Tear heir.
She looked up and found him standing beside the fireplace. He was not so pale as she remembered; now his cheeks were ruddy and his eyes gleamed with a sparkle that seemed unnatural. Her earlier dreams recurred: this man, buried inside her, while all around them the fire burned and burned … Kelsea stood up, wiping her bloody hand on her dress.
“You want your freedom.”
Yes.
“Speak!” she snapped. “I’m tired of silence.”
“I want my freedom.”
“How do I kill the Red Queen?”
“Are you ready to bargain, Tear heir?” His eyes gleamed redly. A trick of the light, Kelsea had once assumed … and now she remembered Marlowe’s old fool, who had decided to make a bargain with the devil. But even the lessons of a good book could not stand up against the weight of the tide that stood outside the city walls. The Mort were the only issue; all other considerations had become secondary.
“I’m ready to bargain.”
Finn approached, and Kelsea saw hunger burning in his eyes, a great excitement held in check. Whatever freedom meant to him, he had waited a long time.
“What do I do?”
“Take your sapphires in your hand.”
Kelsea did.
“Now say, ‘I forgive you, Rowland Finn.’”
“Forgive you for what?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“You are difficult, Tear heir.”
“How is it true forgiveness, if I don’t know what I’m forgiving you for?”
Finn paused, his face thoughtful, and Kelsea felt a moment’s satisfaction. For months she had been flying blind in regard to her sapphires. Finn might know more than she did, but he didn’t have all of the information either.
“Perhaps you’re right,” he admitted. “I will tell you, then: long ago, I did your family a great wrong.”
“What wrong?”
Finn blinked, and Kelsea realized, astonished, that each word was costing him something. Was it possible for this creature to feel remorse?
“I betrayed Jonathan Tear.”
This wasn’t what Kelsea had expected. “The Fetch said you were a liar.”
His eyes narrowed. “Let me tell you something about the man called Fetch, girl. I see your wish to wound him, and believe me, he is vulnerable. Ask him about his role in the Tear assassination. See if he has any defense.”
Kelsea recoiled.
“I grow weary, Tear heir. Do we have a deal, or not?”
“You first,” she replied, forcing the Fetch from her head. “How do I kill the Red Queen?”
“Give me your word that you will set me free afterward. I have watched you for a long time, Tear heir. I know your word is good.”
The words reminded her of Thorne. There was something wrong here, something Kelsea was missing. If Finn had been involved in the Tear assassination, what did that have to do with Kelsea? All of the Tears were dead.
The Mort! her mind insisted. Think of the Mort! She needed time, time to make a good decision, but all time had run out. If there was even a possibility of killing the Red Queen, didn’t that outweigh whatever threat this creature might represent? Kelsea wondered if it had been this way for her mother: two terrible options, the Mort at the very gates, and Elyssa, blinded by the immediate danger into making the worst decision possible.
I see, Kelsea whispered silently, the words falling into some dim corner of her mind. I see, now, how it was for you.
“I promise to set you free.”
Finn smiled, vulpine. “A good bargain, Tear heir. Your Mort Queen came to me a long time ago, nearly a century now. She was not seeking me, but found me by accident, and once she realized what I was, she begged me to help her.”
“Help her do what?”
“Become immortal. She was a young girl then, barely a woman, but already her life had been terrible, and she wished to be so strong that nothing could harm her again … not man, not fate, not time.”
Thorne had been right, Kelsea realized. “You helped her, then?”
“I did. She has distant Tear blood, and for a long time I thought she was the one I was looking for. But she is … flawed. Her early years left too deep a mark on her, and she focuses only on her own safety and her own gain. Your heritage is much clearer, undiluted. Sometimes I can even see him, just there, in the expressions of your face.”
Who? Kelsea wondered. But she could not afford diversions. “You said she could be killed.”
“So she can. She has a bit of your family’s talent, and I taught her to refine it: to manipulate flesh, to cure herself when her body failed her. You know these lessons, Tear heir; you have been teaching them to yourself. But the Mort Queen is still vulnerable. Her mind is vulnerable, because deep inside her mind will always be that young girl who came to me, frightened and starving and alone. She cannot eradicate her childhood, as hard as she might try. It defines her.”
Kelsea twitched, suddenly angry. She did not want to think of the Red Queen as a vulnerable child, like Aisa. Kelsea wanted her to be the figure of great power and terror that she had always imagined. She felt as though Finn had made everything more difficult.
“How is this useful to me?”
“The woman cannot be killed, Tear heir, but the child can. She knows this, and so she must have your sapphires.”
“What do they have to do with it?”
“Time, Tear heir, time. Surely you must have realized by now that you hold much more than two pretty necklaces. There are many magic gems out there, but Tear’s sapphire is unique. You must have discovered this, no?”
Kelsea said nothing.
“There are many things the Red Queen would like to change in her own history. She believes your jewels would allow her to do so, to wipe away the past that makes her weak. She wants them very badly.”
So Thorne had told the truth about that as well. For a moment Kelsea pictured the bleeding man, writhing in agony at her feet … then she thrust the image away. “How would someone else make use of that past, though? Surely anyone she might fear from childhood is dead now.”
“Not necessarily, Tear heir. She fears me. But even more, she fears you.”
“Me?”
“Oh, yes. She may not admit it, even to herself, but she fears you, and fear is a monstrous weakness that an industrious woman like yourself might use. The Red Queen has many defenses, but if you find the child, you find the vulnerability.” Finn splayed his hands. “Have I fulfilled my end of the bargain?”
“I’m not sure. What if you’ve lied?”
Finn chuckled bitterly, his handsome face twisting. “Believe me, I learned a long time ago not to play at truth with your family. The lesson came at a bitter cost.”
“All right.”
“Your end of the bargain, Tear heir.”
“What do I do?”
“Let me see your sapphires.”
Kelsea held them out, but he recoiled. “No closer. I can’t touch them.”
“Why not?”
“Punishment, Tear heir. The worst punishment imaginable.”
The worst punishment imaginable. Someone else had used those exact words with Kelsea, not long ago. The Fetch, of course, standing in almost the exact spot where Row Finn was standing now.
“Take both sapphires in your hand—”
“Wait a minute,” she interrupted. “You said you had done my family a wrong. The Raleighs. What wrong?”