31. Lucy
Lucy
Every muscle in my body is screaming. My head is woozy, my vision blurry. I feel like I’ve been scoured from the inside as I drag myself up from the cobbles.
Interitus is gone.
I scan the courtyard. but the Veil tears all sealed up when she was flung into the underworld.
There is a wrongness inside me. My fist rubs at the space on my chest where Interitus was draining magic from me. When everything exploded, Interitus’s magic hit me smack in the sternum. There is something foreign now buried inside me. It’s dark and angry and it doesn’t belong to me.
“What did you do to me?” I say as Architecti rises to stand.
“I saved you.”
“No. Something rebounded. Before it was just you, now I can feel her too. Why did you do that?”
Architecti puts her hands up in defence. “That wasn’t me, that was my sister. I saved you.”
Her eyes glimmer. It sets me on edge. Did she save me? Or did she use me.
She grabbed me and took control of my magic.
“Lucy, please, you were weakened, and drained and I had to stop her.”
She did stop Interitus, but none of this is sitting right. A howl cuts through our conversation.
“Lex,” I breathe. I shove past Architecti and rush to Lex’s side. She’s kneeling, her hands clasped over her mouth.
I follow her line of sight my gaze landing on Bastien’s swaying figure. He drops like stone to the cobbles. The thud his body makes silences everyone left.
Midnight draws a single sharp breath; it cuts what’s left of me in half.
No one moves.
“His eyes are open.” Midnight moves towards him. “Why are his eyes open?” she asks, her voice high and unnatural in tone.
She crumples to her knees. “Bastien?” she whispers this time, as if her volume might hurt him.
She pulls him into her arms, but he’s a dead weight and she struggles to grasp him.
“Why is he so heavy? Come on, Bas, help a girl out… Look at me.”
My voice breaks, a whimper slips out, my cheeks already wet. It’s the only sound echoing around the decimated courtyard.
I suck in a breath that judders through my entire body. Midnight clutches him to her chest and rocks, pleading with the gods to help.
But she’s met with silence.
“The gods have forgotten us,” Architecti says. “He’s gone.”
“No!” Midnight shouts and hums his name quietly over and over again. He continues to lie unnaturally still.
It’s only when Lex squeezes her shoulder that she stops. Lex lifts her hand and points to where Alistair is sealing the final tear.
Two shades walk hand in hand.
Bastien and Calyx. A brother and a sister, reunited, at last.
And it’s that knowledge that cuts me in two all over again.
Forty years, I’ve lived on campus, and the things I didn’t know include the fact that gargoyles are surprisingly hard to kill.
The following morning, House Inferos had repaired its crumbled door, and much to Midnight’s surprise, Vetch was sat looking rather cleaner and brighter than before.
Apparently, under extreme circumstances, they can door jump.
Finis’s magic dissolves them and reconstitutes them on the nearest available door.
“Morning, Vetch,” I say as Midnight and I leave House Inferos.
He grumbles indecipherable syllables and Midnight rolls her eyes.
“Still annoying, then,” she says.
Vetch growls at her, spitting stone dust at her back.
We make our way to the medical ward. I was only allowed back to my own bed last night because when they tried to force me to the ward, my runes lit up like sparklers. I promised to go for a full workup in the morning.
And here we are.
My body is strange. Too heavy and too dark. There is more of me, and I am certain Interitus left something behind. A piece of her.
There are urges that weren’t there yesterday. A need to break. To destroy.
I rub a hand over my face to rid myself of the odd thoughts.
“You okay?” Midnight asks as we enter the wardroom Lex stayed in. The doctors gave her a sedative in the end last night because she couldn’t stop crying.
“Yeah… It sounds weird but I think there’s a piece of Interitus inside me as well as Architecti.”
Midnight raises an eyebrow but there’s no time to talk. Several people pile into Lex’s room as we arrive. It’s loud, dozens of voices mumble, none of them discernible.
Mortem is nestled next to Lex’s belly, snoring softly. Lex peels her eyes open, they’re red raw. Neither Midnight nor I are faring much better. Even Mortem looks dishevelled.
Lex digs her hands into Mortem’s fur. He’s more solid than normal and her hands actually run through his coat. He nestles closer into her.
For an arsehole, he can be rather sweet.
“He needs a funeral,” Lex says, but her eyes fall away from mine.
“We will make it the best funeral ever,” Midnight says.
“Are you okay?” I mouth and squeeze her hand.
She shrugs. “Just exhausted, and out of sorts.”
Two women waltz into the room, followed by a rather dishevelled Alistair. One of the women has a streak of silver through the front of her hair, the other has loose, mousy waves. They seem middle-aged, older than me, though not by much, and yet they carry a wisdom of eons in their eyes.
