The veins flashed again. This time, the black twined over her flesh like a living creature, slithering its way to her lips and eyes to turn them jet black. Even her Titian hair and the sclera of her eyes turned.
Mara wasn’t sure what stunned her most about that. The fact that her sister was that far gone and she’d missed it, or the fact that Vine could be so beautiful even while disease-ridden.
Unaware of her physical transformation, Vine glared at her. “What lies has he told you about me that you believe?”
Mara wanted to laugh at the thought of Duel gossiping about anyone, but Vine was being serious. Dead serious.
The Wintering had taken the deepest root imaginable. Was any part of this rotted creature the sister she’d once known? “What happened to you?”
“What happened to me?” She laughed bitterly. “I was locked in a hole for hundreds of years! You … you”—she stabbed Mara in the chest with a long black fingernail—“my husband coddled and sent into a sleeping trance to protect. Meanwhile, he made sure I was to be tortured! Held so that I couldn’t escape!”
“You murdered him, Vine.”
She sneered at Mara. “Have you any idea what he had planned?”
“Nay.”
“He was going to hand us over to our enemies.”
Mara froze at the mere thought. Surely Duel would never have done such a thing.…
“Pardon?”
“Aye. He wanted to put down his sword and start a family! Can you imagine? Dón-Dueli of the Dumnonii … the Dark One … the World-King wanted peace.” She spat the word to make it sound like the worst sort of insult.
Wincing, Mara hated herself for ever doubting Duel. “We are Deruvian Vanir. ’Tis what we dream of. You should have encouraged it.”
“As I did my first husband? A true Deruvian!” Her sneer lengthened, contorting her face into that of a hideous crone. “Let me tell you what such peace brought my first husband, child. A grave! And it’s what would have become of us all!” She grabbed Mara’s hand. “Now give me what I need to bury him, once and for all, or I’ll make sure you die in a way you won’t come back from!”
Mara sucked her breath in sharply at the threat. She wanted to deny that this was her sister. But as those words rang in her ears, others followed.
Duel was right. Vine had never loved him. She’d never really been capable of love. Even when they were children, her sister had been petty. Mara had overlooked Vine’s faults, especially after so many of their family had been slaughtered and burned. Their charred ashes scattered to the winds so that they couldn’t regenerate.
She’d convinced herself that Duel and his kind were the real evil in the world.
But evil didn’t pick and choose who to corrupt. It took root like an insidious weed that sought to destroy whatever garden it could find succor in, no matter who, what, or where that garden originated from. Evil was never picky about its host. That was why it was so important to rip it out and toss it off before it could spread and rot the garden from the inside out.
Take over and destroy the beauty that made the garden whole and healthy.
Tears choked her. Mayhap had she seen it sooner, she could have saved her sister. Too late now. Vine didn’t want to be saved. Unlike Duel, Vine didn’t fight against the darkness or even try to tamp it down.
Rather, she reveled in it.
And Mara refused to sit back and watch Duel go down for such a worthless trifle as Vine. To see him die again while he fought so hard for others. Fought so hard against the evil that wanted him. She might not have seen the truth of him in Tintagel, but she saw him now.
More than that, he was hers, and the one thing about Deruvians … they protected their own from any threat.
Perhaps there’s a little Aesir in me, after all.
She was not going to protect herself or her sister. Not anymore. And not when she had someone else who now meant more to her.
Summoning her own armor, she faced a startled Vine.
“What is this?” Vine asked incredulously.
“Me choosing to oppose you and your desires. I will give you nothing, except my contempt and disdain for your behavior. Shame on you, sister. Shame on you!”
Vine arched a black brow. “You do this and I’ll never separate your life force from Duel’s.”
“Good. It will save me the trouble of having to bind it again later.”
Shrieking, Vine summoned her own armor. While Mara had chosen a light blue, silver, and white for hers, Vine’s was a startling green that glowed with its unnatural power. The aura around it hummed and shimmered like a living, breathing membrane to protect her.
But nothing was going to stop Mara from keeping Duel safe. Not today.
Regretting her decision not to accept Duel’s offer to teach her swordplay when she’d had the chance, she summoned the only weapon she’d ever used.
Wind and Fire wheels. Though she was a bit out of practice with them, they were the weapons her people were known for. Two half circles very similar to a chakram, they had curved spikes protruding from the blades that were made to look like sunrays or fire. And they cut through flesh, both human and demon, as easily as they cut through the wind.
Vine’s eyes widened. “You truly plan to fight me?”
“To keep Duel safe? Indeed.”
“What happened to you, big sister, that you’d dare choose an Aesir over family?”
“He’s been more family to me than you ever were.”
That caused Vine to attack, full force. With an ear-splitting scream, she manifested her spear and went for Mara’s throat.
Mara caught the tip against the edge of her right-hand wheel and twisted so that the protruding spike would lock to the blade. It seemed like a good idea until Vine twisted her weapon and almost wrenched Mara’s arm out of its socket.
Crying out, Mara struggled to remain standing. She couldn’t let her sister kill her in this fight. If she did, Duel would die, too.
Vine gave a cruel, sinister laugh. “Nay, he will not,” she said as if she’d heard Mara’s thoughts. She jerked Mara closer with her spear so that she could whisper in her ear. “News to you, big sister … I killed the bastard the day I realized he loved you so much that he sold his soul to give you your freedom so that you could live without him. He was going to tell you when I sliced his throat and then cut out his treacherous heart! That was why you lived on after he died. Why I put you into a sleeping spell.”
“You’re lying!” Distracted by the thought, Mara turned to look out at Duel.
The moment she did, Vine stabbed her through her stomach.
Crying out in pain, she tried to hold her breath to keep the vicious, biting agony at bay. But it was no use. Every heartbeat drove more pain through her. Worse, Vine kept her upright and on her feet by holding on to the spear. “Half of it was a lie, dearest. I would tell you to figure out which, but you won’t live long enough for that.”
Vine pinned Mara to the ground with her spear, then called for Strixa to join her. She flew in as an owl, then transformed into her human body.