Page 122 of A Bolt of Magic

I need to know.

I have to help him if I can.

“Now, was that so difficult?”

I bite my tongue.

“You can relax,” she huffs, waving a dismissive hand. “The Emptyfae King is more valuable to us alive than dead. I’m going to offer him as a gift.” Her eyes gleam. “After all, this is the era of the witch, and we must position ourselves accordingly.”

“A gift? To whom?” I have to work to keep my voice steady, because even as I ask the question, I know the answer. The horrible, devastating truth that makes my world tilt on its axis.

“To Queen Snow, of course,” my mother says with the casual tone one might use to discuss the weather. “She’s always been good to her allies. By delivering one of the lost kings to her, we ensure that she’ll go easy on us when the time comes. We’ll get certain privileges and garner her favor. It’s quite brilliant, if I do say so myself.”

The words hit me like physical blows. “You’re going to hand him to her…to Snow?” I don’t know why I didn’t think of this. I was so sure she would kill him. Not this. Never this. “You’re giving him to her to be tortured and killed.”

“Oh, moons, no.” She laughs. “He’s far too useful for that. She’ll want information about his fellow kings, their plans, their hiding places. Information he’ll gladly give.”

“Never!” I shout. “He wouldn’t. Kian is no traitor. Not like you. You went back on your word!” I struggle to my feet, my legs shaking with rage and terror. “You agreed to an alliance with the lost kings.”

“Did I?” She tilts her head, looking genuinely puzzled. “No, daughter, I believe I agreed to an alliance with Kian himself. He was to act as a go-between. And that’s exactly what he’ll be, but just not in the way he expected.”

Her smile is cruel. “He’ll bridge the relationship between Queen Snow, who is a witch herself, and our coven. It’s perfect, really. Our lives are going to be so much better. I’ll be revered not only by our coven but by all the covens across the entire realm. I’ve paved the way for our people’s greatness.”

“Our downfall, you mean. She’ll use you!” I shout, desperation making my voice crack. “Just like she uses everyone she gets her claws into. That’s how Snow operates. She takes and then discards when they’re no longer useful! You’re walking into a trap! Open your eyes, Mother, please.”

But my mother waves away my concerns with irritating confidence. “Nonsense. You’re being overdramatic, as always.She rewards loyalty, and by bringing her one of the lost kings, I’m proving our loyalty beyond question.”

“How?” The question bursts from me before I can stop it. “How did you manage to turn him against me? When I left him this morning, he was—” My voice breaks. “He loved me. I know he did.”

“He also spoke of love. You’re both equally pathetic.” She rolls her eyes.

He did?

Kian said the same thing. I warm and wilt all at once.

“It was easy to split you up. If you love each other so much, it should never have been that easy.”

“How did you worm your way into his head? What did you say to him?”

“There was nothing I could have said. I’m not stupid. All I had to do was speak through someone you trust.”

“What do you mean?” I ask with growing horror.

“The old woman hasn’t been truly lucid in the longest time,” my mother explains with the same tone she might use to describe a particularly clever bit of spell work. “Her mind is almost completely gone. It was simple to use her as a puppet, to make her mouth speak my words instead of her own addled thoughts.”

Horror washes over me in cold waves. “Both times. Both conversations I had with her, that was you.”

“I let you speak with her for the first few minutes on that first day…but then I soon took over. Do you know that I thought you would see through it? I really did.” She scratches her chin, looking deep in thought. “But you didn’t. You were so desperate for some sort of connection. It was me. Did you truly think that she could suddenly become coherent just because you were in the room?” She shakes her head. “I needed to set the stage, to plant the seeds of doubt in the right places. It was simplya matter of timing things correctly so that dear Kian would overhear exactly what I wanted him to hear.”

The memory comes rushing back like a bucket of cold water. I recall my grandmother’s words about using Kian to get my magic, her strange phrasing that felt so wrong at the time. So unlike her. And Kian…Kian had been outside the door. The door that was ajar when I know I closed it. He’d heard every damning word. I didn’t get a chance to correct her because she drifted off at just the right time. It was all my mother. All her. Evil as sin. Using my poor, defenseless grandmother as her puppet.

It’s sickening.

“You made him think I was using him.” My voice is barely a whisper. “That there was never more…at least for me.”

“I made him see the truth,” she corrects. “Youwereusing him, after all. Perhaps not consciously, but you did gain considerably from your association with him. And now that the usefulness of that association has ended, it’s time to move on to more profitable arrangements. Did you truly think I would allow my only daughter to wed a fae? A fae?” she repeats like it is a curse.

“Where is he?” Panic rises in my chest like floodwater. “What have you done with him? Is he hurt? Is he—”

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