When her rage was spent, she sagged against the stone. She could smell blood on her knuckles. Nadia’s hands rested gently on her shoulders. “Don’t lose your strength now,” she said. “You’ll need it for what’s to come.”
And she was right. Lynet knew that any chance of reconciliation with her stepmother was lost—and that the only way to ensure her safety was to kill Mina. She had acres of snow at her command, and the advantage of surprise. But she would need more than that—she would need the will to go through with it.
Lynet backed away from the wall that she had suddenly assaulted, and she saw that it was the partition between the alcoves that held her parents’ caskets. She had seen her mother’s casket plenty of times, but the space beside it had always been empty except for a bronze plaque above with her father’s name. Lynet couldn’t look away from the plain wooden casket. She’d hardly had time to mourn her father, and she couldn’t stop thinking that if she opened the casket now, she could see his face again and say good-bye one last time.
But she knew it wouldn’t be him, just as she knew that no matter how many times her father had brought her here, Lynet had come no closer to knowing the woman he thought of as her mother, Emilia. She’d been frightened of the crypt for so long, but now it seemed so harmless, so completely empty. Even as her ancestors surrounded her, she knew she and Nadia were alone here.
“How can I kill the only family I have left?” she asked softly, to no one in particular.
Nadia answered from behind her. “When my parents died, I thought I had no family, no loyalties, anymore. But I was wrong—you just have to choose your own family from now on.”
“I loved her so much.” A tear was spilling down her cheek, though she didn’t know which loss she was crying for now—perhaps all of them at once. “But she’ll never believe it, will she? If she could just stand there and watch me die without any feeling at all, then why shouldn’t I be able to do the same?”
Lynet shut her eyes and drew a long breath, forcing herself to say good-bye now to the Mina she once knew, so that when she went to find her—to kill her—she would have no hesitation, no doubt.
“I’m ready,” Lynet said finally, turning to Nadia.
They passed through the crypt, Lynet walking the same path she walked once a year with her father, but this time with her head held high, without any fear. She had been one of the dead lying here; how could she fear what she had once been? Even the Cavern of Bones seemed more somber to her now than frightening, and Lynet didn’t bother to offer the customary prayer to Queen Sybil to end the curse of winter. She knew now that she would have to break the curse herself.
As Lynet followed Nadia, climbing the winding stairs that led them to the crypt door, she thought she heard sounds of movement coming from the other side. She stopped and took a moment to concentrate, to feel the snow that lay beyond the door. As long as she had the snow, she knew she would be kept safe.
The moment Nadia opened the door for her, she focused her thoughts into shapes. She summoned soldiers of her own now, the snow rising up into human forms, blank and faceless, but all carrying swords. Their task was to defeat Mina’s soldiers and clear her path until they reached Mina herself.
She stood back in the darkness of the doorway as the sound of clashing swords broke the stillness of the air. Nadia took a tentative step outside, only to be slammed against the wall and pinned there by a familiar scarred arm.
“Felix!” Lynet shouted, emerging from the crypt at last, stunned by the light outside.
The huntsman had acted on instinct, and now he seemed startled to see Nadia, his grip loosening. And then he saw Lynet and his arm fell away from Nadia completely. Lynet sent the snow swirling up all around him, transforming it into coils of rope that wrapped around his wrists, his ankles, as he fell to the ground. He barely seemed to care; he was too busy gaping at Lynet.
“Mina … she didn’t kill you,” he said finally.
“No. But she tried.” Lynet wanted no more apologies, no more excuses, so she used the snow to form a gag and cover his mouth as well.
“Stay here and keep watch over him,” Lynet said to Nadia. She nodded, pulling a small knife from a sheath at her side. Lynet stepped around the huntsman and continued through the fray with one goal—to find Mina and end this.
The soldiers were still locked in combat with each other—none of them could die, and so they would keep fighting like this forever, until Mina or Lynet ordered them to stop.
She summoned more soldiers as she passed through the dead trees of the Shadow Garden. She didn’t know how to wield a sword, so she created a long dagger to carry. In the distance, she noticed that the statue of Sybil was gone, leaving only a blank patch of snow in its place. There was no time to wonder at that, however, so she headed on to the arch that led to the courtyard, a dozen or so soldiers behind her.
Lynet had thought she was prepared for anything now. She would storm the castle, looking for Mina, to finally end this war between them. But she still wasn’t prepared for the sight that greeted her in the courtyard, the collective gasp from so many of the faces she’d known all her life, the people of Whitespring, who surrounded a gruesome, bloody scene.
Red stained the snow, and Lynet saw that most of it had spilled from Gregory, who was lying dead, his throat split open. And beside him, clutching her chest, blood on her face and hands and seeping from her mouth, was Mina, not far from the juniper tree where they had first met. This Mina was nothing like the cold and composed woman who had given Lynet the poisoned bracelet—her face was ashen and twisted in agony, and her hair, flecked with blood and snow, streamed down over her shoulders. She was no longer a single burning flame but a wildfire, her pain spilling out around her.
The world seemed perfectly still for a moment. Lynet couldn’t hear the crowd anymore, not even as they murmured her name. She wasn’t aware of anything except for Mina, and the dagger clutched in her own hand. She seemed to hear every one of Mina’s ragged breaths. She saw the tears that were still stuck in her eyelashes before they could fall down her cheeks. And when Mina looked up to find Lynet standing there, Lynet saw with perfect clarity the stunned joy on her stepmother’s face and heard the startled laugh that escaped her bloodstained lips.