Chapter 28 #2
‘Don’t tell me what I can’t do. I’ve heard it my whole life. No more.’ He pulls the collar of his robe to reveal a hexmark, the twin of the one Eira gave him. ‘It was an excellent cover, choking me at the same time. I didn’t realise what you were until I reached the ruins and saw this.’
Shit. I had no idea I’d hexed him. I inhale, trying to use whatever connection I have to his mark to work out what his new hex is, if it’s something I can use to my advantage, but it’s hard to focus with Astin wriggling beside me, with Damian so cool, so calm, so un-fucking-feeling.
‘To think, I almost killed you. I kept you alive because I did feel a kinship with you, Daisy. And now I know why. You have what I need.’ He smirks.
‘Persuading Eira to risk her life finishing the potion would always have been a challenge, so you can imagine my delight when I discovered there was a different Souleater in Rerta. One who I knew would do as I asked with the right encouragement.’ His gaze slides to Astin again.
‘If you go near him –’
‘You’ll what?’ Damian cocks a brow as Astin twists from side to side.
‘When it came down to it, you couldn’t hurt me the other day.
You won’t hurt me today either.’ The look he gives me is one of pure revulsion.
‘All that potential, and you don’t use it.
Eira’s the same. After her parents’ deaths, she was hiding out in that house.
Had barely spoken to another person in years.
I thought she was odd, but I was glad to have somewhere to stay, and, I confess, it was refreshing having someone hang on to my every word for a change.
She was so desperate for company, I could have said anything, and she’d have agreed with it.
Then she went and hexed me. She cried, afterwards.
Incessantly. Confessed what she really was and begged for my forgiveness.
Told me she didn’t want to use her magic.
I’d never despised her more. She’d inherited a gift that should have been mine and yet was unwilling to embrace her true nature. ’
‘Seems like she’s embraced it pretty hard since then,’ I say, although my voice trembles.
Eira might be awful now, but, like me, she grew up with no guidance.
Worse even, because although my parents might not know much about me, at least they’re alive.
The first person who paid Eira any attention was Damian, who only wanted her to stroke his ego, and then hated her the moment he found out what she was.
‘Attacking Shiverholde. Rerta. Everyone in the basement.’
‘You think that was her idea?’ he scoffs.
‘At first, I tried to settle for being at her side.
I thought we could find a way to rule this city together, and suggested she attack the Laevothe festival in Shiverholde as a starting point.
Her parents were killed there. She was still resistant to using her magic, but I convinced her she deserved revenge.
And yet, she still hesitated. I was watching from afar, and she spotted me among the crowd and froze completely.
Even with the veil on, I could almost see her pleading with me, asking permission to stop.
And that was when I knew she would never be enough.
‘She continued to resist my efforts at making her stronger, so I resorted to trawling through her library, hoping I’d find something to entice her into behaving as she should, and eventually I found something better.
Once I learned about Ozias’s potion, I knew what needed to be done.
That I could finally have everything I wanted.
A whole city at my fingertips, ready for my rule, ready to respect me at last.’
He pauses, as though expecting us to be impressed by this. Honestly, I think the only reason he isn’t immediately pressuring me to work on the potion is because he wants some kind of ovation, like he’s once again standing on that podium at the party, waiting for us to applaud his accomplishments.
Instead, I realise something about what he’s just said, and burst out laughing. ‘For you to have a city at your fingertips, you’d need to take your gloves off. Even if I get this potion to work, you won’t ever be able to use magic, Damian, because you can’t touch another person.’
A muscle in his jaw ticks, and I take immeasurable pleasure in the sight.
‘What do you think Eira’s experiments were for?
I brought her Yvette and the others, so she could find a way to channel without touch.
I told her it would make her more powerful, and maybe then I would want her.
By that point, she was so terrified of being alone again, she did it without question.
I waited and waited for her to succeed, and eventually ran out of patience. ’
‘Eira didn’t succeed because it’s not possible. And if you turn yourself today, you’ll never have magic.’
