“And you will kill me so that you can rule Hail from atop my bones? Add me to the pile?” Edlyn pushed away from Rayne and stumbled into her room. She began frantically searching drawers, rifling through papers on her desk. Rayne knew she was searching for a weapon, but she also knew she wouldn't find one. Danyll wouldn't leave something like that lying around in her room to be used against either one of them. The only weapon was the knife gripped in her fist, Danyll's blood dripping off the blade and leaving a path on Edlyn's fine rug.
“I don't want to,” Rayne said, moving farther into the room and placing the knife on an end table. “I thought I did. I thought Hail would be better off in rebel hands. But I don't believe that anymore. I think together, we can make Hail into the peaceful and prosperous country it once was, and then spread that throughout Casuin.” She thought of Merek's map book, of the five countries crowded together on their little piece of Casuin, sandwiched between the Silver Hills and the Impassable Strait. Maybe someday, the Crowhearts would continue to expand and cross those borders. But never without the support of the people, and never without each other.
“Together?” Edlyn asked. She had migrated back to the door but her back was to it, her eyes on her sister.
“We don't have to let what happened to Madlin happen to anyone else. We are not helpless. We do not have to stand by and watch our people suffer. We are princesses, queens. Leaders.”
“Leaders.”
“Will you fight with me?” Rayne asked. “Can we stop fighting each other and being pawns to other people’s whims?”
A flash of uncertainty crossed Edlyn's face and then she relaxed with an audible exhale. “You always were a terrible chess player.”
Rayne smirked but couldn't deny it. The relief she felt was tremendous. It was a weight that maybe wasn't lifted off of her shoulders, but which she could now share with someone else. Someone she loved and trusted, because she did, in spite of everything. She didn't know how to defeat the Knights, how to overpower or outwit their father, but she knew that together, and with Tierri's counsel, they would figure it out. There was a sound in the corridor behind Edlyn, something like a distant shout and a bang, that snapped Rayne back into the present.
“We have to go,” Rayne said, realizing that Edlyn didn't know anything about what was happening at the gathering. “I'll explain later, but it's not safe here anymore.” Rayne found a canvas bag in the wardrobe and pulled it from its spot on the top shelf.
Edlyn took a step forward, moving to help her sister, when she stopped mid-stride, her mouth dropping into a shocked O.
“What—?” Rayne started to ask, but her eyes fell to Edlyn's chest where a crimson stain was darkening the already red dress. “What?” Then Edlyn jerked, and the very tip of a sword peeked through the center of her chest. Edlyn looked down at it, then back up at her sister. Rayne was frozen in place, her feet as heavy as stones.
Someone pulled the sword back and Edlyn took one stumbling step, catching herself on the edge of a table and going to her knees. Behind her, a man's face smiled, a slash of white in the darkness. And then he stepped forward.
“My little Crow,” Wido said. “Isn't this a nice surprise?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Rayne
Edlyn fell in slow motion, choking and gagging on her own blood. She landed on her back, her chocolate curls fanning around her head, the tips blending in with the blood that leaked from her chest. Rayne ignored Wido and the sword and ran to her sister, pulling her head into her lap.
“No, no, no,” she said.
“I knew you were too weak.” Wido circled them. “I told Imeyna. And look where loving you got her. The same place it got this one.” He poked Edlyn's leg with the tip of the sword but Rayne swiped at him. He laughed and stepped away.
“No,” Rayne repeated. She tried not to listen to Wido but his words had a sting of truth to them. Edlyn was still alive but barely. Her heart fluttered; Rayne could feel it where her hands pressed uselessly against Edlyn's chest, blood seeping through her fingers.
“I think I'll leave Innis his daughters' bodies and take their heads.” Wido stabbed the sword down into the floor beside Rayne but she didn't flinch. Edlyn was shivering, her teeth chattering as the warmth left her body with the blood. Her eyes were distant, focused on something Rayne couldn't see. “Trophies. And when I kill him, his head will be my most prized trophy of all.”
As the breath seeped out of Edlyn's heaving chest, the words sank into Rayne's consciousness but were eclipsed by the five most important words of all. They were the ones that made it past her lips. “Madlin. Merek.” Edlyn jerked and gasped and Rayne drew her closer, burying her nose against her neck and inhaling. Behind the iron scent of blood was something sweeter, like fields of wildflowers. “Tamsin. Imeyna.” Edlyn gave one final, wheezing breath and grew still. Rayne pulled her sister’s eyes closed and laid her head gently on the floor before standing and facing Wido. “Edlyn.” These were the names of her ghosts. The specters that would haunt her until her dying day, whether that day was today at the end of Wido's blade, or eighty years from now.
Wido faced her, raising his sword and pressing the tip against the base of her throat. Rayne didn't move. She had thought she owed this man something, that by not killing her he had given her a loan that had to be repaid. She had trusted him. She saw now that trust was a fragile thing to be guarded. Love was too expensive to freely hand out.
“I suppose it's time to take my prize,” he said.
“You won't touch me. Or my sister. I'll kill you first.”
Wido laughed but didn't drop his sword. “You and what army?”
There was a shout from the corridor. The sound of pounding footsteps. “My army.” The stone door at the end of the hall slammed open and Wido hesitated. It was all she needed. Rayne lunged for the knife by the couch. He followed her and when she turned, blindly swinging, the knife grazed his face. Blood welled at the corner of his mouth from a gash that had opened his smooth skin from ear to lip. He pressed a hand against it, his eyes on her and then on the door, where the sounds of running guards grew closer.
Tierri rounded the corner just as Wido threw open Edlyn's window—no longer sealed with spellwork—and leaped. The blade flew out of Rayne’s hand but disappeared soundlessly into the night. Tierri followed it, leaning out into the night, his eyes on the ocean waves below.
“He's gone,” he declared, turning back around.
Rayne's shaking knees dropped her to the floor, where she buried her head in her hands. It was over. It was finally, finally over, and she had gotten what she wanted.
Hadn't she?