Page 107 of The Lies We Conjure
And then… Auden’s grip returns, and his fingers encircle my own.
He’s there. He’s here.
“Perhaps it’s possible to break the spell?” Auden’s voice is measured and calm, gentle with its request. “We could question Kaysa about what happened. A day from now, when the spell would lift, is too late. We need to know what happened now.”
God. Yes. “A truth spell, if we have to.” My voice is a desperate rasp. “She’ll submit.”
The twins take another collective lunging step forward. This time, its Ada’s anguish cracking like a whip in the air. “We don’t need a fucking truth spell! We can all plainly see what happened here!”
“I know what it looks like, but we won’t truly knowwith certaintywhat happened unless we ask her. You said it yourself that your father would do anything to be High Sorcerer; what if he tried to kill her and it was self-defense?” I angle at Infinity, but they shirk away. I don’t blame them, wild desperation is the worst kind. “We’ll figure this out. It can’t be what it looks like. We’ll find out what really happened—”
“If we free her, we can punish her,” Ada cuts me off, her fury coiling into serpentine coolness.
My frozen heart seizes.
Then the threat gets worse.
“I bet I could execute her through Ursula’s magical barrier,” Hex announces, venom in every word as he stares at Wren like she truly is an ice sculpture and if he strikes in just the right place, she’ll shatter into a million pieces that he’ll crunch under his feet. “I have all day to figure out how.”
Tears cloud my eyes now, my dry throat catching as I scream at the pair of them. “You will not kill my sister!”
Hex rounds on me, his large, athletic body suddenly part of this equation. Marsyas’s file flashes in my mind—a football linebacker. He has plenty of practice plowing humans much larger than me into the ground. “I willpersonallykill your sister if she murdered my parents! She took them from us, and I will not hesitate to take her from you in return, Lavinia.”
And suddenly I see another path, dark and dangerous but the only option to shift us away. Treacherous as it is, I can’t have Hex thinking of murdering my sister for one more moment. The longer that idea sits with him, the more likely it is to happen.
“Submit me to a truth spell! Hex, Ada, you do it—ask me whatever the hell you want. As many questions as you want. Please.”
Ada bares her teeth—that last word was a mistake.
“That’s a waste of time,” Ada growls.
Evander steps forward, hands waving like a white flag. “No, no, we need answers. I’ll do it.”
Hex scoffs. “Yourtest again? Obviously, because Kaysa passed your stupid fireball yesterday, it’s no good.”
Evander rakes a hand through his short dark hair. “Then you do it. Lavinia is willing. Yes, this looks like Death Line magic. But Kaysa also hasmyrelic in her hands, and that does not compute to me. I need to know where she got it, and how she managed to kill them too. And Hector is holding the Blood relic. What was happening here?” He turns to Infinity. “Do you know where the Celestial master is?”
They don’t hesitate. “In my suite’s safe.”
“What do you want to bet it’s actually missing?” Ada quirks adelicate brow. “Look at that shape against the outline of her tights. It could definitely be a vial.”
It’s more likely the butter knife I foisted upon her for self-defense. But, honestly, given the evidence happening here, all I know is that Wren didn’t kill Hector and Sanguine. The rest?… I truly have no clue what my sister was doing, thinking, trying to achieve.
Her impulsivity is on display. Again. And I’m left as her only defense.
My heart heaves.
God, Wren.
“We should check for it, after we do the truth spell,” Evander says. “Auden, bring Lavinia to me.”
“No—no. I’ll do it.” Hex jumps into motion. “We can’t have another failure.”
Evander scowls. “If you’re up to it.”
“Of course I’m up to it,” Hex snaps. His ring already removed from his finger, Hex twists the blade so that it shines like a rose thorn, short and sharp. He’s wearing a white T-shirt with his tracksuit pants, tiger-stripe tattoos exposed. “Lavinia, your palm.”
“Three questions,” Auden says, directing me toward Hex.
