Chapter Forty

In an instant, Versa is on her feet, and Marigold is sent flying backward as a clump of earth collides with her chest and knocks the air from her lungs.

"I made you a very kind offer," Versa growls. She positions herself so Marigold is blocked from getting to Lottie. "And this is how you repay me?" Fire rages in her palms. "You are exactly like my daughter, and like Lottie—thankless and rotten to the core." She throws a ball of fire toward Marigold and barely misses her face, burning her shoulder instead. "You two deserve each other. It's such a shame you will not live to have her." The other bolt of fire comes flying toward Marigold's face, but she rolls out of the way just in time. Air swirls around her, forming a moving shield as she steps toward Versa again. The wind spins outward like a whip and slashes Versa's paper-thin skin across her face. Ash falls from the wound in a diagonal line, from her temple to her jaw, resembling the form of a monstrous black mask. Versa licks the ash clean from her mouth and growls.

She crushes a vial of ash in her fist and utters a wicked incantation as she throws it toward Marigold.

It pierces through the wind that protects her, and when she uses her arms to shield her face from the attack, the ash leaves her with harsh white burns. She screams and listens to Versa's wretched laughter carry over the wind. She falls to her knees in pain, searching her instincts for what to do next. She reaches for a healing elixir in her pocket and takes it quickly as Versa readies another attack.

But Versa's attention has strayed from Marigold as something collides with the back of her head. She falls to her knees in pain, Mr. Benny standing behind her with an old shovel in his hand.

Of course he didn't leave when Marigold told him to. He said he would protect her until his last breath, and he meant it.

"Run, Mr. Benny! Run!"

He doesn't. He stands there, bracing himself as Versa stands and faces him. Her attack is instant and deadly. She turns, grinning wickedly back at Marigold. She steps out of the way slowly, taunting Marigold with her last violent deed.

Benny is dead. She sees it before she feels it. He lies there, his body bent into an unnatural shape, crushed into a heap of his own blood and bones. His red suspenders tangle with his limbs like he is prey caught in a spider's web. There is no time to rush to his side. Marigold cannot heal him. The closest thing she had to a grandfather is gone. She turns away, unable to stare at his body any longer. Her ears are ringing loudly, and the world moves in slow, blurred motion. Grief wells up inside her, stretching out her insides and threatening to pull her apart, but she swallows it down. There is no other choice. A monstrous rage comes alive in her belly, fueled by her grief, spite, and bloodlust.

Versa conjures a fire that immediately swallows the trees at her back. It continues to grow and feed off the air that Marigold is commanding until it takes on a life of its own. A raging wildfire begins to rip its way through Innisfree, destroying everything in its path. It is already dangerously close to the cottage—soon it will devour the abode.

Then it will take the apiary.

Then Althea's grave.

Then everything else.

In response to the fire, the landv?ttir emerge from their posts and hurry to Marigold, who is in desperate need of aid. To Marigold's utter shock, they all become aglow with powerful magic that blinds both her and Versa. They erupt in a burst of bright gold, and when it fades, they have all taken a new form.

Such is the nature of landv?ttir—they take the form that best allows them to protect what they have pledged to guard.

The enchanted animals are now giant horned monsters of rage and ruin, with leathered skin to protect them from blades, and ravenous fangs ready to tear their enemy apart. They stand in line with Marigold, their commander, as she calls to the water of the lake and brings forth a giant wave that bends over the very top of the wildfire. The water comes crashing down upon the trees, drowning every last flame before the isle is entirely consumed. As she keeps her focus on controlling the water, the landv?ttir are after Versa.

But the witch does not back down.

Even as they attack her, biting through her delicate skin, snapping her old bones, she is smiling. When one of them throws Versa into a pile of her own ash, she laughs wildly.

"I poisoned you all once. I will do it again," she swears as she flings her ash into their faces. Marigold watches in horror as their eyes gloss over into milky white spheres.

"Attack her," Versa commands, and the landv?ttir turn to Marigold with promises of pain in their eyes.

"No," she cries as she is still trying to control the water. If she breaks focus, the fire may not be extinguished, or the water could flood the entire isle. She holds her position as long as she can, and then she drops her arms and only prays that she has done enough. The landv?ttir grab her, each holding one of her limbs with a punishing grasp. They betray themselves as they are forced to bow to Versa's command. They bring her before the Ash Witch and pin her to the ground, where Lottie is weighed down by her chains. The earth beneath them starts to crack, creating a deep chasm where the stone path used to be. Marigold is held hovering over the edge, and Lottie is just out of reach, now covered by the clouded smoke.

"Is this how you dreamed it would end for you?" Versa screams.

It is. This is her nightmare, only worse because Lottie is suffering right next to her and there is nothing she can do.

The landv?ttir push her face down farther into the chasm. "Look at your fate, foolish girl. Look at the grave you have made for yourself and the girl you claimed to love."

Marigold sobs in agony. Versa's ash swarms all around her, and it breaks her very soul. Every ember is a fragment of Innisfree that has been destroyed. She was not strong enough to stop it, and now she is not strong enough to save it. The wildfire reignites, making a wealth of endless ash that ensures Versa's victory.

This is where it stops. This is how it ends. People do not often dream of dying, but they should. They should dream of a warm supper at a big table where every seat is full, then lying in their bed made of fresh linens, and the final page of a book that they will read before blowing out a candle for the last time. They should dream of being old and soft and blissfully tired, of having made so many memories that their heart cannot hold any more, of being ready to walk away from their body and into a world of stars. That is what death should be—not this. Not this shock, this unspent grief, this infinite pain consuming the last of her. She can hardly see Lottie through the smoke that is thick enough to feel of heavy fabric, but that may be for the best. Lottie does not deserve the pain of watching her die. Versa stands over Marigold with a bolt of fire hovering in her hand.

"Stop!" Lottie screams, throwing herself in between Marigold and Versa. "I'll do anything you ask if you let her live."

Marigold tries to say no, but no sound comes out. She shakes her head, blood sloshing in her ears. The wildfire rages behind them.

"Don't," she whispers, but Lottie does not hear.

Immediately, Versa retracts her magic back into herself, eliminating the gray-green glow from the air. "I knew you would break for her."

Lottie tilts her chin so that the light brushes her feathered jaw. "So did I."

"This is the offer: You accept your magic and join me. Innisfree is ours, forever. Marigold can live if and only if she obeys my command. She will keep the isle alive for us. Otherwise, she dies."

Lottie looks down at her with glassy eyes. "I cannot let you die without knowing how it feels to finally love you the way I know I am meant to." Turning back to Versa, she says, "I accept. Do what you must."