Finding Her Magical King novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: What She Owes

The frost had reached his throat.

It lay along his collar in white feathers, and his lips were the colour of ash.

I dropped to my knees by the bed and took his hand.

The mark flared weakly and sputtered.

"Out," I said to the room.

Ivor took the physician by the arm, and the door shut behind them.

Maeve stayed, with her bruised cheek and her arms folded, planted in the corner.

"Not you," I said gently.

"I'm not going anywhere," said Maeve. "But I won't look."

She turned her face to the wall.

Anselm's eyes opened a crack.

"Hello," he said, in a thread of a voice.

"Hello."

"Heard the hall went well."

"It went."

"And the cell?"

"Better than I thought." I pressed his hand to my cheek.

"I can aim it now. It doesn't have to go to you."

"Good girl," he whispered, and I almost laughed.

Soot jumped up on the bed and sat on his stomach, and neither of us moved him.

"You said you wanted the true one," I said.

"Sorrel, you don't have to."

"I do. I've owed it to you since the yard."

He went quiet and let me.

I was shaking, and I had no idea where to start.

I started with the thing I had never said to anyone, not to Maeve, not to the cat.

"I remember the balcony," I said.

"I know."

"No. You don't. I remember what you did."

His brow creased.

"There were two men on that balcony," I said. "One was big and stood still. One was a boy who fought."

Anselm's eyes closed.

"You were screaming through the gag. They had to hold you by both arms."

"You got one elbow loose and hit somebody in the face."

"I broke a guard's nose."

"I saw it. I was ten, and I stood on the stones, and I watched a boy try."

His fingers tightened on mine.

"I decided that night," I said, "that I hadn't seen it."

"Sorrel."

"I let myself remember a boy who stood there and did nothing."

"I needed somebody to hate."

"If you'd tried, then there was nobody. There was only a rope, and a forged letter, and a liar I couldn't see."

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