Lynet had tried to reach out to Mina as best she could, with her words and with her heart. Ever since the night under the tree when she and Nadia had pressed their hands together, Lynet had wanted to see if she could use the same trick to give Mina the sensation of a real heartbeat, even if only temporarily. But Mina had hurried away, and now, as Lynet stood alone in the empty tower, she knew the letter was her last chance. She stopped pacing, standing in the same spot where she had first noticed that Mina was crying. She had never seen Mina cry before—surely that meant she had stirred Mina’s heart in some way.
Each time Lynet went around the room, it seemed to grow smaller and smaller, the boarded-up window making her feel like she couldn’t take a full breath. She wondered if there was anyone guarding the door, if they could bring her some water, something to make her feel like she wasn’t inhaling the same stale air. She tried knocking on the door, but instead of hearing an answering voice, she heard something clatter to the ground. Lynet frowned, listening with her ear against the door for sounds of movement. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought it was a key that had fallen from the lock.
Mina had left so quickly … was it possible she had forgotten to take the key with her? Had she forgotten to lock the door at all? Or had she chosen to leave the door unlocked? Hardly daring to believe that she would be successful, Lynet slowly turned the door handle, amazed when it gave way, the door starting to inch open. She didn’t let it open fully, though, in case there were guards waiting outside. She still wasn’t sure this wasn’t some kind of test or trap.
But now she had a choice—she could stay here, waiting and wondering what would happen next, and where the letter was, if the huntsman had found it, or if Mina would read it, without any control at all. If the unlocked door wasn’t a trap, though—if Mina had really forgotten or chosen not to lock the door—then Lynet could sneak through the castle and look for the huntsman. She could try to retrieve the letter and hand it over to Mina herself.
Lynet stared intently at the door, going back and forth in her mind several times before deciding that she couldn’t lose this chance to regain control of her plan. She didn’t think Mina would design a test for Lynet to fail, especially not after the moment they had shared. Lynet reached for the door again—
But before her fingers had touched the handle, the door creaked open to reveal Mina standing at the threshold, half in shadow. She stood calm and composed, her face smooth and impassive, her hair no longer loose but braided neatly in tight coils around her head.
“Mina!” Lynet said, startled. She hadn’t heard footsteps approaching the door at all.
Mina stepped forward, edging Lynet farther back into the room. Lynet tried to see if her eyes were red or still full of tears, but they were hidden in shadow. She saw that Mina was holding something in her hand, but it wasn’t the letter.
“Did you find the letter?” Lynet said at once.
Mina frowned slightly. “Yes,” she said, her voice perfectly even, “but that’s not why I’m here. I have something for you, something I forgot to give you before.”
Lynet watched Mina in confusion and almost wondered if their last meeting had been just a dream. Mina was acting like none of it had happened, like they’d never shared a heartbeat. But Mina was holding out her hand, unfolding a black cloth to present to Lynet her silver bracelet.
All of Lynet’s worries faded away in a moment. If Mina seemed stiff or formal, it was only because she was nervous to make this gesture—a gift to remind Lynet of the first time they had met under the juniper tree. Mina must have kept it after finding it on the body Lynet had made—she had kept it all this time, waiting to give it back to her.
“Mina, thank you,” Lynet said. “I was worried that … but it’s all right between us now, isn’t it?”
Mina’s lips curled into a smile, and she ducked her head to avoid Lynet’s eyes. “I hope so, Lynet. You’ll take it back, won’t you?”
“Of course.” Lynet took the bracelet and clasped it around her wrist. Its weight was familiar and welcome. “And now we can—”
Her words froze in her throat. An unfamiliar feeling, almost like pain, was spreading down to her hand, her fingers becoming stiff. Cold, she thought. This is what cold feels like. Mina was watching her, folding up the cloth. Why did she use a cloth? Why not give me the bracelet directly? Lynet had thought it was simply for embellishment, to surprise her, but now she couldn’t stop thinking that Mina had never touched the bracelet herself.
Poison.
She had hoped—had wanted to believe so badly—that Mina wouldn’t hurt her. She’d thought that letter would be the cure she’d been looking for—a reminder to Mina that she was more than what her father had made her. She had hoped, and she had been wrong—naive, even. Weak. This was Mina, standing in front of her, choosing to give her a bracelet coated in poison. Choosing to kill her.
The cold was spreading through all her limbs now, and she had to remind herself that Nadia had switched the poisons, that she wasn’t really about to die. But as her arms and legs grew stiff, she kept thinking of how easily Gregory might have discovered Nadia’s trick. What if he had dropped the original vial and had to choose a new one? What if he had changed his mind about which poison to use? What if I’m really dying? All the risks she had been willing to take seemed foolish to her now, the result of her misplaced trust.
She didn’t want Mina to see how frightened she was. “You won’t go until you see it happen, is that it?” she said, her voice as icy as the poison in her blood. “You want to see me die?”
Mina didn’t respond. She only tilted her head, waiting. In the dim light, she seemed ten years younger, her face almost unnaturally smooth, even the cluster of gray hair around her temples hidden away.
Lynet sank to her knees. She wondered if the poison would stop if she took the bracelet off now, or if it was already too late. It didn’t matter; she couldn’t move her arms anymore. She was turning to ice, freezing from the inside out. It’s not real. I’m not dying. But then why did the cold going through her feel so much like death?
Her vision was blurring, but something caught her attention—a heavy step, a flash of gray near the door. A familiar voice said, “Isn’t it finished, yet?” And then her vision sharpened as Gregory stepped into the room.
But no—Lynet had thought of this—he would need Nadia before removing her heart. Nadia would stall him until she had a chance to wake again—
But I made Nadia promise to leave if I was poisoned. Why had she done that? What had she thought would happen after she was poisoned, if no one was there to protect her from Gregory while she slept? I thought Mina would never poison me in the first place. And so she had let her emotions weaken her judgment yet again. For all she knew, Nadia had been mistaken, and Gregory could perform the surgery without her if necessary. Or maybe he didn’t need Nadia to remove the heart, just to transfer it to him, and Gregory was about to cut out her heart while she was still alive.