“She was going to kill me in the hopes you’d die too.”

“That wasn’t my question.” He caught my face in his hands and tipped it up. “I could have stopped her without killing her. I would have.”

“I know.” And I might still come to regret the choice. “Anushka was telling the truth when she said she didn’t break the mountain,” I said, seeing my memory of her memories though my eyes were wide open. “It was the mines, and the trolls knew it.”

“Then…”

“Alexis treated her better than he did his own wife.” I turned my head so I could see Anushka. She was a murderer, but then, so was I. “She had his child within days of the mountain’s collapse; and I think until that point, she believed none of the laws, customs, or beliefs of the trolls applied to her. That she was queen in his eyes, so their daughter would be a princess, or at least treated like one.”

My eyes burned as I remembered the way he had looked at the baby. The life of a bastard half-blood destined for servitude means nothing… “That was not how it came to pass.”

“She plotted and planned to flee with the child once there was a way out of Trollus, but Queen Lamia had other plans for her. She hated Anushka. When they were hours away from freedom, Lamia killed the baby right in front of her.”

Tristan’s breath caught in his chest, but he said nothing.

“Alexis refused to do anything to punish Lamia. Not because he didn’t think she deserved it, but because doing so would harm himself. She killed him for his weakness, but she cursed the trolls as revenge against Lamia. What the Queen wanted more than anything was to see her children rule the world, and all Anushka wanted was to take that dream from her.” Some punishments are worse than death…

“You think she was wrong to kill them?” There was incredulity in Tristan’s voice.

I shook my head. “She deserved that revenge, but…” I struggled to find the words to explain what I’d seen and how I felt. “She is not a god to condemn an entire race for an injustice she alone had suffered. And I could not live with myself for leaving our friends to die because I was too weak to do what was needed.”

My words were strong, but my skin already crawled at what I had done. A decision made in an instant that would change life as we knew it. If the world burns, its blood will be on your hands…

A slow, measured thud filled my ears like a vast drum beat by giant hands. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Tristan’s whole body stiffened, his arm tightening around me and making it hard to breathe. “No. Not yet.”

“What is it?” I demanded, his fear ratcheting up my own.

A scream like nothing I had ever heard rent the stillness of the night, piercing my ears and making my heart beat in the rapid, primal way of the hunted.