Page 96 of The Lies We Conjure
Winter gasps, her fingers immediately flexing as if magic might shoot at them faster than a bullet. That gun—revolver?—looks old enough that she could beat it. Winter tries to lunge forward but Evander holds her back. Sanguine smiles. “We’re all here now. Please, don’t delay.”
Something cold pools in my gut, my anger at the way Hector treated his children hardening into a block of ice so hard it burns at the sight of Sanguine treating Infinity this way. All the pain they’ve felt in the past few hours now coupled with the paralyzing fear of implied violence.
“Sanguine, please put the gun down,” Evander urges, placating.
“They’ve been through enough, you monster!” Winter’s voice breaks, tears in her eyes as she meets Infinity’s terrified expression. The grin widens and brightens on Sanguine’s face. “I’m sure it’s not necessary and Infinity will stay with us now that you have them here.”
Bracing, Infinity squeezes their eyes shut. “Yes, please.” Their voice is soft, lips and lungs barely moving in making the sound.
“Oh, I think I’ll keep the gun right where it is, as incentive to make sure no funny business happens,” Sanguine responds, blue eyes hard, even as she still gives that Dolly Parton smile. “Read the clue, Auden.”
Auden nods before stepping forward and squatting to use the amethyst slab as a hard surface, so that he can properly align histhumb with the print he left in blood as executor. As he does so, I catch Wren’s eye—we won’t get caught in magical crossfire in the next two minutes, at least. Though the real test, and the last big hurdle to determining the heir, is about to land squarely at our feet.
The magic awakens under Auden’s palm, the ink shimmering and twisting into the final clue.
From where I stand, I can see Shadrack’s final hint is again five lines. I squeeze my eyes shut as Auden reads, praying to anyone who will listen that whatever it details isn’t something only arealBlackgate would know.
Auden’s voice is calm in the dark night.
“Ashes to ashes always meant dust to dust
For us
We burn bright, we burn together
Magic is a shroud of its own
Before the lines, one for all.”
I open my eyes as the silence deepens. There’s no immediate outburst. No sighs or whispers. Perhaps we’ve wrung ourselves dry as we receive yet another riddle for a clue.
Then, as if the last few terrible minutes didn’t happen, Hector steps forward, snaps a picture of the clue, and all four Cerises turn for the house.
CHAPTER29
AUDEN
It seems as if Hegemony Manor is crumbling before our eyes.
When we return to the house from the killing grounds, huddled together, my cousins, the Blackgates, and Infinity, the star tiles of the garden are worn and shapeless, weeds crumbling their corners into the dry earth. Fissures spangle the terrace in the bobbing illumination of our lanterns.
Within, all the fires have gone out again.
The solarium is pitch black and cold, Luna’s shroud a lump of shadow.
The cold embers in the fireplaces have been a pattern. The flames snuffed out when Ursula died, which made sense with her magic leaving elsewhere—the plants, the trappings of the outdoor chapel—but as we maneuver our way back to her private apartment, I realize there’s more to it than that.
There are fractures in the walls now. Cracks, spiderwebbing out, fine in some places, gaping in others. The more pronounced crevices score the heavy damask wallpaper in large, harrowing gashes.
The magic is giving out without the masters on the grounds.
Maybe this house will crumble around us, burying the lines before we ever have a chance to get out.
Up ahead, Evander throws open the wards and physical locks to Ursula’s suite, and announces, “We need to talk.”
“I’m not apologizing for Hex,” Winter immediately counters, the words bursting from her lips as if she’s held them in since the killing grounds. Her gaze finds Infinity’s. “We haven’t been anything for almost two years. It’s not my fault he seems to think otherwise.”
Infinity’s brow furrows. “Noted.”
