It was as if Belladonna could see Lady Kestra in a different light.
Everything she would have ignored before, she observed. She observed how Lady Kestra walked, every uncertain step she took, observed her so much that she had once caught her absentmindedly almost freezing up a goblet when she drank from it.
Her body must be fighting to accommodate all that power.
Keres and the child's.
Anger filled Belladonna up, not because of how Eli rushed around Kestra, his guilt making him want to do everything to please her, nor the fact that he had carried her in his arms and taken her to her room, settling her in bed as the poor witch held back her tears, but because she now knew who she really was and what she did.
Belladonna's hands twitched with the need to strangle her, take her breath away from her forever.
She must have killed that child.
Belladonna just knew it.
Many royal physicians had come to her room, checking her eyes and coming back with the same sad news.
"We will try our best, your Majesty, but there is a really slim possibility for her to ever recover her sight."
It made Belladonna's heart swell with pride.
She could have never believed that the twig would take Kestra's sight away like that, but even like this, Belladonna couldn't help but feel that Lady Kestra was still really dangerous.
She had to keep it hidden that she knew who she really was, besides it would just make things easy if she found out that the person to whom the torn piece of clothing in her hand belonged to, was her.
In fact, it would be best to get rid of that piece of clothing before she would start performing her magic on it and all the answers would lead straight to her doorstep.
After all, her blood was on it.
"Kestra, I am really sorry about this," Eli said when the last Royal Physician had left. "But you do not have to worry, they will find a way. You will be alright."
"It is the one with the White Aura." Lady Kestra said, sitting up in bed and tracing the piece of cloth that had now been wrapped around her head and with herbs tucked in them, to ease the pain, heal her cut and hopefully help with her sight.
"What?"
Belladonna balled her fists, looking away at the walls of the room instead, feeling the pain she had sustained from their battle hitting her.
"I don't know what she wants but she is really dangerous."
Eli paced around, clearly unsettled by the news.
"Lady Bell," Kestra said, but Belladonna's heart had raced and it was only until she discovered that she was only extending her hands to her, to beckon to her, did she feel alright again.
Belladonna raced to her as much as she could pretending to care, sitting by her bedside and taking her hands.
"Kestra, how do you feel?"
"Better now that I know you are safe. I was so worried she had gotten to you. I had to rush here immediately."
Lady Kestra pulled her into an embrace, burying her nose into the crock of her neck and breathing her in.
Belladonna tensed up at her action, realizing just at that moment that the piece of cloth she had planned to steal, was gone.
Where was it?
She hadn't seen Lady Kestra tossing it anywhere.
Till they stepped into the room, the piece of cloth was with her.
She pulled away as soon as possible, covering the quickness of her act by rubbing her fingers across lady Kestra's cheeks to wipe her tears away.
This witch wanted to use her as a sacrifice to get power.
This witch was altering the mind of all the people in the Capital.
No wonder many of them were always happy, because it made them never question the Choosing Ritual.
Those who formed The Eye must be part of those people whose minds started fighting against the Alterer's hold. It could be why they were fighting the wrong person, why they wanted to kill her.
An altered mind--
---wait!
Except if someone had discovered what Lady Kestra wanted to use her for.
Like the one with the White Aura.
If they were truly led by the one with the White Aura, this creature might be after her, because the creature knew that she was the last sacrifice.
The one with the White Aura might even be the Nahiri, the one they were all looking for.
Ah, by Ignas, that made sense.
Maybe she could find this Nahiri, join forces with her, and get rid of this Soul Witch.
But how?
Belladonna's anger towards Lady Kestra increased.
A raging volcano in her heart.
This witch had sacrificed 199 brides.
This witch was power hungry, she had killed many of her kind, even killed babies that were too innocent to know what they possessed.
Merciless, cruel, wicked.
This witch deserved a painful death.
She would kill this witch.
But how?
"Get well soon, Lady Kestra. It saddens me to see you like this."
"Having a friend on this trying time means so much, thank you for being here with me."
Such sweet words, from such evil lips.
"Of course, someone like you doesn't deserve to be alone."
She did.
She deserved that and worse.
Belladonna wanted to deliver, but how?
___
They finally returned to their chambers, and while Eli spoke on and on about what to do next about Lady Kestra's situation, how guilty it made him feel that she had lost her sight while trying to seek a cure for him, Belladonna was worried about something else entirely.
Since Lady Kestra was the Soul Witch it meant, just like Keres had said, that someone else was helping her bear the weight of the Alterer.
"How are you feeling?" She blurted out the question and Eli turned to her, putting his mask on the table as he left out a heavy sign.
"Guilty. This is all my fault." He brushed his hand across his face, walking away to the bed, and sitting on the edge. "Will she be blind all her life from now on because of me?"
That wasn't her question, but it was obvious Eli had his mind wrapped up in a completely different thought.
Yet, she still had to get an answer.
It would determined everything if Eli was the one bearing the weight of the Alterer for her.
Did that mean that he knew about what was actually happening to the brides?
Oh Ignas, Keres called them prepared souls.
Did that mean that anytime they took the brides to the room for Kestra to help their mind from the pollution it must have gotten from getting involved with the Bride thief, did that mean she was just preparing their souls for the sacrifice all this time?
By Ignas, it felt like it!
Maybe this necklace on her neck was preparing her soul right now!
If it kept her from the Bride Thief, it only meant that something about what the Bride Thief could offer held freedom, and not the woes she had been told about.
Did the brides really disappear or were their bodies in those coffins? Invisible?
It was too much, her head would explode.
She had to take it one at a time.
Right now, she had to find out if Eli was bearing the mark of the Alterer or if he was helping her bear the weight of the summon.
Each answer held different consequences.
If he was having his mind altered, then she would have to find out what she was having his mind altered towards.
Because, unlike the people, Belladonna was sure it would be to something else.
She would have to find out if his feelings towards her were even real.
If he wasn't bearing the Alterer's mark, then she would have to find out if Eli knew all along and was lying to her from the beginning just to have her as a sacrifice at the end.
Each possibility made a knot form in her belly but she pushed past the ache in her muscles and the hidden cuts on her skin from the battle she had fought in her dream, and the pain that seem to cut through her heart from the thoughts that held her heart hostage.
She loved Eli.
He loved her too.
It would be painful to discover otherwise but it would be foolish to let fear stop her from finding out the truth.
So, she stepped in front of him, falling to her knees and her fingers finding the first button.