Page 31 of The Lies We Conjure
“Not an excuse to keep them wondering, Auden.” He turns to the Blackgates, grinning a little too widely. “I can do it for you. It’ll only take a sec.”
The girls exchange yet another glance—they’re quite possibly more in tune than even the Cerise twins when it comes to wordless communication—but before they can consent, Hex leans in and plucks something off Lavinia’s shoulder strap.
“What—is… is that her hair?”
“I would assume so, unless you’re going gray mighty early,” Hex answers with a waggle of his eyebrows.
Lavinia purses her lips and, despite what she’s just been through, manages to cross her arms, relics suddenly prominently displayed—an obvious threat, should he attempt to pull anything like when he tried to “help” with her nicked skin on the terrace. She may have been leftin the dark by her mother and grandmother, but it’s clear she knows how to use those amplifiers. “How does this work?”
“We just need a piece of Marsyas to trace,” Hex tells her, the silver hair shiny in his pinched grip. “The rest is magic.”
And then he goddamn winks.
“On with it, show-off. We need to get back upstairs.”
Hex smirks at me and shoves the rolled-up shirtsleeve on his left arm until it bunches past the elbow. There, on the underside of his forearm, is a long set of vertical lines. They’re carved in the same silver-tinged magical ink that shimmered up from the page on Ursula’s will. He doesn’t yet have the extra line that the Cerises use to signify an oathed heir, but he likely will soon.
Tattoos bare, Hex twists the ring on his right index finger. The ruby stone slides away to expose a small, slightly hooked metal point. It’s the size and shape of the thorns on a rose stem, and far more sharp.
The inked lines aren’t labeled, but Hex seems to have gotten my memo about haste and doesn’t bother to dither or explain as he slices the length of the first line with the thorn point. The cut is the exact length and width of his tattoo, the blood that rises to the surface of his skin completely blotting out the black line.
Hex swipes the blood onto the opposite palm, and presses Marsyas’s hair into it, holding it until it’s sufficiently soaked and sparkling with the ruby red that signifies Blood magic. “Auden, a gust of wind, if you would?”
I oblige, gathering a strand in my palm and shooting it at Hex’s spell.
The Blackgates gasp in tandem as the emerald-tinted Elemental wind snatches up the stained hair and foists it out into black of night, traveling north in a counterclockwise loop around the house and across the grounds with the same effect as a sonic boom.
In one delayed thrust, the gust boomerangs around the ten thousand acres in a jolt, returning Marsyas’s hair on a raft of air as soft as an exhale.
The bloodied strand lands in Hex’s palm. He closes it for amoment, then opens it again. The stain of his blood remains, but the hair is gone, disintegrating to white ash that smears of crimson.
“What… what does that mean?” Lavinia asks, staring at Hex’s result with big, dark eyes and a prettily furrowed brow.
“It means Marsyas isn’t on the grounds.”
Lavinia visibly swallows but Kaysa scrunches up her nose. “I really thought she was in the loo.” Her eyes snap to Hex’s. “Did it check the loo?”
Hex just dusts his hands. “Of course. It checked everywhere. Your grandmother isn’t locked in by the spell with the rest of us.”
“Marsyas Blackgate is not on the premises,” Hex announces as the four of us enter the study. “Magically confirmed bymoi.”
Ada squints from her brother to the girls to me. “You were looking for Marsyas? Now? When we’re about to read the first clue? You decided that was the perfect time to put out a Silver Alert?”
“I’d rather not have anyone on the grounds after dark,” Evander adds. “It’s extremely treacherous.”
“Noted. We’re sorry. We’re just a little overwhelmed,” Lavinia replies as the sisters assume the same standing position they’d had before they left. Evander scoffs under his breath at her word choice—because yes, he, Winter, and I own the lion’s share of rights to feeling overwhelmed tonight—but says nothing. Lavinia swallows and announces, “But, yes, now we don’t have to wonder. Nona isn’t here, and the car we came in is gone, so we know now that she left before Ursula’s spell locked into place.”
“So, if Marsyasdidkill Ursula,” Infinity starts, glancing at Luna, “either the magic will have to be more flexible than Ursula intended or… it won’t.”
“Meaning we’re stuck.” Ada frowns.
“We’re notstuck. We just need to execute Ursula’s final directive as a team, together,” Evander answers. “Perhaps if we find all of the master relics, we can pool our magical talents to create a counter spell so great we can break Ursula’s spell as a last resort.”
It’s a decent plan. Therefore Hector seems to take credit for having the same idea.
“Which is exactly why we shouldn’t delay further in reading the first clue,” he says, “now thatwe’re all here.”
“We could’ve done without that last bit, Hector Cerise Senior,” Luna scolds. “Especially since you’re the one who was griping at those girls to know exactly where the woman went not ten minutes ago. Don’t order them to sing and then complain they’re too loud. It’s rude. Now, let’s get on with it. We don’t have all night.”
