Chapter 13
Both of them left Fortuna’s home far more uneasy than before they’d arrived and with a handful of the same flyers.
She had thirty in her hands, which were on every surface of the house.
Every bench, every side table, every room.
It seemed impossible they’d walked in and walked out without anyone seeing them, almost as though it had been orchestrated to be that simple.
Jessamine had stewed in the discomfort throughout the walk home, mulling it over in her mind. Elric hadn’t been all that interested in talking either, it seemed.
So much security outside. All those guards, and for what? She’d seen no one make a move toward the house. There hadn’t even been anyone inside other than Fortuna, and they hadn’t seen her when they were inside. Had she only made an appearance in front of the windows to tempt people inside?
But then why wouldn’t there have been a trap? If Leon knew that Jessamine was here, and that she was coming for Fortuna, why didn’t he attack then and there?
“I don’t like it,” she muttered as they paused in front of Elissa’s home. “I don’t feel like we’re being followed. And yet, what other reason would he have to let us enter Fortuna’s home?”
“If that wasn’t the trap, then there is a more elaborate one we will need to evade soon.” He shook his head, lingering in the shadows by the entrance. “I don’t understand it myself.”
“What was the point? Clearly they were tempting someone inside, and that Fortuna is looking for a new protector.” She shook her head. “Or maybe Fortuna herself wished for us to know that. I have a hard time believing this was her plan and not Leon’s.”
“Do you think he’s capable of planning something like this?”
“I think you were closer. It’s more likely that Fortuna knows something he doesn’t want to get out.
Whether he is aware of that or not, or if he’s gotten bored of her, it’s hard to say.
” Jessamine put her hand on the door, readying herself to push it open.
But she paused there, frozen. “I don’t know what to do, Elric.
I feel like anything I say will be wrong. ”
“You know what you’re doing, nightmare. Just tell them what you would say if you were their queen.” He leaned closer, his heat blanketing her spine as he murmured in her ear, “Because you are.”
Squaring her shoulders, she strode into the house.
Elissa and Sybil were waiting in the kitchen, along with the parrot who was apparently Elissa’s former lover, and Nyx, who sat on the table staring at the parrot as though she wanted to take a bite out of it.
Perhaps her familiar knew that there was magic in that bird… but then again, her familiar was a cat.
Frowning, she snatched Nyx off the table before they had to perform another resurrection. “Why does it seem like you’ve all been talking?”
“Because we have,” Sybil replied.
“That sounds dangerous.”
“Women talking tends to be dangerous.” The sly smile on Sybil’s face didn’t seem all that dangerous, though. It seemed like her regular expression. “Did you find Fortuna?”
“We found Fortuna’s home.” Struggling to keep the wriggling cat in her arms still, she finally marched over to the back door and ushered Nyx out. “Go kill birds that didn’t use to be people.”
A faint squawk echoed from Elissa’s lips. “No birds!”
Jessamine glanced at her over her shoulder and nodded, but then made eye contact with Nyx and whispered, “No pretty birds. Just pigeons.”
Her familiar slunk off into the night, clearly not happy with this development. She sent a silent apology to the local bird population. But she couldn’t worry about that blasted parrot while trying to explain to her makeshift coven that she wasn’t sure where to go from here.
By the time she’d made it back to the table, she had a bit of a plan. But even then, it was really just her trying to figure out what her mother would have said in this situation. Of course, her mother wasn’t likely to have consorted with witches in the first place.
“We found some semblance of Fortuna, I suppose. It was an unsettling evening.” She sat down at the table, taking the offered teacup and bringing it to her lips.
She allowed herself one swallow before sighing in displeasure.
“It was all too easy. There were guards surrounding the house, all in Leon’s colors, but they weren’t there to protect anyone.
We thought we saw Fortuna in the window, but then there was no one in the house.
We walked right in easy enough and found a flyer on her vanity for a new ball she’s having.
It’s as though she’s trying to run from Leon, but none of it makes sense. ”
Even Sybil’s brow furrowed in confusion. “That sounds like a trap.”
