Chapter 46

A ria lurched for Baron as he disappeared, but her fingers only closed over a wisp of blue mist before even that vanished.

Rounding on the widow, she cried, "What have you done to him?"

"Oh, do calm down, Highness. I said I wouldn't harm another Caster."

"Considering the lies you told me about peace, how can I believe anything you say?"

"You tell me—you're the one who cameto talk ."

Aria flinched beneath a wave of helplessness. Why had she ever thought she could do this, that any visit to Northglen could end happily? In her planning, things seemed rosy and hopeful, but now that she stood in Morton Manor once again, all she felt was the cold of the looming mountain.

Though large pillars crowded the space, awkwardly dividing up a room that ought to have been open, the ballroom contained one stunning feature—three massive floor-to-ceiling windows that took up an entire wall. The view looked down on the leeward side of the mountain, protected from the wind but still seeping cold like the beating heart of winter. She could see such a canopy of stars it felt like looking out into a realm of heaven, and below that, the shadow of the castle itself, far down in the valley. Her distant home. Unreachable.

With all the other writing Aria had done that day, she'd forgotten to pen her parents a letter. If she never came home, there would be no message, nothing left except an ongoing curse and her father's fury.

Widow Morton patted her daughter's shoulder. The girl flexed her hands with a wince, as if they ached, but she leaned into her mother's touch.

"You've discovered my son was special," Widow Morton said. "Lettie, here, is even more so—a type of Caster not seen in centuries. If we stick to the categorization of fluid and stone, I suppose she could be called a Portal Caster."

Aria swallowed. "And if we used categories of blood and bone?"

"You have been studying, Highness. In that case, amid blood and bone, she would be soul . She can transport a person or object somewhere new without even touching them; they need only be within sight. By combining my power with hers, we can achieve communication across a kingdom and who knows what other wonders." Widow Morton's grip tightened protectively. "Can you imagine the fear such a power would cause?"

Aria could. And she knew exactly how her father dealt with fear.

"I am not my father," she said. With effort, she turned away from the view of the windows, putting the castle's shadow out of sight. From her vest, she drew out the document Jenny had helped her shape. "I wrote a new peace agreement, one with true freedom for magic, one without brands or registration of any kind."

Widow Morton took the parchment, but rather than reading it, she cast it aside. It fluttered to the ballroom floor.

"I told you." The widow's expression hardened. "It's too late."

For the first time, Aria noticed something in the woman's expression, something beyond the anger. There was a familiar sallowness to her cheeks, a deep color beneath her eyes.

In horror, Aria whispered, "Is the curse ... affecting you too?"

She remembered Widow Morton's last visitation in her water mirror, the night of Eliza's awakening. Something had seemed off about the widow's appearance. Tiredness, she now realized. The widow had demanded to know how Aria resisted the effects of the curse, perhaps because the Cast was not behaving the way its Caster had anticipated. Perhaps because it had turned on its master.

"Is it killing you?"

"Lettie," said the widow. "Leave us."

"End it!" Aria said. "This is madness. Please, listen to me—we can resolve this peaceably. End the Cast, and let's talk ."

The widow's expression darkened in response. It was like talking to the king.

"I will end it," the woman said. "Lettie, out ."

When her daughter didn't move, Widow Morton gave her a firm push toward the door. The girl stumbled. She looked at Aria with haunted eyes, and Aria recognized the expression—that of a child without a voice.

"You don't have to do what she wants," Aria told the girl fiercely. "You don't have to be what she wants."

Lettie looked away. She hurried to the door with her head down, ducking into the hallway.

Leaving Aria alone with a woman intent upon killing her.