by Lana Popovic
To ease the pressure on me, Mara had gathered only a fraction of the daughters who’d been here last time. I would start with four—Ylessia and Naisha, along with a honey-blonde I called Bee Girl and a brunette with a blunt bob and bangs. Her name might have been Seleni, but I couldn’t remember her gleam.
“Maybe let’s try it differently this time?” I started slowly, breathing the fragrant smoke lingering in the air. I’d lit censers in every corner of the room to help me find my way back to that sparkling cavern. “Not one by one, but all of you at once. Release—summon—whatever you do with your gleam, and then we’ll start.”
I’d thought out various approaches during the long drive back, Jasna’s chiding echoing in my head. I couldn’t sing a separate song for every single witch on a battlefield at the same time. Instead, I’d have to sing something that stirred all of them at once—a single point on which to focus my will, if I could find it.
A wordless ripple of glances ran among the four, and they spread out to give each other extra room. As if they were preparing to synchronize.
Which was exactly what it turned out to be.
The air around Ylessia flowered into celestial fireworks. Little nebulas whirled into life around her, pinwheels of orange and magenta and vermilion. Comets like lit match heads zipped by her, trailing the smallest tails. Tiny, fiery suns whipped into orbit high above her head, a mimicry of marbled planets and pockmarked moons slingshotting around them.
As if she had become gravity herself, the dense center of her own orrery.
At the same time, Naisha began to change, into a kind of snake I’d never seen. Trails of scales shuffled down her body like falling dominoes, into a central line of scarlet rimmed with black, with robin’s-egg blue lighting the edges of her silhouette. Even her hair changed to matching colors, swatches of it shifting like a chameleon. Her narrow nose melted back into her face, leaving only slits, and her eyes elongated into almonds of glossy black.
To her right, Bee Girl called down a gorgeous plague of insects. Everything at her beck and call had wings. Bees, hornets, and wasps swarmed around her in perfect silence, and a cloud of midges, moths, and butterflies churned so thick it nearly hid her from sight.
She must have been the one who filled the dangling bell jars in the atrium each night. Now they flitted around her, crawled up and down her skin and through her hair. Green-backed beetles and bright ladybugs, and a circle of dragonflies like a coronet above her head. They followed the flowing gestures of her arms, each flick of her head and torso curve. Like calligraphy painted by flight.
In concert, Seleni threw herself into her floor gymnast’s routine, and I wondered how I could possibly have forgotten her gleam. As soon as she moved, a phalanx of shadows darkened into life. The simulacra fell into step behind her and flanked her on both sides. All of them were dark silhouettes, exact replicas of her own shape, mimicking the slightest movement that she made.
What I needed was to unite them, to give them purpose. To inspire them to flesh out the dream behind their gleams. Because this wasn’t about taming insects or galaxies or shadows, just like it hadn’t been about fostering flight. It was about making them want to do it for themselves, and for each other.
Teaching them how to master what gleam they had and turn it from glitter into might.
I closed my eyes and reached for the potential inside me like Jasna had taught me, strove for the glimmering cavern of stalactites that I’d brushed so briefly. As soon as I fumbled for it, I faltered. Instead, I found myself remembering how it had felt when I myself had gleamed in earnest. When I’d sung to protect Riss by winning against her, because losing to her would have meant that she’d be taken away from me.
Just like she was taken now.
A shortcut, maybe—exactly the kind Jasna wouldn’t approve of—but it was the only thing I could think to do. Maybe that was how my will worked.
When I began to sing, this time the song was a banner unrolled in sympathy and challenge, to all of them.
“Rise up, rise up, defend your blood.”
Ylessia’s creations turned livid, so blistering I could feel their radiant heat from where I stood. Some of them exerted a pull like actual gravity, and much more of it than they should have had given their size. Shock burst into victory on her pert face as she worked to control them, spinning them around like orbs of sweltering flame, turning her tiny universe into a floating arsenal.