“That’s what we thought.”
Elissa drummed her fingers on the table.
“Fortuna is a smart woman. I wouldn’t dismiss the idea that she was the one who made sure you were there, and let you find the flyer so easily.
If she wanted to get a message to you, perhaps that would be the best way for her to do it without letting Leon know what was happening. ”
Jessamine shook her head. Shadows of the past played in her mind’s eye.
Fortuna used to make fun of her for being so much scrawnier, and how little Jessamine knew in comparison to the worldly courtesan who had started selling her flesh young.
Fortuna had made money very early in her life, because even then she had ambition.
But that ambition had gone beyond just being someone that men liked to buy.
“I don’t think it’s that,” she murmured. “There is no lost love between Fortuna and me. I don’t think she would reach out to me for help. And regardless, how would she even know we were here?”
Jessamine could hear the screech in her mind as she looked at Elissa. The woman went paler than normal, and her eyes looked down at the table. There was a halting moment of time as Jessamine realized that she wasn’t safe here. She wasn’t safe anywhere.
A crumbling castle that had been forgotten by time itself was the only place she could find someone to trust.
“You?” she whispered. “You told her we were here?”
Elric appeared behind Elissa, rage turning his features dark.
Black shadows slithered out of his eyes, rolling underneath his skin as they spread until his eyes were ringed with darkness.
“You’d best correct her,” he growled, with a voice out of a nightmare.
“Because if you don’t, you’ve betrayed a god.
I think you’ll find I’m much more ruthless than a king’s favored pet, Elissa. ”
The birdlike woman swallowed hard and kept her eyes on the table.
“There are few in the Pleasure District who can escape her, Lady Jessamine. Fortuna runs this entire district with a heavy hand, and if I had said nothing, she would have destroyed my home. She’d have someone come in and ransack the whole place.
It would be impossible for me to escape her. ”
Her heart shattered into a million pieces.
It hurt to know that someone who she had blindly trusted was so willing to give her up.
There should have been some kind of warning.
They’d helped Elissa. They’d given her the power to become a witch on her own, so she didn’t have to fear what Fortuna would do to her. All of these things were a blessing.
But then Jessamine remembered that they had terrified her as well.
Elissa had been fine here without them. She’d thought that nothing could stand between her and the world, and that gods weren’t real.
They’d all died, and knowing that she was wrong in that aspect must have been more terrifying than losing her life.
But there was something inside of her that remained faithful to Fortuna.
A terrible feeling burst to life, one she almost felt guilty for even feeling.
But without a god at their side, she was not sure they would succeed in this.
Fortuna had loyalty on her side. True, real loyalty that was far beyond what Jessamine had yet to inspire.
If Elissa was so willing to betray them like this, when she’d thought they had built something together, had Fortuna already won? No. Not this time.
Fortuna might have her foot on the throats of those who followed her. She might inspire fear in their hearts and was certainly more dangerous at this moment, but she was not a witch.
Jessamine caught Elric’s gaze behind Elissa, and froze.
All of his magic had slid free from his shoulders.
The shadows stretched from his shoulder blades and caught onto the rafters above him, onto the door, the windows, sticky ink forming the wings of a predator.
He was a monster hovering behind a witch, ready to give her the retribution she deserved for betraying them.
But Jessamine still had hope that not all was lost. Because Elissa still wouldn’t look at them. She kept her gaze far from any of their faces, and her body spoke of guilt as much as it spoke of fear.
Jessamine shook her head at the massive god behind Elissa, who would choose to end her life rather than save it. Elissa didn’t need revenge right now. What she needed was a family to make her feel safe.
Standing, Jessamine walked over to a bundle of sticks that Elissa must use for some of the birdcages.
There were many of them, each in different sizes and thicknesses and different kinds of wood.
She picked them all up in her hands, slowly returning to the table.
Elissa flinched, as though afraid she was going to whack her with the sharp ends.
Instead, Jessamine chose a thin branch and placed it in front of her. “Break it.”
“What?” Elissa looked up at her.
“Break the stick, Elissa.”