“I’m not giving it to you,” he snapped, clearly outraged by this confusing turn of events.
She dropped her hand. “Well, I suppose it’s as good a time as any to test my new abilities.”
She closed her eyes and dark tendrils flowed from her pale hair. A gossamer shadow took form in the air above her. First, its shoulders bristled with protrusions that appeared to be jagged icicles, with similar pointed shapes forming a crown on its head. Then there were hints of a humanlike upper body.
Dread sank talons into my fast-beating heart.
Somehow, the frost Minax was here.
As it hovered in the air, it whispered in a sibilant language I couldn’t decipher, though I could hear the fire Minax answering in the same tongue.
Both of them. Here. No!
Then, to my utter horror, Marella spoke in the same language, as easy and familiar as friends gossiping over tea.
A wash of ice settled at the base of my spine. Arcus was suddenly in front of me.
Terror elongated Prince Eiko’s face, accentuating the bones in his cheeks. “What—”
Marella fluttered a hand at the hovering shadow. “I’m sorry, how rude of me. You don’t understand its language. The Minax said ‘Give us the shard.’” She held her hand out again, palm up. “I hope you’re more willing now.”
We all stared helplessly. The Minax wasn’t something you could fight with frost or fire. It was made of mist and midnight.
“No,” Prince Eiko said shakily.
The shadow creature flowed toward him, its obsidian tendrils disappearing into his hands, which had come up to ward it off. His eyes widened and he jerked a couple of times before reaching, puppetlike, into his pocket and pulling out the shard. He extended his arm and dropped it into Marella’s outstretched palm.
She flashed a smile, as sparkling as a sunlit waterfall and as infectious as typhoid, the one I’d seen charm a roomful of courtiers. “Thank you.”
The shadow creature left Prince Eiko’s body and floated toward me. Arcus sent out a blast of frost that went right through its transparent form.
True vessel, it begged, drawing nearer. I shrank back instinctively.
“Return to me,” Marella commanded, and the frost Minax flowed back into her instantly.
“Marella,” Arcus said, sounding horrified, “how long has that… thing… been part of you?”
“It wasn’t easy,” she said softly. “I had to find it in Tevros. Convince it to choose me as its next host when the previous one—rather conveniently, mind you—died in a brawl over a game of dice. And then there was hiding my… condition… on the ship. Luckily, seasickness is an excellent cover for Minax possession.” Her breathy laugh raised a fresh crop of goose bumps on my arms. “That’s why I had to stay in my poorly lit cabin most of the time. I couldn’t let you see my veins. Also, I truly did feel ill at times, and then I had these strange visions… .I think I saw you, Ruby. In the Fireblood school, and once when you were in a cave or something. There was fire and lava. Did you see me? On the ship?”
“I think so,” I answered, feeling sick. I’d seen someone on a ship. It must have been Marella, or rather the frost Minax that was somehow still connected to me, sending me images she was seeing.
She nodded. “Most people who are possessed don’t survive longer than a week, but I’m stronger than most people.” She glanced at Arcus. “Sometimes at night I sent the Minax into one of your sailors for a few hours to give myself a rest. If you heard someone screaming with nightmares, that would be why.”
A razor-sharp chill skittered over my body, raising every tiny hair on my arms and the back of my neck.
“You’re mad,” Arcus breathed.
“Not mad. Tired. Tired of having to behave like a ninny to fulfill my father’s expectations for what a lady should be. Tired of being underestimated by you and the court. Tired of being passed over. Tired of pretending to be so much less than I am.”
“What are you planning to do?” I asked.
She moved gracefully toward Arcus, whose whole body tensed.
“Arcus, you’re going to step away from Ruby,” she instructed with a small, chilling smile.
“No,” he said firmly.
She moved closer. “You’re going to move away from her now.”
“No!” He lifted a hand to stop her approach.
She stopped inches away. “If you hurt me, if you knock me out, the Minax will merely be free to do as it wishes. You know what follows. Death. Pain. Madness. It will inhabit whomever it chooses and you will have no control over it. I, however, control it perfectly. As you have seen. And by the way, Prince Eiko can stop right now or he will be the first to die!”
She swiveled suddenly, catching Prince Eiko just feet behind her.
“Get back to the wall,” she ordered.
The prince moved to the wall, the rage in his eyes spitting green fire.
“I don’t need you, Arcus, or you, Prince,” she said with a flap of her hand. “You can both leave.”
They didn’t move.
“I can see you’re not taking me seriously.” Her jaw hardened. She pointed at Prince Eiko and the Minax seeped into the air again, then flowed into his body. This time, he gave an earsplitting shriek of agony that echoed off the cavern walls. He dropped to his knees.
I sensed the exultation of the Minax, both of them, as they absorbed the joy of his suffering.
Marella said, “Return to me,” and the shadow arced toward her and disappeared into her veins. “Now that you know what I’m capable of, I suggest you leave. Or should I just kill you?”
Prince Eiko grabbed the wall and hauled himself to his feet, then turned to face Marella again.
“Go, Prince Eiko,” I said pleadingly.
“I brought you here. I won’t leave you.” He brought his hands up, palms tilted at Marella to attack. She watched him, poised. A snake about to strike.
“You can’t fight this with fire, Prince Eiko,” I said. “Please, go now.”
The corner of Marella’s mouth twitched up, as if she enjoyed his indecision.
“Just go,” I repeated. “Please!” Hearing the urgency in my voice, he backed toward the door and, with a reluctant glance, left the cavern.
“Now you, Arcus,” she said calmly, tilting her pert chin toward the entrance.
He shook his head. “Only if Ruby leaves with me.”
Marella closed her eyes, and the Minax came for him, its onyx talons outstretched. He put up his forearm to block. I waited for that sickening moment when the tendrils would penetrate his skin.
Instead, it recoiled visibly, jerking back as if rebounding off an invisible barrier.
Not that one, it whispered, shaken. I felt its revulsion and pain. Shock rippled through me.
Marella’s eyes were narrowed to slits as she examined Arcus, who stood with his arm still raised as he watched the Minax return to her.
She shuddered as it disappeared into her fingers. “I guess I’ll have to let you stay for now. But I think I’ll close that opening, in case anyone else decides to join us.”
Her arm shot forward and frost surged out to strike the ceiling with the force of a battering ram. A deluge of rock shook the floor, clogging the opening. When the ground stopped trembling, she smiled, self-satisfied. “Didn’t think I could do that, did you? The Minax lends me power.”
Arcus and I shared a brief look. She truly was unstable. Weeks of possession by the Minax had tangled the threads of her mind.
“I’ve dreamed of this day for so long.” She smiled benignly. “To reunite them both. I can hardly believe I’ve done it.”
“Why would you want to?” I asked, wondering if her reasons would make any sense to me.
“The frost Minax and fire Minax are like twins. Not only did the frost Minax feel the constriction of its own bonds, it could feel the pain of its twin in the fire throne. The fire Minax was isolated here, kept from its true host, the queen. The best it could achieve was a partial bond, blocked by rock and castle stone. How do you think that felt, Ruby?”