“I missed you,” said Rasmus. “For a while.”
“You said you never wanted the throne. Together we can destroy it. You can rule at my side, at my right hand.”
“I rule now,” Rasmus said, raising his voice.
Arcus took a breath. “I admit I was proud. And in my pride, I refused to believe in the curse. I watched Father grow paranoid and cruel, but I blamed the wars, the pressures of ruling. When I took the throne, I fought the knowledge that I was being changed, corrupted—”
“Perfected,” Rasmus bit out. “Strengthened. If you had only accepted it, the limits would have fallen away and you would have become so much more than you imagined.”
Arcus shook his head. “You’ve lost yourself. The thing in there”—he gestured to the throne—“has eaten you up from the inside.”
“The only thing my throne feeds on are the spirits of traitors and Firebloods.” He waved a hand, and the ice pressed tighter until I cried out. Arcus’s eyes widened, his face paling.
“Keep the throne,” Arcus breathed. “I’ll take her far away, across the ocean. I’ll forfeit my title, denounce my claim. Whatever you ask. As long as you let me take her.”
No. I tried to shake my head, but ice held my neck fast. I wanted to shout at Arcus, to scream that he couldn’t make such an offer. If there was one thing I knew about him, it was that he was steadfast in his loyalties. It would kill him to abandon his people.
“You might come back,” said Rasmus. “You have too many supporters who could rise against me. Assassinate me.”
“I never wanted you dead. I only wanted our kingdom to be what it once was. For you to stop the wars, start helping people again. But I will let that all go.”
Rasmus shook his head. “I don’t trust you.”
A silence. “Then kill me if you must. But let her go first. I will let you kill me when I see her safely leave your city.”
No, no, no.
I went wild inside. I opened my mouth, but only a squeak emerged from my frozen throat. My lungs bursting, my mind flailed with the effort of making my limbs move, to smash out of the bonds of ice. It was like being buried under a mountain, every muscle straining in vain.
“You would die…” He looked down at me, then back at his brother. “For her?”
“Yes. I would,” said Arcus firmly. “That is the bargain.”
No, I couldn’t let him do that.
Indecision hung in the air, as palpable as a dense fog. Shadows played against the walls. Something whispered from the throne, a sibilant, barely detectable hiss.
Rasmus smiled, the expression so cold it was like seeing a corpse grin. “You have only made me want to kill her more.” He turned back to me, meeting my eyes. “You are nothing.”
The ice slipped from outside my body to the inside. A scream froze in my throat as pain bit into my chest, worse than a sword thrust, icy where I was hot, but unmelting. Slicing into me, driving, relentless, inescapable.
I caught a glimpse of Arcus launching himself at Rasmus as my eyes closed against the pain, a dim thought of grief that Arcus couldn’t win flitting through my mind. With the throne behind him, Rasmus was far too powerful. Sud, let it be over. Please, just let it be done. I would go to the afterworld in the sky and be with my mother. I would be warm. I would be free.
But one thought, Marella’s words, suddenly came back to me. The only way to destroy the throne was to become one with it, to let the Minax merge with me. The throne of Fors was made to repel and weaken Firebloods. Right now I was all fire. But if I let in the darkness, which already moved freely from the throne to the ice connected to it, I could slip past the throne’s defenses and destroy it from within.
Come, darkness, I thought.
Hissing filled my ears and dark tendrils snaked into my fingertips, up my arms, and over my face. There was a sensation of pressure. My ears popped and I gasped a mouthful of air, unable even to writhe against the strange feeling because of the ice holding me. Then the feelings settled and eased, my body growing accustomed to its new occupant. With a sense of triumph, I realized my heat was my own again, roaring into my chest and through my limbs in a glorious, hot surge. My mind was lifted free of all worry, my thoughts growing simpler, more elemental, with a sharp, soaring joy.
“You and I are one,” a ringing voice said, only now it came from within. “Free me, and then we will search for my brother in the fire throne, so that we may achieve the destiny our father laid before us. Daughter of Darkness, be ready for that day. It comes soon.”