Chapter 12
Chapter twelve
The solitary flame pulsed hungrily in the dark. It beat in time with her heart.
“Please, stop. Please. Don’t.”
Her ankles were strapped, her wrists too. She didn’t know what would come, but she knew it would be terrible.
Struggling was useless. The bindings would not give. She smelled nothing. Heard nothing. The flame was the only thing she could see. The only thing—
A tortured face emerged from the void, dripping and insidious.
“What are you afraid of, Lucena?”
Lux’s eyes sprang open to a hand jostling her knee. She flung herself backward at once, where she hit the cushioned seat. Her breaths heaved.
“I’m sorry to wake you, but we’re nearly there. Blessed Saints, are you all right? You look like you saw the Devil.”
The sweat on her skin began to cool and then grow outright cold.
Goosebumps erupted on her flesh. Lux rubbed at her arms beneath her cloak.
She’d been back in some nightmarish version of an already nightmarish place.
Except, rather than the Shield mocking her from the shadows, the face had been her own.
The Devil? Near enough.
“I’m fine.”
“I didn’t mean to startle you. I only wanted to warn you before we arrive: Mothlock’s garden is unusual. Though, for someone who has lived beside a hungry forest, maybe you won’t think so.”
She forced herself to relax into the seat and scrubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Unusual in what way?”
He cocked his light head, a smile pulling at his lips. “You’re not frightened? Even as I compare it to your dastardly trees?”
“You implied it’s not so bad as that, so now I’m only curious.”
He chuckled. “No. Not so bad as that. But it’s best to stay on the paths. The plants don’t like to be disturbed.”
“How much do they not like it?”
“Enough to weaponize themselves and inject a toxin.”
“Deadly?”
“Debilitating. For a while.”
It was Lux’s turn to tilt her head. “You know this firsthand.”
Corvin laughed outright, a flush of color highlighting his sharp cheekbones. “Yes. It’s awful. I wouldn’t recommend it. Especially as the timeline would interfere with the Hallowed Banquet, and you really cannot miss that.”
“It’s truly so great, is it?”
He shrugged. “I’ve always looked forward to it.
To open the doors to like-minded individuals who wish to celebrate our work and that of brilliance itself?
The Saints have honored us with the best night of the year.
Once you’ve seen our healer and everything is right again, I think you’ll enjoy yourself immensely. ”
Doubtful. Though Lux’s confidence around the living had grown, it didn’t erase her disdain for crowds.
She was intrigued, of course. But she’d prefer to experience the event from a shadowed alcove or obscure balcony over answering questions from prying minds about a young necromancer from a city no one ever left.
But could she find the possible purchasers of lifeblood while hidden away in said balcony? Likely not.
She fiddled with the window’s dark hangings. “Has your society been assembled a long time?”
“Over a century. Though Mothlock is a lot older. The estate used to house an impressive family before it was transformed into the philanthropic society it is now.”
“Is the family still there?”
Corvin’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Lux attempted a smile and couldn’t tell if she succeeded. “Their descendants. Or did they move on?”
“Ah. No. No descendants. In fact, I was the last child to grow up there.”
“You grew up in the manor? You’ve been there your entire life?”
And how long has that life been, exactly? she wanted to add.
“I have,” he said and leaned forward, eyes bright. “I could show you all the interesting rooms, the terrace, the best corners of the estate. There’s the garden and the path down the cliffsides to the cove. Have you been to the sea yet? No? Then I’ll make it a priority.”
It came upon her all at once, that utterly overwhelming feeling of a dream about to be actualized. Her fingers and toes tingled. Her breaths shallowed. She couldn’t tell if her heart sped, galloping away, or if it’d slowed to a crawling thump. Either way, Lux pressed her palm over her mouth.
She’d climbed a mountain. Touched the bark of a red tree. Now, all she needed was to feel the waves lapping at—
A subtle roar began at the far reaches of her hearing. A few minutes more and it drove out the silence with its power. Lux’s eyes grew wide.
“Is that…?”
“Prepare to meet it,” answered Corvin, and grinned.