Page 100 of The Lies We Conjure
Lavinia speaks first. “Are you saying there’s no Death Line relic? That someone already has it?”
“I don’t know. It could’ve been moved to another location by Ursula. Given how vague our clue is, who knows. All I know is that Ididn’t find it. And I lied. Again.” Evander’s gaze meets mine, then skips to Winter across the room. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you right away.”
Another piece of crucial information saved back, shoved behind two bigger, more painful secrets. Still, I mean it when I say, “I forgive you.”
Winter echoes. And then we’re left with a vast and stretching silence until Kaysa’s subdued voice fills it. “But if we can’t find the fourth one, if it doesn’t exist… we can’t leave.”
Evander sighs. “Correct.”
The horror of that truth ripples around the room.
There’s a possibility we can’t punish Ursula’s murderer. There’s a possibility we can’t collect all four masters.
There’s a possibility that no matter what we do, we’re stuck here forever.
“Maybe she never meant for us to complete the tasks,” Lavinia says, the blush of her cheeks fading to stone white. “Maybe it was never possible all along.”
Infinity goes further. “Maybe it was punishment all along.” They lift their head to Winter. “Would she do that?”
“Honestly, now? I don’t know.”
I don’t know either.
Evander reads his watch. “We have twenty hours left to find out.”
In the silence that follows, Evander hoists himself up from his seat. Then, without a word, he removes the chain from his neck, flips my hand up to the light, and drops his heir’s key and the High Sorcerer’s ring into my palm. Both his hands then cup mine, forcing my fingers to close over the metal.
“Wear it, Auden.”
I shove it back. “Earn it, Evander.”
I fling my hands away, forcing him to hold on to the key he’s earned and the ring he wants. Dare him to drop it, toss it, or otherwise discard it.
But he can’t.
I knew it.
Evander’s big fist closes around the chain and pendants, then he backs away from the table and to the first door on the right—Ursula’s bedroom. He unlatches it and steps inside, but before he shuts himself away from us, he says one final thing, lobbed at us with barely any power left in his voice.
“I’m sorry.”
CHAPTER30
RUBY
None of us has any idea what will happen when light comes on this final day—the relic is found, or it isn’t, and night comes with a new set of terrors.
We agree to rest, but I don’t know how any of us can sleep with these thoughts, scenarios, threats, probabilities piling up in a levee around us, and we’re already neck-deep in water.
I’m not a witch, but I’m not safe. Not even remotely close.
If these people who can do magic aren’t sure how to get out now, I’m not sure how Wren or I have a shot of survival either.
I’ve sunk into the corner of the sofa in Ursula’s front room, my sister and everyone else all gone to rest until daylight, when all I seem to be able to do is stare at the ceiling until the tiles blur. Maybe if I do finally shut my eyes, I’ll wake, all of it a bad dream, staining my thoughts and soaking my sheets with sweat.
I force my eyes closed—and that’s exactly when the scent of mint and lavender invades my presence along with a steady voice. “Take a walk with me?”
Skin, warm and clean, cradles my elbow—not a dream, then.
