was still in the middle of the maelstrom Rhiandra’s magic had caused. I shouldn’t want that for myself.

‘You know I can’t do what she wants,’ Elias said, glancing up the path to where a slick of shimmering water was just visible. ‘And you know how well she reacts to being denied.’

‘I wouldn’t ask you to go against what the Elders have decided,’ I said quickly, not wanting him to think me ungrateful. ‘But I think, maybe if you just explained why they’ve made the decision, it would help.’

‘It has been explained to her already.’

‘But not by you.’ I smiled, touched his hand. ‘Remember how gentle you were with me when you found me, when I was sick? She needs that gentleness now.’

‘Gwin, she is thereasonyou were sick and lost.’ The words were tight and loud with frustration as they burst out of him. He pressed a palm against his forehead and closed his eyes, sighing again as my heart sank. I hated upsetting him. When he took his hand away from his face, the mildness was gone from his expression. His jaw was set, his eyes flinty in a way I didn’t usually see them. ‘I watched you die after she gave you that apple.’

‘But she—’

‘Youdied.’ He raised his voice to cut over me. The way he was looking at me made a little voice hiss away in the back of my mind, a voice that sounded like a chorus of voices twisted together, like the nurse from my childhood and my cousin and my father.Stupid girl. I had brought Rhiandra to the Living Valley after our flight from Lee Helse, but the fact that she had been gifted magic by Baba Yaga had pitted her against the Yoxvese immediately, and Elias in particular.

He seemed to realise I was shrinking because he softened his tone and took my hand. ‘We had a funeral for you. I don’t care what she told you about why she did it, or what she did for you when you went back to the palace. If it weren’t for her, you would never have been in that kind of danger in the first place. I don’t like her, I don’t want to help her, and I don’t trust her.’

I stared at the ground, letting his words beat at me, but when he was finished I straightened and looked him in the eye. ‘But you trust me.’

‘Of course,’ he said immediately, squeezing my fingers.

‘Then I need you to trust my judgement.’

The lines between his brows deepened as he searched my face for a moment, then he shook his head and released my hand. ‘And they sayI’mdrawn to lost causes,’ he muttered. ‘Alright. I’ll talk to her. But for your sake, not hers.’

‘Thank you,’ I replied, relieved despite his reluctance. Rhiandra was becoming a point of tension between us, between all of my friends among the Yoxvese. But they didn’t understand her, and they didn’t understand the world we came from. They were tucked away in their valley and hardly ever went beyond it. Sometimes, news filtered through the mountains and into the Living Valley. Sometimes, those whispers turned my stomach. I pushed that thought aside.

Elias was watching me closely, and the gentle, almost imperceptible brush of magic touched the skin of my arms and shoulders as he read my emotions. ‘I’m alright,’ I said before he could ask.

‘That last piece of news has unsettled you,’ he observed gently, and I dropped my gaze to the ground, immediately full of shame.

‘I should be helping them,’ I said quietly. The previous day, a few Lepidra had drifted into the Living Valley. They were beautiful creatures with translucent wings that constantly flickered at their backs and curling, furred antenna. Elias had taken me to meet them when they’d arrived, knowing how I’d like to see them, though they’d been very shy and had hidden when we got too close. They weren’t verbal, but they communicated mentally with a select few of the Yoxvese who’d earned their trust over the years. They’d relayed stories they’d collected in their travels, stories of humans fleeing from the low lands into the foothills of the Yawn, of soldiers chasing after them, stories of fighting and death and hunger spreading across the land.

Elias said nothing; there were no words that could comfort me. All he could do was touch my arm in that way he had of letting me know he understood, because that was all he could do. I was a princess who had abandoned her kingdom, heir to a fractured throne, and the people I couldn’t help but feel responsible for were suffering while I hid here in the Yawn.

He lifted my chin with his fingers, drawing my eyes from the ground. ‘If there was anything you could do, you would do it,’ he said firmly. ‘This fate isn’t yours to own.’ Again, his eyes flickered up the path, and I knew what he was thinking. Thatsheought to own it. He just didn’t understand.

‘Maybe part of the reason she wants to master the magic so badly is to try to atone for her part in it,’ I said, to which Elias merely frowned. ‘Let’s talk to her,’ I pressed, before he could change his mind.

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