Along with the heat came a tremendous, high-pitched noise—the aggregate buzzing of Bee Girl’s living swarm. They circled her like a tornado of stingers, and I could see her shuddering at its center. Being blanketed by them must have been much less lovely now that their tiny legs, wings, and bodies were more than just illusion.
But the things that she could do with them if she wanted. So many pincers and stingers at her disposal.
Triumph sparked in me and blazed to life, like one of Ylessia’s fiery orbs. I was doing this—I was making this happen.
In the meantime, Naisha morphed more fully into animal, rather than hovering in between like she usually did. Her arms stayed scaled but free, while her legs seamed together into a coiling tail, like a lamia coming to life. A forked tongue flicked from between her flattened lips, and her hair fused tightly to her head and neck, rippling into the sheen of scales.
And Seleni’s simulacrum army had turned to strapping flesh. She was touching them with gleeful abandon, bubbling over with laughter as they mobbed her. “They’re all real,” she called out, over the room’s rising clamor. “They’re really here!”
I’d been so swept up in my own effort that I hadn’t noticed, but Mara’s roses had crept around the room, hovering as I sang. Some of them were hosting ladybugs and bees, while others prodded at Ylessia’s miniature gas giants.
I’d thought that it was me, that this was what harnessed will felt like.
But it was Mara standing behind me, funneling into me the full force I needed to fan their gleams to life.
My new-kindled triumph blew out, all at once. She was supporting me as I sang, piercing through my song with her roses. Pinning it in place with her will instead of mine.
She couldn’t stop herself from helping me, any more than I could do this on my own.
THE NEXT FEW days blended into a smeared, headachy blur of effort. I woke, ate, sang until I couldn’t stand up any longer, then fell straight into bed. With Mara by my side, we trained the daughters hour after hour, but I could still only do it when she backed me. And we only had slightly more than a quarter of winter left—a little over a week before it melted entirely, based on the pace our eyes had been shifting.
Mara never said it out loud, but I could hear the dire tolling of her bell. If I couldn’t manage to sing the others into soldiers myself and free her to take on Herron when he came, we were lost. Everything would be lost, and I’d never see Riss again.
I’d work myself down to the bone before I let that happen, no matter what Jasna thought of me.
I was so caught up that it took me a while to even notice that I hadn’t seen Luka since we’d returned to the chalet. But then after one of my singing sessions, I nearly rammed into him by the Great Hall’s arching doors.
“Lina,” he said guardedly, eyes stealing over my shoulder, a plate of sliced fruit and glossy petits fours in his hands. “I thought you’d already left.”
“Seleni wanted to keep training a little longer.” I eyed him curiously. He sounded even twitchier than he felt, all jumbled trills and discordant twang. “It’s nice to see you. You’ve been like a ghost these days. Where have you been keeping yourself?”
He finally met my eyes, almost defiantly. “Jasna gave me some of her books, magical theory and pantheistic theology. I’ve been reading about gods who can open doorways, thinking of other ways we might be able to look into for getting Iris back.”
I tilted my head, confused. “She’ll be free when winter runs out. The kingdom will break apart, then, and we’ll get her back.
Mara promised. She swore it to me.”
If Herron didn’t eat us all first, I added to myself.
“She might have promised.” He locked grim eyes with me. “But how does she know for sure? It’s not like any of this has ever happened before. And no one else is doing anything about it. If alternatives exist, someone should at least try to sketch them out.”
It hadn’t even occurred to me to doubt Mara. I’d been so consumed with building the army, as if that were the only way to help Riss, but still. Still, I should have at least considered that maybe everything wasn’t so simple. When had anything ever been simple for us here?
I might have guilted myself into a cinder if Oriell hadn’t slipped between us just then, setting a dainty, green-tipped hand on Luka’s arm. A collection of unusual rings graced nearly all her fingers, and she’d swapped out the threadbare leotard for an emerald-green sequined corset. A choker set with a dragonfly made from watch parts laced around her throat.
