“Depends,” she said. “Some poisons run their course quickly, and the magic cures the damage that has been done to the body. With others, the toxin lingers or builds, and the magic is used to draw it out of the body, which sometimes does more harm than good. It’s painful, and always more magic is required to heal the damage.”

“That’s it. The latter,” I said, my mind racing. “Do you know a spell?”

She nodded. “The best requires lobelia, but there will be none of that found in the dead of winter, so we will have to use alternatives. Regardless, it’s what needs doing afterward that’s the difficult part. But,” she eyed Martin, “you’ve told me time and again that the earth’s magic is ineffective on full-blooded trolls.”

“It is.” But what Martin had said about the earth using iron to rid itself of what didn’t belong had struck a chord. “A witch’s magic won’t work on them because they are not of this world,” I said. “But the iron is. What if the spell could be used to draw it out?”

“Surely it’s been tried?” Gran asked Martin, who shook his head. “Not that I’ve ever heard. Or if it has, it certainly didn’t work. ”

Excitement flooded through me, chasing away the cold and exhaustion. “It won’t hurt to try.”

Gran hissed softly between her teeth. “It will hurt. For better or worse, the iron is part of them now, has infiltrated every part of their bodies, even their magic. You’ll be tearing them apart to get it out.”

“And putting them back together with their own power,” I finished. There was a perfect symmetry to the idea. It felt right. “I want to try it.”

“Then you’ll need a test subject,” Martin said. “I propose that subject be me.”

I hesitated. He’d been through so much, and the thought of causing him more pain made my stomach sour. “Are you sure?”

His smile was more of a grimace, but he nodded. “A life without purpose is no life at all. The fight to make our world a place worth living was everything to Élise, but she didn’t get to see it through. I’ll do this for her.”

Chapter Forty-Five

Tristan

“All that effort to keep him from taking control of the islanders, and now you’re just going to let him have them?” Chris jabbed a stick into the fire, sending a cloud of sparks up into the air. “What a waste of effort.”