Page 26 of Spells of Shadow and Blood

There in the crowd among the revelry was Annelise. Her scream had split the air when she had seen my blade cut through Osiris. I moved quickly, Annikin on my heels. The crowd parted for me as I jumped down the hill of rubble, descending upon her.

Annelise was on all fours, crawling away from me.

I reached her and placed my blood soiled boot against her back, pressing her into the dirt.

“Face me,” I sneered, allowing only for her to turn over.

She turned toward me—the end of my black onyx sword lowered toward her. I used the point of the sword to turn her chin up, forcing her gaze toward mine. The blade split her chin, blood running down her neck to escape beneath her armor.

“Annelise Kotova, you are hereby sentenced to death for the crime of being a Stormshade,” I spat.

Once she was gone, the Kotova grimoirehadto choose me. It couldn’t choose ababy.

“Do you have any last words?”

Annelise took a deep breath and closed her eyes before me, pressing them shut. A long moment passed, but no words cameforth. When Annelise opened her eyes once more, her gaze was tortured. Sad.

“Fine, have it your way,” I hissed.

I raised the black sword above my head with both hands, ready to bring it down.

Right before I swung, right before I plunged it into her empty, selfish heart, a memory flashed before my vision.

It was me…as a young girl. My hair was swinging behind me as I pumped my feet faster and faster on the swing at the old cottage. Underneath the old willow tree. It was the last time I had been happy—the last time we had been a family.

Annelise’s answering smile was sad. Was she thinking of the same memory?

Cirilla had come that same day to tell Annelise that King Osiris would fall into darkness. That Alastir had seen it. Had there been more to that prophecy? Had they seen darkness consume me, knowing there was no hope of stopping what the mother had already set into motion? Was that why she had kept her distance from me?

When I plunged the sword down, it hit the dirt with a reverberating clash.

Annelise looked up at me with surprise. Her lips parted, shock masking her expression.

“Donika?”

It had been so long since I had heard her say my name. It stirred something deep, deep within me. I shook my head, trying to dislodge the foothold the sound grasped within me.

I needed to focus.

“You are hereby banished from this realm by the queen of Istmere. If I ever see you here again, mark my words, I will not be so gracious a second time.”

I spit into the dirt next to her, but her gaze remained fixed on me.

When she didn’t move, I spurned her on. “I will not give you a second chance, Annelise. Leave. NOW.”

After a long, drawn moment, she scrambled to her feet, her sword in hand. Her gaze held mine for one more moment, her eyes crinkled at the corner.

What did she see when she looked at me? Did she see the youngest queen Istmere had ever seen? Or did she see a daughter that she had failed, a daughter she had turned her back on?

A daughter she left behind.

I would never find out what it was she was going to say when her lips had parted. She pressed them back together, her jaw set, turning away from me. Her strawberry blonde hair billowed behind her on the breeze, bringing with it the scent of battle and ash.

The scent of victory.

I watched her walk away, waiting until her lithe form disappeared from sight, before turning back toward the cheering crowd. They raised me up, their swords lifted into the air.

“Long live the queen!”

---