Gunter stiffens beside me. My heart pounds, grating against my ears, mingling with the racing pulse of the girl whose auras I’m currently sifting through.

I lock eyes with the queen.

“All of us?”

She grins, and for a moment, I’m taken back to a snow-crested hill, a mouthful of snow, and a melodious laugh.

“I swear it.”

It seems like a dream, one I’ve been grasping at each morning I’ve woken in this dreadful palace, so I make her repeat the bargain. Make her patch every possible loophole, outline each step of what she agrees to do for me and when.

And once I’m satisfied, I agree.

CHAPTER 3

BLAISE: AGE TWELVE

If Father notices I burned his eggs this morning, he doesn’t mention it.

Instead, he gobbles them up. I have to help him, of course. His fingers are weak, and they shake with such ferocity he’s ended up with more egg bits on his silk bedsheets than in his mouth.

He doesn’t like for me to spoon-feed him though, so I don’t.

I don’t wipe the dribble off his mouth, either.

He claims the eggs are delicious, though they’re certainly not. I’ve never had a reason to learn to cook, not when my father is an ambassador to the King of Dwellen on behalf of the human citizens and his salary allows him to employ a dozen servants.

But sometimes he talks about the days before he rose to a place of prominence, back when it was just Mama and him, and how much he loved the way she cooked eggs.

Mama’s not here anymore, and Papa’s not long for this side of the sun, either.

There’s so little he enjoys anymore, and I suppose I thought the eggs… Well, I thought it would be like having her back. That it would be like having all three of us together again. Not that I remember those days. My mother passed before my mind had known to grasp onto the memories of her.

Once Father’s done, and there are egg bits and dribbles of milk all over his bed robes, I steal a bite of the scrambled eggs off his plate.

I instantly gag. They’re burnt and bland and disgusting.

“You didn’t have to eat these,” I say, my stomach sinking. I wanted to give my father a last little bit of enjoyment, especially in a life where he gets so very little of it.

My mind races, and I wonder then if this will be his last meal.

I wonder if every meal will be his last meal, but somehow, I think it’ll be worse if he dies having eaten disgusting burnt eggs.

“I’ll get Bruno to make you some more,” I say, quickly swiping the plate from off the tray I’ve perched carefully upon his knees.

My father reaches out and grabs my arm. The movement is gentle, but his hands are cursed with that ever-present tremble, and he accidentally shakes my arm. I drop the plate, and the remnants of what will probably be my father’s last meal go scattering across the floor.

“Leave it,” he says, when I go to pick up the mess. “That was the best meal I’ve had in a long time. At least I’ll get to look at it a bit longer.”

He grins at me, his brown eyes wide and so very, very tired. I let out a laugh that sounds more like a wheeze, and I reach over and squeeze his hand.

“Just sit with me awhile?” he asks, so I do.

There was a time when sitting with my father would have been a loud and boisterous occasion, a feast of stories about his days as a traveling ambassador, and I would gobble up every tale, no matter how many times over he’d told me the same story.

Now, I mostly just hold his hand while he sleeps and try to keep my sobs from getting too loud, lest they wake him.

It was okay for a while, sitting here with him in the quiet.

The only problem is that it’s not quiet any longer.

There’s a rattle in my father’s chest that crept up yesterday. It’s wet and gargled, and it has me wondering if there’s water sloshing around while he breathes.

I’m only twelve years old, and there’s plenty I don’t yet know about the world, but I’m certain that breathing isn’t supposed to sound like that.

It grows louder the longer he sleeps. So loud, it reminds me of a roar, and I wonder if I should wake him. Perhaps if I can get him to sit up straighter in bed—

My father vomits. It’s violent and quick, and it soaks the bed in blood and mucus and wet eggs.

“You vile, useless little creature,” my stepmother, Clarissa, hisses, even as I frantically try to wipe up the vomit with the hem of my skirt.

I guess I must have screamed for help. I don’t really remember.

The stench of my father’s illness climbs up my nostrils, settling into my mind, where I imagine it will remain. Permanently.

“You knew better than to give your father food. You heard what the physician said last week.”

A knot forms in my throat, stinging so badly I wonder if it might burst.

I did hear what the physician said. That my father is too weak to eat safely. That he could easily choke on his food, even if we cut it up into little pieces, like I’d done with the eggs this morning.

The eggs that now douse my skirts.

“But if he doesn’t eat, he’ll die.” The lump in my throat swells. “We can’t just let him starve.”

Guilt pangs in my chest for talking about my father like he’s not in the room with us. But he’s not in the room with us, not really. If he was, he wouldn’t have tolerated Clarissa calling me vile. Instead, his eyes are closed, his head lolled to the side as he leans against his wife. He’s groaning, mumbling words that aren’t words.

My stomach knots, and I have to look away.

“Of course your father is dying, can you not see that?” Clarissa gestures over to my father with her free hand, the one she’s not using to support him. She acts like she’s there for him, but the truth is, she wouldn’t touch him until a servant came in and changed him out of his soiled robes. “Why can’t you just let him die in peace? Instead, you have to be a selfish little brat about it. You’d rather him suffer so you could hold on to him. For what? A few days longer?”

My throat is on fire, and I have to bite my tongue to keep from sobbing. I hate Clarissa, and I hate her sniveling daughters.

“Go make yourself of use and help Bruno clean the stove. And the rest of the kitchen while you’re at it. You stunk up the entire servants’ quarters this morning, and I don’t feel like my dinner tasting of burnt eggs.”

My mouth hangs open. Surely she can’t be serious. “But Father…”

“Get out. You can come back when you’re done.”