Page 128 of The Lies We Conjure
Winter gasps audibly as she blinks at her grandmother.
“Here’s the thing your Hegemony ancestors never wanted anyone to know. Holding the master relic of one’s line makes them infinitely more powerful than they would be alone. And the Death relic happens to be in a form that allows more than one person to hold it at once.” Marsyas smiles. “Luna, please collect your grandbaby and their new special friend.”
“No!” Winter and Infinity protest together.
“Yes,” Marsyas insists, wheeling around to the Starwood matriarch and drawing her forward, with a hand holding the Celestial master. “Lavinia, be a dear and break Ursula’s spell. I have you covered.”
The real Lavinia smiles her Blackgate grin and takes Ursula’s limp arm in her own, wheeling on Wren and the final master relic in her hand.
Luna jolts forward, sunlight ropes shooting from her hands in an effort to lasso Winter and Infinity who run toward her, dodging her efforts. But they look past their attack—and that’s when I realize: they’re going for Ursula. They’ve just joined this situation and prioritized the most important piece of the puzzle.
The final relic.
Luna’s magic lasso loops around Infinity’s wrist and yanks them away. Winter dodges and shoots ice from her own palms, turning the ropes into a sizzling steam. But the magic reforms into briar-like vines, coming at both of them in a wave. I realize then that I can truly see exactly what they’re doing. Maybe it’s their ingredients, like in the truth spell. Maybe it’s the prism of my prison. Either way, I’m grateful.
They fight it off with spells and grunts, but the vines crawl and grow, multiplying faster than either can burn them away.
“It’s the master,” Infinity wheezes.
“That’s right, child,” Marsyas coos. “I hold Luna’s magic, andI hold Luna’s master. She’s more powerful than either of you, and she’s a literal sack of bones.”
There’s a shout and Hex breaks free from the scrum with his parents bleeding and holding Ada, limp in his arms. But then Hector staggers to his feet, one arm hanging at a sick angle at his side, and launches himself onto his son’s back.
“I would tell the twins that too, but I fear they wouldn’t hear me over their own yelling. Soloud.” Marsyas tosses her grinning visage over her shoulder. “Now, Lavinia!”
And there’s my doppelgänger, just feet from Wren, wielding Ursula’s limp arm, the corpse’s fingertips aimed directly at Wren.
But before the magic can burst through, a fireball shoots in from the direction of Hegemony Manor.
A body comes next.
Lavinia dodges the fireball but not the person.
Auden.
He plows into Lavinia’s side with all the skill of the lacrosse player he is. The trajectory of the magic arcs with Ursula’s guided arm, swinging wide, away from Wren’s frozen form.
The three of them crash to the garden tiles, falling in such a way that Ursula’s arm is still forward, a jutted sword of magic.
Pointed straight at me.
CHAPTER39
AUDEN
A sick thud sets my teeth on edge as I crash to the garden tiles, the real Lavinia Blackgate and the reanimated body of my grandmother tangled together in a crushing slide. The terra-cotta shatters on impact, road rash pebbling our skin in a searing sting.
Over my head, a jagged shard of Elemental power shoots from Ursula’s outstretched arm on impact. I can’t follow the trajectory, but if it’s hit its mark and freed Wren, I only hope I’ve given Evander enough time to make a difference.
Our momentum fragments as Lavinia cuts Ursula loose. The body of my grandmother skates to the side, a puppet discarded, right into the base of a browning topiary. With full control of her limbs, Lavinia wedges herself on top of me, pinning my thrashing legs with her weight and leverage. She jams my hands together in a pinpoint over my head, her own charged rabbit’s foot relic smashed between her palm and mine, burning my skin like an iron left on high and steaming.
Trying not to scream, I bite down so hard I taste the copper and salt of blood on my tongue.
Lavinia looms over me, a small sound of appreciation at the pain she sees on my face, and my stubborn—albeit useless—determination to hide it. A necklace strung with what appears to be an actual human eyeball swings wildly over the hollow of my throat, the blurry proof of her heir’sXscar visible, red, raw, and angry in the background. The real Lavinia’s face presses in, ropes of dark hair shading it in a frame of shadow as her pale features contort into a vicious grin. She stinks of damp—mold, decay. Death.
“Auden Hegemony, I’ve missed that smug face of yours.”
I unhinge my jaw and form the best smile of my own that Ican under the circumstances, trying to keep my pride intact. “You could’ve seen it whenever you liked. I’m always available for tea and polite conversation.”