She tipped her head to the side in a teal cascade, and practically twinkled at Luka. “Oh, you brought me something sweet this time! Thank you, you gem of a man,” she cooed at him, in a throaty purr I’d never heard from her in practice. “I thought we could go outside for my snack today, what do you think? It might be nice to stretch my legs a bit, after all that stretching of the wings.”
She lifted a bare foot and easily caught her ankle behind her to demonstrate, extending it back into a sinuous line that defined every muscle in her leg. Even I couldn’t help tracing them with my gaze. A glance at Luka confirmed the purpose of the display. He looked about half past enraptured.
“Oriell,” I said, struggling to even out my tone. This wasn’t her fault, I repeated stolidly to myself. This was not her fault, not really. She’d been bred and trained to seduce, and now she finally had the chance to perform. “Luka and I were just chatting. Maybe he can”—I narrowly restrained myself from grinding my teeth—“meet you outside when we’re done?”
She dipped into an adorable half curtsy, followed by a low-pitched chuckle. “Of course, Malina, I’m sorry to interrupt. Luka, I’ll be waiting at our lea.”
Once she’d sashayed off, her skirt swinging around full hips with every stride, I rounded on Luka. “Your lea?” I hissed at him, trying to keep my voice low. “Now you have a lea with her? We have demons massing against us, Riss is gone, and you’re flirting with one of our grandmothers? Weren’t you just telling me about all your research? Would that be in your spare time, when you’re not hand-feeding Oriell?”
He worked his jaw from side to side, exactly like Niko did as a prelude to an explosion. That resemblance between them, the fine lines of her face translated into his masculine features, only made me madder. As if she were the one cheating.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” he grated out. “You and my sister have each other—or you would, if you weren’t half killing yourself from dawn to dusk to convince yourself you’re actually helping get Riss back. I don’t have that luxury, Malina. I think about her every. Single. Day. Where she is, who she’s with. So if Oriell wants to keep me company while I wait to see if I’ll ever get her back . . .” He gave an aggressive, full-body shrug, clenching his fists. Despite myself, I took a step away from him. “Then I’ll take a little comfort, and you can keep your judgment.”
He stalked off without a backward glance, leaving me trembling with a nauseous mix of empathy and rage.
NIKO STARTED WHEN I banged into our room, slamming the door behind me. She was sprawled out on her belly on our bed, picking through vials fanned out over the pillows. Dusk had gathered already—I hadn’t noticed how late it had gotten, and so quick. The room was bathed in the plummy light that fell before the heavy curtain of mountain night.
“Everything okay, pie?” She flipped over onto her back. “I asked Shimora for some of Mara’s oils, the ones she uses for crafting soul-scent. To see if I can refine Jasna’s herbs into something you can wear. I thought it might work better than incense to help you focus, if it was on your skin. And I think I’ve got—”
Before she could finish, I crawled up on the bed next to her and buried my head under the downy pillows. The vials rolled around me, clinking against each other like chimes. “I think he’s sleeping with Oriell,” I mumbled into the mattress.
Niko snatched the pillow off my head. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Luka. Your brother. Known for his scruples.” My cheeks wouldn’t quit burning, and I couldn’t pin down which part of it made me the most furious. “He and Oriell, can you believe it? Apparently she’s just the right antidote for missing Riss.”
She sat up and drew her knees tightly to her chest, her face turning pensive. “Is it so terrible, do you think? That he would need someone while she’s gone?”
I turned over to my side to face her, trying to contain my astonishment. “How can you even ask that? I’d think you of all people would be the first to hold it against him. She’s trapped somewhere, who knows how far away from us, and he’s gallivanting with one of our relatives?”
“I don’t know what to think,” she continued in that careful tone. Like she didn’t want to hurt my feelings, but couldn’t hold back from having her say. “He loved her for years, you know that much. And she always kept him at a distance. They’d barely had one night together before she left, and—”
“She didn’t leave on purpose,” I broke in. “Death took her.”
“Right. Death. Also known as Fjolar, who she’d been meeting for secret-rendezvous date nights right before everything else happened. If it were me in Luka’s place, I would be losing my mind every which way. Doing whatever I had to do to make it through until you came back.”
