In the Veins of the Drowning(64)

What they have made will decimate the order of all things.

I shook my head. My voice was dreamy and slow. “I don’t understand.”

Rohana cackled through the darkness.

What they have made will bring chaos. Will bring ruin. Will bring death.

Feeling disembodied and confused, I had the sensation of resting atop coarse, pleated waves. Rocking, swaying, dipping. I fought through the meaning of her words and a chill fell over me as understanding snapped into place.

I was the queen, drained of her power.

And Theodore… the king.

Wrecked and ravaged because of me.

And together… Panic slipped through my body as my thoughts and fears slowly crystalized.

Together we would bring chaos.

We would bring ruin.

We would bring death.

Time stuttered. Perhaps it stopped. My vision rippled and went black. When I came to, I lay upon the floor, the gleam of orb light above me. Beside me, Theodore was still unconscious. The tinkling of glass, the hiss of smoke, the sound of all those slithering vines, filled my ears.

Sluggishly, I lifted my arm and pressed my hand to Theodore’s chest. Even, shallow breaths. I rose onto my elbow and watched Rohana working over her bowl, her bald head reflecting the sickly, yellow glow.

“Speak, Imogen,” she said, sounding once more like a young woman. “I know you wish to.”

“I want my severing draughts,” I croaked.

“I am making it.”

“I paid for two.”

“You will get one.”

I rushed to stand but her vines tightened around my calves and wrists, keeping me down. I focused, tried to find Theodore’s power through my smoke-addled haze, but I was too sick, and she was so strong.

“I can sever the bond between you and your king, and that is all.” Her awful, cloudy eyes locked with mine. “And what a shame too. You are so much better together.”

I reeled, head hammering. “What do you mean?” I yelled. “What about my bond with Eusia? The bond that you just told me drains me of my divinity.” I thrashed against the vine’s hold. “You told me that I will ruin Theodore, that we will bring death and chaos. How can we be better together?”

Rohana gave an eerie, skittering laugh and loosened the vines. “How young you are, how new and bright. You see things with clear, crisp eyes. But let your vision blur and break. Let yourself see deeper.”

I pushed myself up with a hiss. “If that’s your way of telling me to look for more meaning in your prophecy, then fuck you.”

She was too still, her little body sagging against the cage of vines that held her up. She set a small glass bottle into the loop of a vine and sent it toward me. “It’s time for you to leave. This will remove the God-king from your blood—”

I nearly screamed. “What of my bond with Eusia?”

“You made that bond with a despicable spell, and it is always the Mage who makes the spell that must break it.”

Hopelessness pummeled me. My voice grew small. “What should I do? How?”

A vine curled around her chin, cocking her head for her. Her unblinking eyes were locked with mine. “Go home.”

My brow creased. “Go home?”

The room erupted with the scraping of moving vines. Like a bed of verdant snakes, they began to creep around Theodore’s supine body and ferried him over the bones and wood, toward the hut’s crooked door.

Go home.

The blood bond pulsed like a racing heart, filling me with worry, and I rushed to his side. I touched him, needy for the assurance of his warmth. Gently, I traced the edge of his cheekbone. I ran a fingertip over the slanting line of his nose, down to the contour of his lips.

Home.

The word was a changeling, twisting its meaning from one breath to the next. My mind was still sluggish from the lingering taint of the ritual smoke, and that word—home—spun it and filled it.

Then I was transported. I stood in my old home. In King Nemea’s icy-white throne room, cold penetrating to my bones. I looked to the wall. To the splayed black wing that hung upon it.

It was just like mine.

The king sits wrecked and ravaged beneath her wing. My heart began to squeeze. What they have made will decimate the order of all things.

“What they have made… What the queen and the king have made…” I whispered, clinging to Theodore’s sturdy shoulder. My stomach dropped. “Is Nemea…”

Rohana began to giggle, and with sickening assuredness, I knew.

“He’s my father.”

“Good girl.” She sounded approving of my revelation, but I was undone.

The features of Nemea’s face, the notes of his voice, even the remembered touch of his hand, swarmed me. “I’m not…”

Then Rohana was in front of me. Her skeletal fingers clamped onto my jaw, and she jerked it toward her face. “You are what will bring chaos and ruin and death. You are the fount of desolation and change.”

My throat tightened with tears. “And Theodore…” I was the daughter of the man he hated most. “Will I ruin Theodore too?”

She blinked slowly. “His power and duty are as incorruptible as ever. And yet he would give up his throne for you.”

“No.” I shook my head. “He’s a good, loyal king—”