Chapter 29 #2
“You are the best of me,” he says, reaching his bound hands up to wipe an errant tear from my cheek.
“You’ve endured the consequences of my mistakes for so long.
Of all the things I’ve done, that’s the one I’ll never forgive myself for.
” He coughs again, this one wetter, staining his lips red.
“I’m asking you to do one last thing for me: get out of here and live. ”
I can’t even speak. All I can do is shake my head over and over, as if my denial will stop what he’s saying.
“Live. Make friends. Enjoy your life. Once Mathias is dead, you’ll have so much time. Treasure it.”
Leo kneels by my side, offering my grandfather his free hand. “I have the spell.”
Benny’s smile is thin but genuine. “Thank you.”
The casting is quiet, but the way his shoulders ease once it’s done is enough to make me weirdly grateful.
“I love you,” Benny tells me. “I don’t say it enough. No one does, really. Now please, Pierce. Follow Blanche out of here and don’t look back.”
My lips mime those three words back at him, but I can’t breathe. The noose around my throat is too tight.
This is all happening too fast. It doesn’t feel real, like it’s happening to someone else.
White noise fills my ears as the door swings open behind me. The harsh light of the fluorescents in the hallway beyond flood the cell. Benny’s eyes water in the sudden brightness.
Then that sergeant is back, blocking the glare with her shadow. “Five minutes are up,” she says. “They’re coming for you now.”
She aims the last at Benny, who nods once. “Keep him safe.”
Lambert’s hand lands on my shoulder, pulling me away.
We’re out in the corridor before I can process really getting there. More aegis stream past us, heading for his cell.
Benny cries out—faked. It must be fake. He was numb. Leo said he—
I turn, but there are too many people between me and him now. The hallway is more packed than it was earlier. Other enforcement officers join us at the exit, giving Blanche little nods.
More of Benny’s people.
We cross the threshold. Someone—I think it’s Leo—grips my arm and forces me to turn right.
My feet stop moving.
“Pierce, man…” Lambert trails off like he’s not sure what to say. “We’re with you, whatever you decide, but he’s right. It’s suicide.”
“It’s not just us,” Leo reminds me. “If Mathias gets his hands on us, he gets his hands on Kyrith. You know the risks. That’s exactly why Benny—”
They’re escorting him past us now. His smaller, grey-tracksuit-clad form is easily visible between the squad of eight aegis agents surrounding him. He catches my eye, offers me a final, resolute little smile and a wink.
Eight isn’t too many.
They turn left, marching him away from us, through a glass door on the opposite end of the hallway.
I’m following them before I know what I’m doing.
“Pierce,” Leo hisses.
The concrete courtyard beyond the door is loud and horrifyingly familiar. Black and blue uniformed arcanists are packed into the space. There are too many of them. I can’t see my grandfather.
Then I look up.
In the middle of the yard, on a stone scaffold that looks like it belongs in the Middle Ages, stands my mother. Her suit is immaculate, her expression serene as she waits for her goons to drag my grandfather up the steps and chain his shackled feet to the iron ring in front of her.
I can’t hear what they’re saying from here. I don’t need to. The cruel tilt of her mouth tells me it’s nothing good.
Stars, it’s exactly like my father’s execution, except for one thing.
Back then, Anthea and I were in the front row. Made to watch. Now Mathias holds that place of honour. Even if I didn’t recognise him from behind, the wide berth everyone else is giving him is a dead giveaway.
“This is the first,” Mother announces, looking over the arcanists crammed into the yard. “But we will not rest until every necromancer is dealt with in the same way, and our families are safe from this corruption!”
My hand slips into my grimoire. I step forward, slipping between spectators. I can disarm her. Maybe even kill her. As for Mathias, maybe Lambert and Leo can distract him long enough—
Above me, Benny looks tiredly over the crowd, catches sight of me, and stills.
There’s an incremental shake of his head. A jerk of his chin.
I freeze in place. I’m ten feet away.
I can’t move. Some invisible hand has grabbed all of my limbs and locked them down.
What the—? No!
I recognise an ensorcellment when I’m in the grip of one, but before I can counter it, they’ve taken control of my hand, slipping my fingers away from the pages of my grimoire.
I strain against the spell, but my legs are already twisting.
If I had the space to think past the blind desperation shredding my lungs, I might find it ironic that it’s the very spell I used against North all those months ago.
I manage to resist just long enough to see my grandfather’s head drop in defeat, then I’m forced around. Turning my back on him, even though it’s the last thing I want to do.
The glowing golden light that erupts from the scaffold reflects off the faces of everyone around me. Their cheers are deafening. Their voices ring in my ears as I’m forced away.
My own screams are silent. Caged.
“I’m sorry,” Blanche says, as I come to a halt beside her and the ashen-faced brothers. “But it’s what he wanted.”
My jaw works, but I’m mute as she uses her grimoire to force me to take step after step away from my grandfather. She’s preventing me from making a scene. I know that. I’d do the same in her shoes.
Her spell means I can’t even brush away the humiliating tears soaking into my mask. Fortunately, we don’t pass anyone else. They must’ve scattered, or maybe they’re all watching my mother make speeches over Benny’s corpse.
Blanche doesn’t release me until she has led us out of a side entrance and across the street.
“I’ll kill you for this,” I swear, as she drops the silencing spell.
The words are heated, but I don’t grab for my grimoire, so I must not really mean them. I should kill her. If not for her, I could’ve done something. I could’ve distracted them. He could’ve used that and escaped.
With no grimoire and all of those aegis agents everywhere? The rational voice in the back of my brain is as unwelcome as it is correct.
We walked into the building with the odds stacked against us. It was always possible that we’d fail.
I stride away from all of them, gripping the railing overlooking the Thames until the rusted metal bites into my skin. Lambert comes to stand at my side, but I shrug him off when he tries to pat my shoulder.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Blanche replies, already heading back towards the cold stone building we just left. “But I’m not the one you’re angry at.”
“You let him die.”
She looks over her shoulder at me, eyes wet. “I honoured his last request. I suggest you do the same and get out of London before you’re recognised. I’ll see you soon.”
“Was he numb?” I demand, grabbing Leo by the front of his shirt. “Did the spell hold?”
“Yes.”
“Do you swear?”
His head dips. “I swear. He felt nothing.”
My mouth twists, despair creeping across my shoulder blades as I release him.
“We should’ve done more—”
Leo surprises me when he reaches forward and hugs me. It only lasts a second, but the shock of his warmth breaks through the chill, silencing my objections.
“Don’t go there.” He squeezes before he lets me go. “Trust me, it’ll drive you mad.”
“Dude,” Lambert begins hesitantly. “I don’t want to rush you, but that sergeant was right; we’ve got to go. If we get caught, everything that just happened was meaningless.”
I can’t argue. He’s right, and he’s gentle enough about it that I can’t even scream at him like I want to.
I want to storm back in there and claim my grandfather’s corpse before my mother decides to use it for her own ends.
The grief clawing against the inside of my ribs demands vengeance, but even I’m not stupid enough to believe I could take both liches on by myself. My capture would risk Kyrith’s safety.
I can’t lose her too.
I’m just as useless now as I was while they cheered for his death. Powerlessness surges again, drowning my anger, leaving me drained.
My chin dips once.
This time, when Lambert’s hand lands on my shoulder, it’s accompanied by the gut-yanking sensation of a transport spell.