Page 85 of The Lies We Conjure
“Protein first,” Evander barks in a way that makes me believe they aren’t totally off-limits to her. “And you made no contact with them?”
“No,” Lavinia answers. “We planned to, maybe to work together, but when we arrived Hector and I’m assuming Sanguine, though we didn’t see her, were in the SUV, and the twins were at the rolled-down, driver’s-side window. Hector was angrily telling Hex to do something, and enlisting Ada to make sure it would happen.”
Winter narrows her eyes. “What kind of something?”
Lavinia glances at Kaysa. “We’re not sure. Hector just told Hex, ‘You will, and that’s final, my son. End of discussion.’ Hex pushed back again, Hector raised a hand like he was going to slap him, and Hex immediately shut up. Then he turned to Ada and directed her to keep him on task. She agreed. Hector seemed satisfied and drove away, back down the access road. Then the twins grabbed a pack they were sharing and hiked into the woods on an unmarked trail.”
Unmarked? If only we’d been there—the offshoots from the Field of Stars were numerous.
“Did you follow them?” Evander asks.
“We took the marked trail that went toward Horace’s Last Stand because it looked like it might be parallel to the twins,” Kaysa explains. “But they must have gone another way, because we lost track of them pretty quickly and they weren’t at Horace’s Last Stand.”
“Okay, wait, hold on.” Winter massages her temples, food all but forgotten. “How do we know any of this is true? Can you prove that the Cerises separated? Did you take photos? Video?”
“No.”
“So all we know is this story about the Cerises and the fact that you weren’t with my cousins all day, and when you were with them, they were suddenly so viciously attacked that our patriarch nearly bled out and Auden spent so much of his life element to heal him that he could barely walk straight?”
Lavinia pales.
My mouth pops open to defend her—but then Evander pointedly sets down his fork, his steak already inhaled. “Look, Win, you know me. I would not agree to be barricaded in here with the Blackgates if I had any doubts. I trust them. They didn’t throw those knives at themselves today. No magic was involved. They didn’t trick us. I trust them—and I trust you if you trust Infinity.”
“Wait.IfI trust Infinity? If you’re suggesting they had a hand in any of today’s violence, that’s preposterous. They’re the least violent person in the history of the Four Lines. Practically a Quaker.”
Evander doesn’t budge. “The Blackgates aren’t the only ones who weren’t with us all day.”
Winter narrows her eyes. “Bothof you are suspicious? Jesus Christ. Look, I saw Luna alive with them before we left to the grounds. We never separated on the grounds. Left together, returned together, discovered Luna together.” She wheels back to Evander. “And before you start asking me if I have any interest in being High Sorcerer, I don’t. I never wanted it, and now I’m not even sure I wantanyof this. Maybe I should be like Infinity and peace out.”
Evander cracks a smile, a throaty laugh escaping as his eyes dance. “You can’t ‘peace out’ as long as I’m patriarch. The Elemental Line will always be connected, whether we go from four lines to three in the next twenty-something hours or not.”
Winter’s nostrils flare in a way that mimics Evander, her jaw as tight as the fists balled atop the table. She glares at him. “I know. I know exactly what you want, Evander.” Winter whirls on the Blackgates. “What I don’t know is whatyou twowant.”
Lavinia raises her hands, placating. “We just want to go home. We don’t want to be High Sorcerer; we don’t want anything except to survive and leave.”
“Which leaves the Cerises,” I rush in to say. Evander nods, Winter frowns, I continue. “But if they could kill someone as powerful as Luna and not invoke Ursula’s magic, they would do it again to anyone challenging Hector, wouldn’t they? Why even mess around with it? They could’ve magically murdered all of us in Infinity’s room an hour ago, cut off my hand to invoke the clues, and finished out the relic search alone. But they didn’t.”
Evander looks up, his green eyes locking with each of us. “What are we missing?”
“The threats,” Lavinia answers, immediately. “I’m sure you all have already addressed this on your own time because it’s obvious, but what do you make of Ursula mentioning threats when she greeted us? You don’t think it was…”
“That she expected someone in the High Families to be capable of murder?” I finish.
“Well, yeah.”
I shake my head. “To Ursula, threats were—are—things like invasive technology, modern distaste for social secrecy, environmental changes that affect each line of magic, and outside magical rebels. I don’t think she would’ve taken any hints at discord so casually.”
“I agree,” Evander says. “Though we must take into account the way she was acting. She made sure the two of you were here. She told us she had a plan for the evening but didn’t elaborate. Then she not only mentioned threats to set the night’s tone, but she stood to give her speech during the first course instead of when the meal was over.” His eyes rise to the Blackgate girls. “And the last time Ursula did that was the night of your father’s trial and punishment.”
He’s right.
That’s exactly how that night went.
It was the first meeting after our parents’ funeral. It was supposed to be a cathartic night of dinner and discussion and hearts bared raw. Those of us at the kiddie table coping in our own ways—Evander in overt mourning; Winter with a happy, put-on face; and myself, with a misguided attempt at distraction by leaving a dead skunk in the bushes for a certain brunette guest to stumble upon.
Then Ursula rose from her seat, an accusation on her lips. The night instantly became an interrogation and a punishment, ending with the death of Marcos Blackgate before all of us.
In the silence, Lavinia draws in a deep breath, lifts her dark eyes to mine, shiny with all she’s lost and perhaps the memory of it too, and asks, “But what if it wasn’t a threat on her life? What if it was a threat on the way things have been?”
