Chapter 20 #2
I captured her lips and framed her cheeks in my hands, my fingers curling into her hair.
But I didn’t make her eyes roll back, I didn’t cause her head to fall to the side, none of the tricks that would make her look away or lose eye contact with mine.
No tricks that would hide my own completion, the expression on my face, the power that would give her.
Our bodies met, our eyes held. And when we both fell apart moments later, I never looked away, and neither did she.
~*~
I picked up Octavia’s journal. I didn’t even like touching it, but Marietta thought the answers were inside. I had known they would be—it was the reason I had never fully destroyed it. It was also the reason I hadn’t been able to read what it said.
I had a copy of Melissande’s list. All I needed to do was go through the journal and check off each name, cross-referencing to what I remembered of each. See if there were any discrepancies, any allusions to events that might have pushed someone to murder.
Turning the pages was a struggle, but I began to make headway. One servant identified. Another. A village boy. A summer guest. When I reached my own section, I began flipping the pages more quickly. I didn’t need to read it to remember.
I paused in the act of flipping a page. Marietta had read this. Had probably gone back when I wasn’t looking and scoured the parts concerning me. She knew all of it, and yet she was still here. Still with me.
I flipped the page, my eyes barely skimming the pen strokes. Marietta saved her pity but extended her empathy. My feelings for her had already been strong, but they were now past a point where I could call them back.
Always searching for ways not to be broken, maybe I just needed the person who could hold my seams.
And because I was skimming the entries that concerned me, I almost missed it.
Only the early morning chime of the clock woke me from the stupor those written words invoked.
My finger pressed into the page, Octavia’s hated voice reading the words in my mind—just last summer. Horrible, as usual...
A firm knot settled in my stomach. The strange thing was the flicker of relief—from finally figuring it out, from never having to go through this journal again, from ending the nightmare.
Only to begin a new one.
I pounded the table with my fist. And then did it again, for good measure.
Marietta ran into the room, sleep rumpled but alert, scanning the space as if looking for a threat. “Gabriel?”
“I know who the murderer is.”
She stared at me, mouth agape.
I started penning notes to my father, brother, John, and two of my men. “We will need to discuss a plan.”
“Who is the murderer?”
“Someone you don’t have to worry about.”
She started to protest. I reached forward to kiss her, to thwart her, then stopped.
I touched her cheek instead, rubbing my thumb along her soft skin. “Soon. This will be over soon.”
~*~
MARIETTA
“I found a match,” Gabriel said.
Lucian, Alcroft, Crane, and I huddled around the kitchen table, no one in the mood for the breakfast spread laid out in the middle. Men I recognized, but couldn’t name, were running in and out with messages as Gabriel paced. Methodical, removed, nothing like the man on the bed with me hours ago.
I wanted to ask questions about the future, about us, but they would have to wait. Not while this nightmare neared its peak. Gabriel was not telling me something, but he wasn’t hiding the fact. He wasn’t doing it because he didn’t trust me. The reason was something else.
I touched my wrist and took a breath.
“A stable hand. Silas Flume. He’s mentioned in Octavia’s journal, and he is on Melissande’s list.”
“How do you know she wrote down every name? She hardly seems the type to do something so foolhardy,” Lucian said.
“Like Octavia and Anastasia, she likes to keep track. But we don’t have to believe the list she drew. There was a book on her desk with names, dates, and details. I let her believe I hadn’t seen it when I was searching, but I will return tomorrow for it, if Flume proves innocent today.”
“You think she will let you have a look, just by asking?” Gabriel’s father asked skeptically. “She’ll have had the household spells modified against you by now—you’ll have to try other tricks.”
“I hope she tries. They have never been her strong suit. House spells have memory, and she would have been uncovered long ago, if she had used them for anything other than routine domestic punishment. I’ll dream up a good story.
Play on what she wants. She will either let me see it or I will take it by force.
Ruin Steelcrest’s wards. Give the book to Dresden to end this. ”
“Gabriel. Your name will be ruined. They’ll throw you in prison,” Alcroft emphasized. “What if Dresden frames you for it?”
Gabriel nodded. “Yes. I know.”
Alcroft slowly nodded back. “Very well. I will always support you, you know that.”
“Yes.” Gabriel’s voice was soft. “I know you will.”
“As will I,” I said.
All eyes turned to me.
“I will go with you to the estate tomorrow,” I said.
Gabriel nodded slowly.
“We all will,” Gabriel’s father said. “If we don’t find Silas Flume guilty today.”
Lucian and Alcroft nodded decisively, and it was done. The date was set.
~*~
Gabriel had been watching the clock closely for the past ten minutes.
It had been no more than that since the other men had left—Gabriel speaking to each individually and alone, while I gathered papers.
He hadn’t stopped shifting and tapping at the kitchen table since, papers scattered across the top.
I practiced lifting a walnut instead of staring at his lips, his hands. The way that Gabriel had me use magic—intimacy and connection equaling power, whether that was in myself or with someone else—was exhilarating. And real.
I could feel the power connect. I didn’t have to take it, but I could direct it, join it, ride it.
And maybe walnut the next person who held a knife to my neck.
He rose as soon as the time ticked to clear fifteen. “I need to go to the Steelcrest estate.”
My practice walnut dropped to the floor. “Now?”
“Now.”
I was quiet for a second, plans to seduce the anxiety from him vanishing under the weight of the moment. “You think there will be an attempt made? That we can’t wait for tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
I nodded. “I’m coming with you.”
He shook his head. “Beyond the physical danger, if the high lady sees us together, she’ll make it her mission to destroy you.” He looked away.
“I will deal with it. I’m coming.” I laughed. “You can’t get rid of me so easily now.”
I just hoped that was true.
Less than twenty minutes later we were inside Gabriel’s carriage and leaving Gildon proper.
To where something darker than the night was waiting.