Elina

It wasn't my first time traveling with someone, but it was my first time traveling with a witch. And now she didn't have gransia handcuffs on.

Which made things very different.

She had two ways of staying on the cart. She would either sit in the front, her hands folded on her lap, with the quiet dignity of a noblewoman. Or she would lie on the corn, sprawled out, without a care in the world, oblivious to everything.

And right now, she was on the corn.

She stretched and yawned. Took a cob, summoned a dancing flame into the palm of her hand, roasted it and ate it.

"Salem, you want some?"

I ignored her.

"You want?" She prodded my back with the corn.

I turned around. I shook my head.

She made a face.

She said, "My magic isn't poisoned, you know."

There's always two sides to a person. A good side and a bad side. Kindness and savagery. It exists in everyone. It exists in me. And it exists in Elina. More so than in anyone I've ever met.

When I first saw her in Altheim: a grey dress, magic all around her. A kind girl loved by everyone. More like than angel than a witch.

Then in the honeytrap village. She played along. Watched the charade unfold. In the end, she killed everyone. Using magic I've never seen before.

At that time I didn't realize it. Because of the shock. Or because I was just glad to be alive. But that village had roughly a hundred people. She had killed a hundred people. Just like that. And she would've killed the children too.

She did it without blinking, without remorse.

She lay in the back of the cart, munching her corn, humming a tune, as content as a priest on a Sunday morning when all the folk came for prayers and offered donations.

Such capacity to kill was frightening. Even the most hardened mercenary would need to see a priest after butchering an entire village. Honeytrap or not. It would shake anyone's conscience. But not hers.

"Is something wrong?" Elina asked.

I said nothing.

She climbed into the seat. Sat down next to me.

The seat was too large for one person, too small for two. Our shoulders touched. I could feel her warmth.

I glanced at her.

Her blank silver eyes looked up at me, mildly curious, a spark of smugness hiding in their depths.

She said she wanted my trust.

She forced me to rely on her.

She hadn't killed me. But she could've done so.

Did she spare me because she wanted to keep her word? Or was there another reason?

With the handcuffs off, she didn't need me anymore.

Unless she did.

She still hadn't revealed what Julia Abernathy told her. What she got out of the green eye bastard's friend, Gregor. The answer would lie in whatever she found out from those two.

I looked at her. She looked at me.

What was she thinking?

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ELINA: There is one thing magic can't do: read a person's thoughts.

I've tried to develop a spell for it. It never worked. Not on humans, not on animals. Not even on other witches. There is something about the domain of the mind that lay beyond my reach.

But Salem was different.

I could read him. His thoughts and feelings. The rhythm of his heart, the tiniest change in mood. No magic needed.

Maybe that was why I liked him. He was an open book.

I got up and sat down next to him. The wind was a little chilly. My shoulder touched his. His heartbeat changed. I could hear it. I could feel it.

I looked at him. "Is something wrong?"

He said nothing.

I suppressed a smile.

I suppose he didn't know how to act around me. Because the power dynamic changed. Before I was his prisoner. Now he was mine.

He knew how to act rough and mean around a captured witch. But what about now?

I nudged him with my elbow.

He said, "What?"

"Nothing."

We sat in silence. The wheels of the cart turned, the horse walked along, letting out a wet breath every now and then. A gust of wind carried the scent of grass, a hint of forest, a drop of smoke from a human town somewhere.

I nudged him again. A little harder this time.

He said, "Is someone coming?"

I shook my head.

I said, "As a reward for freeing me and not running away, I will answer one question with full honesty."

"One question?"

"Choose wisely."

Salem said nothing. He held the reins in his hands, stared ahead. Contemplated quietly.