Page 156 of The Thirteenth Child
“Forhim,” she reminded me. “Everything would have worked if I’d not brought you to court.”
“Why did you?” I asked, curious. “You were poised for everything to go the way you wanted. Baudouin was stirring unrest, the Shivers was everywhere. Why tell the court you saw me in a vision?”
“She got greedy,” Calamité supplied with a weary tone. “She couldn’t execute her plans without wanting to bring you down as well.” He rolled his eye. “I warned her it was a terrible idea, but some people just never listen.”
“I didn’t think therewasa cure for the Shivers,” Margaux said flatly. “I thought you would come and everything would still be terrible and the king would either sentence you to death or you’d get sick or—”
“This is exactly why you’re in this mess right now,” Calamité sang, and I wondered briefly if these confrontations were feeding him too, nourishing his hunger for chaos. “You used what should have been my crowning moment for your silly personal vendettas. You ruined—”
“I thought it would work!” Margaux snapped. “I had no idea she’d go and use one of her candles to save the king.”
“Candles, what candles?” Leopold demanded.
Margaux blinked in surprise. “She never told you?” She glanced at me and the gleam in her eye turned cunning. “What other secrets have you been keeping from him, Hazel?”
“Don’t—” I began, but she went right on, talking over me.
“Her god adored her so much he gave her three lives instead of one. Three candles meant to burn so very, very, terribly long. If anything should ever come of your disastrous little dalliance, she’ll outlive you by nearly two centuries, I’d guess. Well, she would have.” Shetsked. “But she’s only got one spare left now.”
To his credit, Leopold didn’t question the logic or the logistics of it. He simply believed.
“You gave up a life for Papa?” he asked, his blue eyes falling on me. “One of your own lives?”
His expression looked wondrous even as his words were tinged with horror, and I felt a flush of shame. He didn’t know about my gift, my curse. He didn’t know about the people I’d seen marked by skulls, the things I’d had to do to them. The things I was meant to do to his father, to Euphemia.
“It was the only way to save him,” I said simply. It was the truth, even if it felt like half a lie. Hot tears pricked at my eyes. “His Brilliance was already darkening and I didn’t have a cure yet, and I didn’t want Euphemia to…”
Euphemia.
She was still lying there, soaking her bedsheets bronze with every twitch of her muscles, seized by an uneasy sleep and completely oblivious to everything happening around her, every dark deed that had been brought to light, every confession uttered.
I glanced at Margaux, putting the final piece of her twisted puzzle into place.
“You made Euphemia sick so I would use my last candle to save her, didn’t you?”
The accusation landed in the room like a cannonball.
Margaux, suddenly wide-eyed and fearful, raised her hands in denial, shaking her head as she stumbled backward, darting behind an end table, a chair, anything that would put distance between her and the prince.
Leopold’s cheeks flamed, hot spots of red burning across his face. He lunged at Margaux, but Calamité grabbed him first, and the pair crashed to the floor as the god struggled to restrain him.
“I will end you!” Leopold shouted, twisting to free himself. I’d never seen him fight like this, scrapping and wrestling, muscles straining as he sought to shove Calamité aside. This was not the languid prince of old but the battle-tested soldier.
Margaux, now cowering in the curtains of Euphemia’s bed, kept shaking her head, denying everything. “I didn’t. I swear to you. Not on purpose. It was so hot this morning at the execution. She was so thirsty and must have found the flask in my satchel. Leopold was supposed to drink it. I wanted him to get sick so that you’d waste your last candle on him. But Euphemia drank it instead. I never would have given that to her. Not Euphemia. I’ll swear that on mylife.”
“Your life means nothing,” I pointed out. “Your word is nothing.Everything you’ve said has been a lie. Why should we believe you now?”
I rounded the corner of Euphemia’s bed. If Leopold couldn’t get to her, I would in his place. But a hand, fingers elongated and strong, shot out, stopping me. It grabbed my ankle and sent me stumbling.
“I’ve heard enough.”
Félicité’s voice boomed loudly through the chamber, startling us all.
On the other side of Calamité, the goddess had awakened. The Divided Ones’ mouth opened wide as she stretched her muscles, wresting herself from whatever trance Calamité had kept her in. She flexed her hands, her fingers looking like the legs of a spider as she took back control, pushing their shared body up from the floor. Their spine rippled in a series of cracks as she straightened.
Calamité sighed, looking miserably put out. “Well, there goes that fun.”
“Fun,” Félicité echoed, rubbing her cheek. “You found yourself a thirteenth child of your own, Brother?”