His icy demeanour cracks, heat blazing in his eyes.
‘Yes, I will. Creatures of power shouldn’t be restricted or bound by the laws of nature.
They should make the laws. And when I’m a Souleater, when I have made myself a king, I will find a way.
There’ll be a few seconds before the emeralds spread too much.
I’ll get a slither of magic, at least, and I’ll use that to find a way around my hex.
What does it matter if I accidentally kill a few people in the process?
Now, to business. Let’s fill you up with magic, shall we? ’
Astin’s arm brushes mine as he fights his bonds again. Between struggles, he says to Damian, a little desperately, ‘Look, if you want a Souleater, I’ll find you a Souleater. There’s bound to be a den in Rerta somewhere, I’ll take you –’
‘Why would I waste my time seeking another, when I have one right here?’ Damian clicks his fingers and calls for Yvette. ‘Bring one in.’
Footsteps clack outside. I expect Yvette to appear, dragging a screaming captive for me to channel, but when the door opens, it’s not Yvette who steps inside.
It’s Eira. Damian isn’t surprised by her appearance, merely irritated.
She’s dressed like she expects to attend his party: once again in a floor-length gown, this one dark green as if in homage to his emeralds, and her silver hair is wrapped in an elaborate bun.
Dark lines of magic swirl across her collarbone – she must have replenished since the maze, which does not make me feel good about my chances of leaving this room alive.
‘I told you to stay with the prisoners,’ Damian says.
‘Everybody’s locked up snuggly tight.’ Her eyes gleam. ‘And once she’s dead, you’ll finally be happy.’
I suppose mentioning I won’t be happy is futile.
Astin thrashes at my side, but it’s pointless.
Yvette may be a frail thing, but she sure knows how to tie a knot.
My wrists will barely twist at all, let alone enough to wriggle free, and the more I try, the tighter they become. Dread plunges through me.
‘She won’t be dead until she’s finished my potion,’ Damian says. ‘First, she needs magic.’
‘I wanted to see her first. I didn’t know what she was, last time we spoke.’ Eira stares at me, wide-eyed, like she can’t decide whether to be in awe or terrified. ‘I’ve never seen another one. Not since my parents.’
‘Yes, yes, she’s very interesting, I’m sure. Bring us a prisoner, would you?’
Eira doesn’t react, and Damian’s irritation grows, smoke and fire prickling my nostrils.
Her gaze hasn’t left mine. I wonder if she’s ever disobeyed a direct order before.
When we met, I had questions I wanted to ask her, and I get the sense that same curiosity lives in her now.
She’s been alone for so long, and she doesn’t have to be.
There’s another Souleater right in front of her.
Maybe that would be enough to make her side with me over Damian.
‘Eira, why are you here? Did Damian invite you?’ I ask.
She blinks. ‘He’s having a party.’
‘He didn’t invite you to his last party. Do you remember why? Do you remember getting upset at the festival? You found out he was looking for the potion. Did you know then that it wasn’t a cure?’
She nods, slowly.
‘You thought, if he found the potion, he was going to make you finish it, didn’t you? Even knowing it might kill you? He would’ve threatened to leave you, or take off his gloves and turn you to emerald if you’d refused. Why are you helping him now, when he was willing to do that to you?’
She looks unsure. ‘He said he wouldn’t let harm come to me. And that he was going to throw me a party. Nobody’s ever thrown me a party.’
‘He was lying to you,’ I persist. ‘He didn’t know I was a Souleater until . . . when, Damian? This morning? Last night?’
‘I’ve known from the beginning,’ he says, immediately wincing when Eira says at the same time, ‘This morning.’
She carries on. ‘You told me to come to the castle for my party. That the party wasn’t until the evening, but I should come first thing, because that’s how surprise parties work.’
Astin opens his mouth at this, but I elbow him, allowing her to put the pieces together herself.