Page 24 of The Lies We Conjure
“Your father is of no consequence to this game,” Sanguine answers, pointedly cuffing her daughter’s wrist and forcing it to be at her side, an apology.
Ada isn’t having it, and squirms away from her mother’s taloned grip, crossing her arms over her chest, her pink mouth twisting into something sharper than her twin’s smirk. “Unless your familymurderedUrsula in retaliation for his fate?”
Now both Blackgate girls look like they want to leap into the fire.
“I, what, no—” Lavinia sputters.
“Of course not!” Kaysa insists, aghast.
“Whereisyour grandmother, girls?” Hector asks like a perturbed principal, and though Sanguine stepped in at the mention of Marcos, she now squares her shoulders, clearly in line with her husband on this. “Isn’t it mighty suspect that Marsyas vanished right before Ursula’s last breath?”
“It isn’t a crime to use the loo,” Kaysa claps back with a very Winter-like roll of her eyes. “Nona’s lucky her bladder saved her from watching her friend die.”
Hector spears Evander with an inquisitive glance. “Given your tardiness, I’m assuming you checked the restroom when you came inside.” His eyes flick back to the Blackgates. “And yet you didn’t locate your grandmother?”
“We haven’t checked all sixteen washrooms,” Kaysa snaps.
“Did she leave?” Sanguine tilts her head, both inquisitive and demanding. “Did she abandon you?”
“We don’t know where she is, but we’ll find her,” Lavinia answers, much more measured than her younger sister, but her eyes betray her, because even at this distance, even with the fire across the room, I can read in the dark depths that she’s uncertain—maybe even scared. Scared that Marsyas did it or that she met the same fate as Ursula, and we haven’t found her yet.
Perhaps they can smell it in Lavinia’s blood, or maybe they just have plenty of practice from leading a highly volatile line, but Hector and Sanguine seem to home in on that fear. Hector winds up to push more but Evander interjects, big, blunt hands in the air, placating.
“Perhaps,” my cousin says, “so that we can answer some of those questions, it might be best to use tonight to pause on the search for the masters and instead spend the time taking statements regarding Ursula’s murder. I believe the best scenario is the use of a truth spell—”
“Thatyoucontrol?” Hector scoffs, all eyebrows and surprise—his voice has its usual jovial tenor, but there’s something about his delivery that’s rushed, fevered. He holds up a ringed hand. “Evander, I will agree to anything to help the lines but that’s a bridge too far. There’s no way to control the result without an independent investigator.”
The man has a point.
“Then we’ll perform truth spells on each other,” Evander tries again, his tightly woven edges fraying as he offers diplomacy but really wants his way. I wonder if the others can see it like I can. Like Winter must. “Given Marsyas’s absence, the Blackgates will submit first, and we’ll work from there.”
“You want us to what?” Lavinia asks, stricken.
Hex tips his chin, eyes twinkling darkly. “How do you evendoa truth spell with the elements? Burn flesh until they cave?”
Winter grins at him with more grit than she’s had in an hour. “Depends on if we like them or not.”
I clear my throat. “I think this perhaps might skirt too close to breaking the rule of using our magic against each other, unless the participant verbally submits and all of us agree it’s fair.”
There’s a general mumbling of “fine” and “okay” before Luna primly places one gnarled hand on top of the other and tosses a metaphorical bomb onto the desk.
“Hector makes a fine point about the independent investigator. We don’t have one. And while I appreciate your budding leadership acumen, Evander, what if Ursula’s murdererisa Hegemony?”
Evander stiffens, my heart drops, and Winter gasps.
“Luna, you know I love you, but that’s completely out of bounds,” Winter says, voice breaking. She swallows, a shaking hand covering her mouth. “We would never. None of us would ever.”
“But one of us did,” Infinity points out in support of their grandmother.
“Marsyasdid,” Ada scoffs.
“We don’t know that,” Lavinia bites back.
“Which is why we should start questioning the Blackgates tonight,” Evander states flatly.
“Wait.” I hold up a hand. I can’t believe I’m about to say this but… “You suspecttheseBlackgates? The Blackgates that are so magically cloistered—altered?—they didn’t even know their father was punished by death by the woman who died here tonight until wetoldthem?”
“Hey, we’re not idiots,” Lavinia snaps at me like I didn’t just defend her and Kaysa. “We’re just uninformed.”
