The Invasion of the Tearling

Kelsea said nothing.

“There are many things the Red Queen would like to change in her own history. She believes your jewels would allow her to do so, to wipe away the past that makes her weak. She wants them very badly.”

So Thorne had told the truth about that as well. For a moment Kelsea pictured the bleeding man, writhing in agony at her feet … then she thrust the image away. “How would someone else make use of that past, though? Surely anyone she might fear from childhood is dead now.”

“Not necessarily, Tear heir. She fears me. But even more, she fears you.”

“Me?”

“Oh, yes. She may not admit it, even to herself, but she fears you, and fear is a monstrous weakness that an industrious woman like yourself might use. The Red Queen has many defenses, but if you find the child, you find the vulnerability.” Finn splayed his hands. “Have I fulfilled my end of the bargain?”

“I’m not sure. What if you’ve lied?”

Finn chuckled bitterly, his handsome face twisting. “Believe me, I learned a long time ago not to play at truth with your family. The lesson came at a bitter cost.”

“All right.”

“Your end of the bargain, Tear heir.”

“What do I do?”

“Let me see your sapphires.”

Kelsea held them out, but he recoiled. “No closer. I can’t touch them.”

“Why not?”

“Punishment, Tear heir. The worst punishment imaginable.”

The worst punishment imaginable. Someone else had used those exact words with Kelsea, not long ago. The Fetch, of course, standing in almost the exact spot where Row Finn was standing now.

“Take both sapphires in your hand—”

“Wait a minute,” she interrupted. “You said you had done my family a wrong. The Raleighs. What wrong?”

He smiled. “The Raleighs, the grasping Raleighs … you may have their blood, but you’re no Raleigh. You’re a Tear.”

“The Tears were slaughtered. None survived.”

“Are you so dense, child? Look in the mirror!”

Kelsea turned and looked. From old habit, she expected to see a girl there, but instead she found a woman, tall and lovely, her expression grave, her face prematurely lined with sorrow.

Lily.

For a moment, Kelsea thought it must be a trick, some illusion concocted by Finn to sway her. She raised her hand, watched her reflection do the same. She might have been Lily herself, standing in front of the floor-length mirror that stood in the front hallway of the New Canaan house. Only Kelsea’s eyes were still her own, deep green rather than Lily’s cool blue.

“Was my mother one of the Tear line, somehow?”

“Elyssa?” Finn giggled, a sound that chilled Kelsea.

“Do you know who my father was?”

“I do.”

“Who?”

He shook his head, and in his eyes, Kelsea saw the most alarming thing she had seen during this entire nightmare evening: a thin vein of pity. “Believe me, Tear heir, you don’t want to know.”

Mace had said the same thing, but Kelsea pressed onward. “Of course I do.”

“Too bad. That isn’t part of the bargain.” Finn gestured toward the sapphires. “Keep your end, Tear heir.”

She clasped both sapphires in her right hand. So bad that she wouldn’t want to know … which of the rogue’s gallery in her mother’s generation could it be?

“I forgive you, Rowland Finn,” he prompted.

Kelsea closed her eyes. Her mother’s face swam up before her, but Kelsea ignored it and spoke clearly. “I forgive you, Rowland Finn.”

IN THE DARK of her tent, less than five miles away, the Queen of Mortmesne woke screaming.

FINN SMILED WIDE, showing bright, sharp teeth. “Do not even consider revoking your forgiveness, Tear heir. You gave it on your sapphires, and oathbreakers are punished, badly.”

“Ah.” Kelsea sat back, staring at him. “I see. What was your punishment, then? Different, I’d imagine, from that of the Fetch.”

Finn stared at her for a moment, then shrugged. “I am going to pay you a great compliment, Tear heir. Always, I come to the women with this.” He circled his perfect face with one hand. “It pleases them, and flatters them, and muddles their thinking. But you’re too clever to be distracted, and you’re too honest to be flattered.”

Kelsea wasn’t sure of that. Her pulse had elevated, as it always did when Finn was near. But if he had been fooled, then so much the better.

“You asked, so I will show you my punishment. See who I really am.”

Finn’s face began to change, the color bleeding away. His hair thinned, became a ragged patchwork on his scalp. His skin whitened, the lips reddened, the eyes grew their own dark hoods. The face was that of a clown, perhaps the joker in a deck of cards, but there was no humor in those eyes, only a killing joy that embraced everything and nothing. Kelsea nearly screamed, but she clapped her hand over her mouth at the last moment, realizing that it would only bring her entire Guard running.

“It burns,” Finn rasped. “All the time it burns.”