Page 136 of The Lies We Conjure
The soul’s truth shimmers, flickers, and then disappears, evaporating into the silver clouds above.
Hex and Evander stand, backing away toward us.
There won’t be a victim’s shroud this time. She wasn’t murdered. There’s no evidence to preserve.
Still, Evander holds out his hands, and together, six witches and two regular girls watch as the body of Marsyas Blackgate is wrapped in magic, finally at peace after a decade of unimaginable suffering.
My heart twists for Marsyas. For all she’s done—to me, to them, to theirunbreakable, unusual family—a piece of me still aches for her losses and the way they’ve shaped her, motivated her, and, finally, betrayed her.
In the silence that follows, the carnage is strewn about, much like the shattered remains of the meal that started it all, still littering the dinner table.
The bodies of Ursula, Luna, Hector, and Sanguine lie inert, rotting heaps crumpled at odd angles, falling in convenience, not any natural manner.
One by one, Evander covers their bodies in the same frozen protection. A temporary shroud, a temporary rest. The skeletons receive no such grace, heaps of bones that they are. I wonder if the Hegemonys will be able to determine who they are and where they belong. It strikes me as something that will need privacy—sorting out the last of ancestors and stowing them away like pieces of a board game tipped over.
The forms of the real Lavinia and Kaysa stand like new statues among the refreshed topiaries, bubbling fountain, the onyx splendor that is Hegemony Manor.
Evander returns to us, jaw set in a tight line, his strong arms hanging at his sides, wrung out. “It’s done.”
“Not yet.” Auden shifts, squeezing my shoulder once before removing his arm entirely and stepping out of my grasp. Despite the rising summer heat, cool air hits me in the loss of his body next to mine. But as he takes that step forward, and gathers one of the two chains at his throat and pulls it over his head, a new warmth spreads through my body like a shockwave—relief. “You have one more thing to do.”
The High Sorcerer’s ring glints between us all, the gems glowing red, black, green, and white.
Evander freezes. Winter gasps. The twins gape. Infinity stiffens.
“You—you didn’t destroy it?” Wren asks, quietly, in awe.
“It’s not possible to destroy the ring with magic as long as all of the master relics are tethered to it.” Auden’s gaze meets Evander’s eyes. “Something Marsyas clearly didn’t know.”
“But you did.”
It’s not a question, but a statement from Evander.
“That, I did know.”
Something passes between the cousins, wordless but worth a note within their shared history.
Evander swallows. Auden raises the ring higher and looks each one of the remaining witches in the face. “If any of you have objections to Evander Hegemony wearing the High Sorcerer’s ring, say it now.”
“I do.”
Infinity has removed Winter’s arm from their shoulders, stepping forward—but it’s not their voice in objection.
It’s Evander’s.
We all stare at him. “I do,” he repeats. “Our parents tried to change the lines to make things better for us, and they all suffered because of it. We suffered because of it. Our parents were right to question how we govern the lines, Infinity and Luna were right to question it too. I think perhaps we need some time away to really think about what we want as the future of the Four Lines, no matter what that looks like.”
Then, Evander reaches into his pockets and pulls out the Celestial and Blood relics. The vial of Nostradamus’s blood glints in the light as it sits in his open palm, while the box is heavy and solid. Both, an offering, one extended toward Infinity, the other toward the twins.
“Take the relics and your dead—and all the time you need.”
In that moment, Evander is every inch a leader as Ursula seemed to be in the short time we’d known her. He gestures to the whole of the group—even Wren and me. “We’re the future of the Four Lines.We’ll be here when you—when all of us—decide if it is together or apart.”
Infinity and Hex accept the relics, and face their loved ones, broken upon the grass. Winter moves to join Infinity, and they let her.
My heart lifts at that.
But it falls just as quickly when a small sound catches my attention and I see Auden and Evander have moved to stand before us now. They’re tall and clear-eyed, shoulder to shoulder, facing where Wren and I cling together, fingers still entwined.
