Page 126 of The Lies We Conjure
RUBY
I’m panicking.
Truly, wholly panicking in my magical cage—heart pounding a wild clip, jaw so tense it might crack.
From my frozen vantage, I have a perfect view of the moment Hex and Ada crash up the path from the cemetery, my very wish that they would feel their parents’ magic sparking in their blood. Which means I also see the very moment zombie Hector and Sanguine capture them like flies in a web.
The twins cry out in a wail of surprise and pain, left to hang mid-step as the warring hope and confusion slip away, melding into solid horror as reality kicks them in the teeth.
They’ve been snatched by a Death witch controlling their zombie parents.
“A little harsh, Nona,” the real Lavinia purrs. “You don’t have to hurt them. The twins have been so helpful in reacquainting us to the lines.”
My wild heartbeat fades to nothing.Helpful?Something cold drops in my gut as Hex’s repeated assurances to his own mother in the moment we were “reintroduced” replay in my mind.
We know each other, Mama.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to hurt your pen pals, Lavinia.” Marsyas plays innocent with a tacked-on smile that returns me to the here and now. “I simply asked their magic to hold you in place. Whoops. Don’t know my own strength.”
Marsyas pauses in her work with Ursula and turns the force of her attention to the twins. “I’ll make this quick—Iwillbe the next High Sorcerer. Commit to me now, pledge to neutralize any of theremaining witches, should they fight back, and I shall remove your parents’ compulsion over you.”
Hex’s charcoal eyes flash, every cord in his neck tensed as he yells across the lawn, “You want us to fightwithyou? You killed them! We know it was you!”
Marsyas laughs. “Yes, and now they have no choice but to see things my way. Isn’t that lovely?”
“Fuck. You,” Ada grits out.
Marsyas turns to unseeing Hector and Sanguine. “Such spirited children.”
Her eyes slide back to the twins, and she winks hard enough that even I can register it, which means they most certainly can across the distance.
“Well, afunnything about Blood witches is that if your parents want you to do something, they can do more than ground you to make it happen.”
She knew their secret.
Unlike the black cloud before, this magic is as invisible to me as the rest, waking in their blood. I know it is, and yet in that moment, I swearI can see it workas Marsyas sends a bolt of instruction to the elder Cerises. Both of them widen their stance, flex their fingers, and, with dead-eyed precision, they turn up the volume on the blood spell they have racing across the distance to their children.
“No, Papa. Mama, please—”
Hex’s words die as his whole body splays starfish-wide. The whites of his eyes shine, big and wet and open more than they should be even at this distance.
Ada’s twin reaction is so violent she’s bent over backward like a palm tree in a hurricane, the ends of her long blond hair snagging in the dying carpet of lawn.
Despite the undead state of their parents, the scene is eerily similar to hours earlier. The twins are literally compelled to step forward, reeling in like fish on a line.
Hitting the brakes as best he can, Hex puts all his weight on his heels, pulling back with every bit of the strength he earned on thefootball field. Eyes now screwed shut, teeth gnashed, hands thrown up together and yanking backward as if he’s playing tug-of-war with an invisible line. Beside him, Ada has bent into a bear-crawl position, and is using the lower center of gravity to latch onto a small ornamental tree.
Marsyas tuts. “Children, you just bolted up that hill, racing back to see your parents. Now they call to you and yet you resist? I must say, that is both fickle and rude.”
“How…? What…? Why?” Each of Hex’s words are spit out between labored inhales.
“Do you want to toss in ‘when’ and ‘where’ too, just to be thorough?” Marsyas asks, snide and smiling. She chuckles at her little zinger and, presumably, the twins’ terrible predicament. “Kidding, kidding. I’m aware that you’re undersomestrain from all that fickle, rude resistance. Perhaps if you come nicely you’ll be able to be a little more pointed in your questions, and therefore get better answers.”
“Murderers… aren’t… funny!” Ada shrieks.
“And children who don’t obey aren’t clever.”
The mirth in Marsyas’s eyes flashes cold. “Hector and Sanguine, I believe your children need some heavier encouragement.”