“Professor St Clair?” I ask the one with the streak in her hair.
“Call me Cordelia, this is Eleanor, my partner.”
“How can I help?” I say.
“Actually, we thought we might be able to help you.”
They sit and explain that they’re visiting professors from Sangui City. Alistair makes everyone watery, cheap hospital coffee. While it’s beyond abysmal, everyone accepts it willingly.
“We used to be immortal,” Cordelia explains.
And launches into a story explaining that while they appear mid- to late forties, they’re actually over a thousand years old.
Which also means they have a thousand years of war against each other under their belts.
They have to explain the ex-immortal thing a couple of times because Lex keeps asking questions about the curse and how it was phrased before Midnight tells her to pipe down and let them discuss what they can do to help.
“Interitus found her way back,” Cordelia says.
I nod and wince as I take a sip of the godsawful coffee. “Architecti flew off last night saying the fact she threw her into the underworld wouldn’t hold her for long.”
Eleanor presses her lips thin. “Indeed. Well, unfortunately the angels are tearing up the city. If you don’t contain this situation, they’re going to rip the city in half, and with it all three realms.”
Alistair nods. “There are Veil tears appearing constantly. Wraiths and ashspawn are infiltrating the city. Like last night, the cuts are also appearing from here to the Celestial Realm and in the worst cases, some of the tears are cutting through all three realms.
“Interitus is trying to siphon any and all power she can. She tried to take it from you. She’s stolen it from campus and when she can’t get that, she’s taking it from mortals and demons in the city.”
“And Architecti?” I whisper.
“She’s attempting to stop her sister,” Eleanor says.
“You think Interitus will come back for me?” I ask the room.
There’s an awkward silence, but it’s Lex who responds from the bed.
“Without doubt.”
“Interitus wants to siphon my power to unravel the fabric of all three realms in order to get rid of the system of fate,” I say and frown.
“How do you know that?” Midnight says.
“I—” but I cut myself off. How do I know that?
She said she wanted rid of the system of fate last night. But the rest? It’s so wrong, and awful, and yet I know with absolute certainty that it’s what I want.
No. Not what I want, what she wants.
“She’s inside me. I’m sure of it. I think a piece of her rebounded when Architecti saved me.”
My fingers brush the bruises where she yanked me to her and siphoned from me.
“Hold on, how does unravelling the fabric undo fate?”
Alistair’s expression grows sombre.
“Fate is woven into the fabric itself, it’s the structure of all our realms,” I say.
“That’s why we’re seeing so many Veil tears,” Midnight says.
Alistair sips the last bit of his coffee and places the cup on the counter.
“Essentially, yes. I’ve been studying the constitution of the Veil tears and especially those last night.
The structural integrity of the fabric is failing.
It’s why we’re seeing through into the Celestial Realm.
Why the cuts are deeper and harder to repair. ”
“Oh gods, it’s why the reapings aren’t working properly. And why I saw the shade of Thaddeus…” Midnight says.
“Thaddeus?” I ask.
“Doesn’t matter.” She turns to Alistair. “Could this be affecting readings? And magic?”
“Absolutely. I don’t think the fabric can tolerate many more ruptures.”
Eleanor and Cordelia glance at each other. A look that only a couple that have been together for eons can share.
“In your experience, what do you recommend?” I ask the visiting professors.
They both answer simultaneously, as if a thousand years has given them a level of synchronicity I can only aspire to have with another.
“Give Interitus what she wants.”
Midnight stands up, her fists balled. “Absolutely not. They want Lucy.”
Cordelia raises her palm in a peace gesture. “We don’t mean literally hand Lucy over.”
“They mean use me as bait,” I say.
Midnight’s fists clench and release by her sides. “The answer is still no.”
“I know you’re concerned, but if you use her as bait, you can trap Interitus and your problems are over,” Cordelia says.
“Trap her how?” Alistair says.
“Why don’t we use the purgatory Ignatius created?” Lex offers.
“That was made using Lucy as a tether. Surely it was destroyed when Architecti escaped?” Midnight says.
Mortem stands and stretches, putting his arse so high in the air I get a delightful view of his unwashed butthole.
“For now, I don’t think we have a better plan,” Alistair says.
“I agree,” I say. “When the time comes, I will play bait.”
Midnight quietly seethes, her skin trembling, cheeks reddening, and I realise she won’t allow this. She’ll stand in the way and do everything she can to protect me.
Which is why I’ll have to find a way to convince her.
Otherwise…
I stop myself because I don’t want to think about the otherwise. Not if it means going behind her back again.