Chapter 48 #2
“We’ll see,” replied Kent, and when he lowered his hood, Lux immediately felt her bodice tighten. She sucked a breath in alarm only to feel the gown release her. He smiled. “Welcome back to the waking world. You lose consciousness so easily—it was almost disappointing.”
Lux’s breaths blew harsh through her nose. She wanted to lunge at him but knew she’d never make it near enough to put her nails to use. She ground her teeth; at this rate, there would be nothing left of them.
“Enough,” rasped Corvin. He did not turn from the dissolving coffin. “Whether our necromancer realizes yet or not, she is tied to the bones of this estate. She will be what settles it. What settles us. Show your mistress a modicum of respect.”
A low hum of dissent rumbled through the collectors.
Lux’s stomach roiled.
“Come. Time to put your brilliance to use.” Corvin turned, his hand outstretched.
“You must be deluded,” she said, a laugh bordering on hysteria escaping her. “Kill me. I no longer care. I will never revive another for you. I will never become any mistress of this saintforsaken place.”
“Kill you?” Corvin purred. “Mothlock is a place of preservation. We are not so wasteful here.”
She glared at his reach. “Liar. How many have you murdered to prolong your lives? To prolong your investors’ lives?”
“We do not commit murder, Lux. Not unless it’s for the betterment of everyone. It is against our moral code.”
Her teeth bared. She’d never felt more like a rabid beast than in this moment.
“You know Ghadra quite well, don’t you? That city’s blood is on your hands.
None of what you bought was brought about by natural causes.
” She couldn’t stomach looking at him, but she couldn’t stomach looking anywhere else either.
“Did the boy tell you that?” Corvin’s expression softened.
He looked as he had that first day they’d arrived, taking her in as she took in the sea, nevermind his rotting features.
“Maybe I deserve your ire in this instance; we didn’t ask how our treatment was harvested.
But you must understand me now. The strongest sacrifices are forged in blood; you heard the Grimrook tale.
Yes, an ignorant outsider could deem it an evil.
But once you examine it, it really is not.
Progress is built on these very things you shy away from. It has been throughout all of—
“Progress! You are a monstrous—”
With a hissed crescendo, the last of the ice coffin evaporated. Lux gasped so loudly it should have echoed in the chamber. Her lips parted, her stare collapsing from shock to horror as she looked at the century-old body on the table.
“Come meet my brother. Maybe you will prefer him over me. The rest of your family did.”
The body’s skin dripped still, bare and unmarked. It was pale and lean and objectively healthy, but when she drew nearer, she saw the mark. A clean cut. From one side of the throat to the other.
“Alixsander Osric Alesso. My esteemed, and much beloved, twin.”
Lux felt a numbness come over her. It was almost as if she were floating above them all, even herself. A corporeal form. This cannot be real.
“What will you do?” she said, and even her voice sounded numbed and distant. “If he’s revived and reverses your curse and all is made right to you? I know it was you who killed him.”
“What else do you know?” Corvin replied, a smile in his voice. Then he said, “Tobias. Bring your mistress her tools.”
Lux twisted to see the newest collector come forth.
In his hands was an onyx tray and upon that tray sat tins, a decanter, and several vials.
A black mortar and pestle absorbed the dim light and called to her brilliance.
She swallowed. A groaning distracted her next—another member drawing out a hidden fold within the carved table.
She now had a workspace. The tray was set upon it, and the collectors retreated to their respective places in the circle.
Corvin walked toward the assortment, his fingers tracing each item with a strange reverence. He lifted the mortar and pestle and turned, settling them in her hands. “Go. Embrace your blessed fate.”
With her hands occupied, she could only flinch when his fingers followed the line of her cheekbone, trailing down.
“I am not a Grimrook,” she murmured, darkness in her voice.
“A broken branch is still a branch.” His rancid breath coated her skin. “Riselda stole The Risen from us. She stole even more than that. How did it come to be in your possession? You are so secluded, as you say.”
“It’s gone now.”
“Yes. Burned. Mothlock Manor has never seen a fire before your arrival.”
Lux was shaking now. Between Corvin’s cold, her own adrenaline, and the nightmare’s voice in her head.
“Dutiful pet. Always a pet for powerful men. We are nothing if not useful.”
She growled up at the apparition’s journey across the ceiling. “There is nothing in this for me. Let me go.”
“I’m afraid there can be no “letting go”. You were meant for the manor. For our society. I knew it from the moment I met you.”
“Then you must let him leave. I will do nothing for you if you don’t.”
Corvin only chuckled harshly beside her. “No, Lux. His betrayal is ours to deal with.”
Lux blinked up at him finally, losing her breath to discover him so close.
She could track every line of silver in his irises.
Like lifeblood had once done to the pad of her fingertip, it’d done the same to each pigmented furrow of his eyes.
Her stomach twisted further. “What betrayal? Preventing you from breaking my wrist? You’re cured of your wounds already. ”
“And if I weren’t, should he still be allowed to go? He tried to kill me.”
“Free him, Corvin.”
“No, Lux.”
Desperation clawed at every part of her. Her breaths shallowed. “Fine.” The mortar clattered onto the table. “Then Alixsander remains as he is.”
“You will do your part. Or else your beloved interloper becomes another decorated member of our staff. He’s a similar height to Manphry. A pair of footmen would be distinguished, I think.”
“We will kill him a thousand ways. It’s already begun.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would,” said Corvin, nearly against her lips.
Riselda, you evil witch. You’ve either died and abandoned us or run and abandoned us. Either way, you’ve betrayed me. Again.
“Silas—”
“No.” Lux could hardly speak through the grit of her teeth, but Corvin raised his hand when the collector readied to break from the circle. “I’ll do it. But you will swear to not harvest his soul.”
Corvin licked his lips at her agreement. Or maybe it was her demand. But she realized it was neither when he said, “You really are brilliant. I will struggle if you prove to be a failure.”
He gestured her forward.
And Lux, devil take her, could think of nothing else to do but step up. Her fingers moved delicately across the array of ingredients.
She plucked one from the row—
And sealed her fate.