“What exactly are you saying? That it’s okay, given the circumstances, for Luka to stray like that?”
“I’m saying that just because Riss’s gone, it doesn’t mean her feelings matter more than the rest of ours,” Niko said gently, reaching out to tuck a curl behind my ear. “As much as you’re always ready to let her take first place, in anything.”
“I’m not—”
“Yes. You are. Look at what you’re doing to yourself, just to get through the day without her. You’ve done the best you can. Even Mara would let it go by now, if she couldn’t see how much you need something to occupy every last drop of your time before he descends on us. And for what it’s worth . . .”
She lifted that dark, beautiful, tear-slicked gaze, and I realized with a shock that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d really looked her in the eye. I spent most of my hours miles away from her in my mind.
“I’m still here,” she went on, her voice wavering. “You still have me. I’m still me, and I miss you, Lina. We have no idea how this is going to end—and I’m starting to think it’s going to be very, very bad—but it feels like I’ve lost you already. I don’t even . . . you don’t have to touch me, if you don’t want to. But it would be so good if you would just look at me, remember that I’m here. And that we might not have all that much longer together.”
She’d called me selfish back in Cattaro when I wouldn’t be with her openly, while I argued that not all of us could be so blithe. That self-preservation sometimes relied on lies. But maybe there had never really been two sides of that story. Maybe that was just another thing I liked to tell myself in the dark.
Maybe I’d always been selfish beneath the sweetness everyone saw, and was still being selfish now.
So I looked at her, really looked. Her fine hair fell in smooth, brown waves, parted far from the right and swept across one finely lined eye. The dress she wore must have been borrowed, but it fit as if it had been cut for her. A Grecian violet drape that left both slender shoulders bare and brought her tan skin to gleaming life.
I reached out and traced the slope of her little aquiline nose, the delicate lines of her lips. The beloved heart shape of her face, that tiny, stubborn chin. She closed her eyes at my touch, letting out a deep, shuddering sigh.
&n
bsp; “Lie back, princess,” I said, placing my fingers over her sternum and giving her a gentle push. “And which of the oils did you like best?”
“You choose.” She lay back against the pillow and let her arms fall above her head, watching me with half-lidded eyes. “I want to see what you pick.”
I gathered the vials in cupped palms and sorted through them, my breath quickening. Fruits, florals, and musks, various accords. Plenty for me to work with.
“If it’s my choice, I don’t see why a princess should be limited to just one, do you?” On hands and knees, I moved back until I knelt between her feet. Picking them up one by one, I dabbed a touch of freesia on the insides of her ankles. Followed by a kiss pressed to each silky instep. She jerked a little, swallowing a gasp. She had always been very ticklish just there, in the place I traced with the tip of my tongue.
“Oh, strong start,” she said breathlessly, arching her back a little. “Curious to see where you go next.”
“That makes two of us,” I murmured, trailing kisses up her calves to her tender inner knees, before applying dabs of burnt cherry. Followed by more kisses leading up her thighs, laughing a little against her skin as she squirmed under my touch. Gently I sank my teeth into the delicate skin around her hip bone. “If you take this dress off, that might affect my choices too, you know?”
She caught me by the hair and pulled me up to her, until our breath mingled and our lips almost met. “You don’t have to ask me twice.”
Nineteen
NOW IT WAS NEARLY TIME, SO CLOSE TO TIME.
Vera had already reaped five more soldiers to add to his ranks, while the embodied Lightless from Čegar Hill made their way toward Mara in the mountains.
But that maddening feeling of being shackled by ice had still not left him, and more galling yet, he could sense traces of the gleam still lingering in this city. Like the ripe, sweet smell of mead when there wasn’t a pitcher within reach. It wasn’t any of her daughters; he knew all of them were with her. If he cast his mind out far enough, he could nearly see them clustered in the distance, like a swarm of fireflies iridescing past the thicket of miles that grew between them.
