The closer I got, the broader it seemed, and soon the murmur of speculating onlookers dimmed until I no longer heard them. The mist hung unmoving and undisturbed yet seemed to be breathing. I caught the faintest of inhales and the shudder of an exhale minutes later.

A sleeping dragon.

“You enter by walking through it.” Sven waited for me to come to him. How very like him. But he didn’t seem angry. That was almost more nerve-wracking. “But since you’ve changed your mind, we won’t need to do that, right?”

“Changed my mind?” I asked.

“You’re here. You rejoined us. You can give me the wish right now and I’ll wish the Trials away.”

Give him the wish. He still thought I was his tool to be used for glory. It was time for this to end. For the truth to come out at last.

“It was cruel of you to give me a fake. Make me fight my own people for it.” His voice turned to cold, sharpened steel. “Threaten me with it.”

“I did what I had to do.”

“Then you can do the same right now. Give me a wish. A real wish.”

“I can’t make wishes anymore.” I bit my lip. This wasn’t like when I’d told Mutti—which had been easy and natural. However, unlike when I told him I was the Wishtress, this time I felt freedom. A desperate sort but freedom all the same.

He gave a half laugh of disbelief. “Another lie? This is where it happened.” He gestured to our surroundings. “My vision. This is where you give me the wish.”

I frowned. I didn’t see any trees like he’d described. “What . . . what happened in the vision after I gave it to you?” Did he see me give other wishes? Cured?

“I destroy the Trials. I lead everyone to the Well. We win.”

“But, Sven, I can’t make wishes anymore.” He wasn’t hearing me. I wasn’t sure he’d ever truly heard me.

A long pause. “That’s not what you’re supposed to say.” The statement held an undertone of warning.

To keep talking would be to intentionally skate into the middle of a thawing lake. But there was no going back now. Sometimes when faced with thin ice, skaters needed a burst of speed to pass over it before it could break beneath them.

“I was cursed the day after I told you about my Talent. When I froze the Vier, it killed a woman’s children. She had a Bane, so she cursed me in return. The next time I make a wish, I’ll . . . I’ll die.”

Sven closed his eyes as though drawing up the last vestiges of patience from within. “Stop, Myrthe.”

“I want to help—”

“Just stop.”