Page 117 of The Lies We Conjure
“Well, I should tell you I would’ve appreciated a heads-up fromLuna when we last saw each other.” Her gaze skirts the solarium. “But given the circumstances, I’m sure she wasn’t keen on warning me that there would be a side of confusion with the paranoia I hoped to stoke with her death, because the murderer should’ve been ensnared in this selfsame spell. The old bird knew exactly what she was doing until it was the last thing she did.”
Luna was leaving us a hint.
She knew we’d be baffled by a victim’s shroud but no trapped murderer. And yet it wasn’t untilmuchlater that we realized we’d been infiltrated.
Marsyas sighs.
“And then this little one—I knew she was clever,” the Blackgate matriarch says, with an almost appreciative expression on her face as she examines my sister. “It’s my failure that I didn’t anticipate what was coming when, instead of running from me, she stole the Elemental master out of Sanguine’s hands. She called Ursula’s magic by breaking a set rule, and created a shield for herself. Ingenious, really. Kept her alive. But, if what I just witnessed is any indication, she also nearly knocked you girls off the board. A little later than I’d anticipated, but both of you have most certainly exceeded my expectations.”
It doesn’t sound like a compliment.
“How long will she be this way? Twelve hours? A day?” If Marsyas can read the answer in my eyes, she still waves it off. “Doesn’t matter, I suppose, because all of this will be over very soon.”
She manages to make the last part sound both ominous and like a promise.
I wonder how long I can keep her talking. I’m not truly an active participant, but talking at me seems to be enjoyable for her ego, to say the least. If I can distract her long enough, it’s possible Auden or Evander will take a break from their work inside the mansion to catch the extra figure on the lawn. Or perhaps the twins will work their way across the ley line and back here, to where it runs beneath the table, thrumming with an energy I can’t feel.
I want them to be here, but at the same time, it’s obvious this woman is a powder keg. And unless they come in ready to defuse her, they’re walking into an explosion.
And then, Marsyas moves away from me and rocks the thin foundation I’ve built about the truths of magic.
She retrieves something from within the stretchy confines of her clothes, and crouches over Ursula’s shroud with intention, purpose. The girls had their orders. This one was hers.
There’s a sound like the back of a spoon striking a boiled egg. A muted shattering.
At the edge of my vision, Marsyas’s form blurs in motion and I can just make out a large divot in Ursula’s earthen shroud where her hands came to rest. More clear is the wrathful expression on Marsyas’s face.
She strides over to stand in front of me, lips locked in a perturbed line, brows drawn together, fury in her dark eyes as color rises in her cheeks beside flaring nostrils.
“Who has the ring, my dear?”
This is one thing I do know. And if Marsyas can actually read me like a book, it’s a dangerous truth for both Evander as the holder of the ring and Auden, who’s currently at his side, somewhere inside Hegemony Manor.
I draw in a thin breath and put every molecule of my being into a blankness to my eyes. To my mind.
The Blackgate matriarch watches me, darkening.
After what feels like an eternity, Marsyas runs a lazy hand across the rabbit’s foot relic at her wrist.
“You know what, Ruby? I don’t need you to tell me, I don’t need you to attempt a lie. All I need is to summon myunbreakable, unusual family. I don’t even need you for that.” Marsyas winks. “But I have more work to do before I’m ready to pick a fight.”
A fight. An inevitability and yet… I’m suddenly unmoored.
No, no, no.
The witches—the kids—left have lost so much, they shouldn’t have to fight anymore. Not with their magic, their words, their wills.
Marsyas retrieves something—a small drawstring bag with the same neat lettering I’ve seen three times before. My eyes water as I try to read the silver imprinted upon the side, but I know exactly what it is.
The final master relic.
CHAPTER35
AUDEN
When I step away from Ruby, it’s as if I’ve crossed over a threshold—through one door and into another world.
Perhaps I’ve returned from an alternate universe to the present, reality squeezing my bones like air pressure, gravity sealing my physical body back down to earth.
