bChapter /bb57 /b

I wasted my timementing, thinking about how to end it all before I came of age.”

“You know what?” She squeezes my hand.

b75/bb% /b

b(/bb+20/b)

“Take advantage of what you’re feeling, even if it’s thanks to him. Live. Don’t give in. Don’t resign yourself to your role. Use the interest bhe /bhas in you to live, ra.”

“Weren’t you the one saying his interest was the worst thing that could happen to me?”

“It probably is. But if you’re getting something out of it, maybe it’s not so bad.”

“You two are chatty today!”

We both jump, hands on our chests as if to calm our hearts.

Ank appears, stretching her arms as if she just woke up.

Do smanders sleep? Maybe I should look that up…

Ank stares directly at Evanora, and Evanora does the same.

They watch each other without blinking.

“You’re a…” Evanora begins.

“You must be the White Banshee.”

I look intently at Evanora after hearing that name, hoping maybe she’ll give me an exnation, though I suppose it’s her hair that earned her

the nickname.

Ank scurries across the chipped table and gives a little hop to get my attention.

I move closer and offer her my finger so she can climb up. The warmth of her body against my skin is pleasant, not quite painful.

“You know me?” asks the banshee.

“Of course,” Ank says, proud of herself. “I’m old enough to have heard of you. The banshee beloved by magic who renounced the Old Gods to

worship Lilith.”

Evanora’s expression darkens immediately. I look at both of them, frowning.

Once again, things are slipping past me.

The look they give each other bes even more tense, if that’s possible.

I begin to suspect there are some old grudges between them.

“Will someone exin what’s going on?”

“Nothing, the banshee simply replies.

“What does that mean, ‘Old Gods?” I keep digging.

75%0

Evanora sighs and retreats further onto the table, crossing her legs and directing her gaze to anywhere but me.

It’s clear I won’t get answers from her, so I lift Ank to my face until she’s at eye level.

1 give her my best smile, one I hope reaches my eyes.

“Would you be so kind as to exin it to me, Ankhiale?”

“I can’t say no when you use my full name.”

She sps her hands under her chin and gives us a flutter of hershes before sitting on my finger as if it were a chairb, /band then she begins to speak again.

“The Old Gods, as their name suggests, are the gods who existed before what you now know.

Before that egocentric man who thinks he’s the only one.”

“And why haven’t I heard of them?”

“Because you forgot them–the moment they retreated to rest and you fell into the clutches of the false God and that demoness.”

Ank’s tone is angry.

“But they haven’t forgotten us. They’re still here, and one day they’ll make you pay for forgetting them.”

“Demoness?”

“She means Lilith,” Evanora rifies.

She makes a sound of resignation before continuing to speak.

“Surely you’ve heard of white magic witches and dark magic witches.”

I nod.

“Well, a white witch practices magic by offering to the Old Gods, while a dark witch does so in the name of Lilith.”

“You’re forgetting the most important part,” Ank grumbles.

“What part? That nearly all fairies are followers of them?”

“No, not that–though she’s right,” says the smander, looking only at me. “What Evanora hasn’t told you is that a dark witch has no soul. She gives it to Lilith, who feeds on them. The Old Gods would never ask for something like that. Our soul is our pass to thends toe. Without bit/b, there’s nothing after.”

I bring a hand to my temple, feeling like the information is a p across my face. Too much to take in at once.

“If you think I’m so horrible for not having a soulb, /bwhat are you doing under the roof of one of Lilith’s sons?”

bAnk /bjumps slightly on my finger, and the smander actually seems affected by her words. Her hair, always wreathed in mes, seems to dim a little, and her gaze drops to the floor.

“I made a promise to a daughter of Lilith, and I intend to keep it.”

“I take it that daughter you’re speaking of must’ve died in one of the great massacres of the Pure.”

14:42 Tue, 5 Aug

My hands act on their own, stroking the tiny head of Ank as if i could somehow offerfort. Ank lifts her eyes, which until now had always been two warm, burning Bames, but now are bluish and dim.

“That’s right.”

“Humans can be cruelly clever sometimes,” Evanoraments, and I feel her body move closer to us, as if she too wants to offer somefort. “Someday, they’ll get what they set out to achieve.”

“Believe me, I’m the one who hates herself the most for doing this, but I have to ask–what exactly did the humans set out to do?”

“A Pure can only be born from the union of a Pure man and a Pure woman.”

Evanora makes a gesture with her hands to add one plus one.

“Throughout history, there have been two great massacres where humans hunted the Pure women and killed them, making sure no more

Pures could be born.”

“That doesn’t solve the problem with the Diluted,” Iment.

“No, the Diluted increase in number very quickly,” she concedes.

“Though they hope to make them disappear little by little once their original source has vanished. The problem is, those who knew how to kill a Pure were murdered by none other than the owner of this castle.”

“Cassian,” I say.

“The very same.”

After that, the three of us fall silent, and none of us seems willing to break it. I chew on the information, trying to digest it. Too much to

absorb all at once.

There was a time when humans stood up to these creatures, reduced their numbers. Humans figured out how to destroy them. It’s incredible. It also exins Cassian’s deep hatred for us.

Ank stands on her tiny legs, bncing like my finger were a tightrope and she a top–tier acrobat.

“I saw you dancing with Eleazar.”

She puts her hands on her hips, clearly switching the topic entirely.

“How did you see me?” I replyi, /iconfused.

“I already told you–I can go anywhere there’s a me. I was in the bonfire.b” /b

“Oh.”

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” she snaps in a scolding tone. “I want all the juicy details–don’t leave anything out.”

“There are no juicy details.”

I shrug. Evanora hops off the table and stands beside me. She bumps my shoulder with hers, making my body shift and causing Ank to lose

her bnce.

“Come on, don’t be shy, tell her what you told me.”

bI /bshoot Evanora a look that could freeze hell.

b3/4 /b

14:42 Tue, 5 Aug