Page 30 of The Lies We Conjure
No, this is not the Lavinia Blackgate of old.
Though I suppose I’m not the same Auden Hegemony either.
The one I am now calmly assures this panicked and pained girl, “You will be in just a moment.”
Then, as gently as possible, I gather her injured hand in mine. The first two fingers are so mangled by the magic I’m surprised she didn’t immediately faint. I’d seen the whole thing—Kaysa reaching for the barrier and Lavinia reacting without a care for herself, putting her body between her little sister and disaster. They may have been spelled to forget and coddled to be in the dark, but that sort of fierce protection isn’t something that can be stamped out.
A curl of admiration unfurls in my chest as I cup my hands over her injury.
Lavinia hisses, and a new batch of tears wells in her eyes as they flit from the verdant magic flickering between my skin and hers and my face. I hold her gaze for the barest of moments, the spell to heal her nearly as quick as the exposure to magic that ruined her flesh in the first place.
A breath, the tiniest fleck of my life element, and it’s done.
The magic dies into her skin, and, steering well clear of the charged Death Line relics dangling dangerously from her wrists, I carefullylet go. As they fall away, Lavinia’s right hand is revealed, repaired and whole.
As good as new.
Flexing her fingers, Lavinia seems stunned to silence. Kaysa gawks beside her, wide-eyed and mouth curled into a littleObefore she exclaims, “Shiiiiite, that’s amazing!”
“It’s too much.” Lavinia catches my wrist with her newly healed hand, her preserved rabbit’s foot swaying but not touching my skin. “Thank you for healing me but—why are you doing this, Auden?”
Honestly, I don’t know until I’m talking.
“Your grandmother abandoned you, and you know none of that looks good for you”—I jab a finger behind us, toward the void left by what I assume was Marsyas’s chauffeured vehicle—“especially with that man very visibly mangled by Death magic.”
Both girls go a little green in the waning light of the night. “And,” I say, “given the obvious gapingchasmin your magical education, it’s no wonder you tried to leave. You panicked. I would panic too—”
“Auden! Are you out here?” Hex’s voice calls out.
Without hesitation, I yell back. “Stay there! I’ve got them!” Then, lowering my voice, I whisper to the girls, “Quickly, now. Toward the house before he leaves the steps and sees the body down the drive.”
Lavinia’s brow creases, even as she follows my instructions and begins swift-stepping forward, her newly repaired hand tucked into Kaysa’s own. “But they’re going to find it eventually—as soon as it’s light. What’s the point in hiding it?”
“The point is to give you more time to figure out what your grandmother has done—and why.”
Lavinia frowns and gestures toward the man, now twenty paces ahead with the rate we’re moving. “Doesn’t that make us look even more guilty?”
Hell. She’s not the same, yet still stubborn as ever when push comes to shove. And right, regrettably.
“Coming!” I shout to Hex with a wave. It does the job, and when he’s looking at me and not our surroundings, I reach for the spark of my magic. When I’m sure the driver’s hidden from Hex’s viewbehind Evander’s ridiculous Maserati, my magic descends in a green haze, instantly cloaking the dead man in his own corner of night.
Beside me, Lavinia’s step falters anew. My hand shoots out again to steady her, but Kaysa is already on the case, holding her sister about the waist as her body’s equilibrium recalibrates from the receding pain. “What… I… did you…”
“Did I buy you more time? Yes.”
Lavinia and Kaysa again exchange a look, and I know they’re as skeptical of my aid as they are scared of the truth.
I am too.
“What was that all about?” Hex asks the sisters as the chandelier light from within the manor finally reaches our faces. “Your memories flood back and chase you out the door?”
“No,” Lavinia answers flatly. Her voice is still rough from pain, but she’s trying to hide it.
“We were searching for Nona,” Kaysa explains.
“Like,physicallysearching?” Hex squints at her. Kaysa squints right back. “Why don’t you just use a hunting spell?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, Athena isn’t one for magical education,” I reply, dryly. I try to push past him and into the house in an effort to keep his curiosity away from the driver, but Hex doesn’t budge.
