Page 94 of A House of Gold
"No." I kiss him, brief and fierce. "But I can promise I'll try my damnedest to make sure we survive it."
He kisses me back, deeper this time, like he's trying to memorize the taste of hope.
When we break apart, he's almost smiling.
"Alright," he says. "Alright. We'll do this. Carefully. Quietly. We'll research without triggering Heaven's surveillance. We'll find a way to break the curse without alerting every watcher between here and the throne of Gods." He pulls back. "But first, we need to deal with the immediate problem."
"What immediate problem?"
"The watchers have marked you. They're tracking your movements. If we're going to do this, we need to blind them." He moves back to the table, starts gathering the crystals. "I know someone who can help. Someone who exists outside Heaven's jurisdiction. Someone who owes me a favor."
"Who?"
"A witch. Old magic, older than the fall. She can create wards that even watchers can't penetrate." He looks at me. "But it will require a blood price. Your blood, specifically. And it will bind you to the house in ways that will make leaving...difficult."
"How difficult?"
"You'll be tethered, connected to the gold. Part of my domain in a way you aren't now." His voice is careful. "It won't violate your contract; you'll still move on to the other houses when your year is up. But you'll always be tied to this place. To me. Even when you're gone."
The implications settle over me like a weight. A tether. A permanent connection to Croesus and his house. Even after I leave, even after I serve the others, I'll be bound here.
"Is that what you want?" I ask. "To bind me to you?"
"I want you safe. Everything else is negotiable." But there's hunger in his eyes. The greed, always present, always wanting. "Say no if you want. We'll find another way."
But there is no other way. Not if Heaven is watching. Not if the watchers can track my every move.
"Do it," I say. "Bind me. Protect me. Whatever it takes."
His expression shifts, relief and satisfaction and something that might be possessiveness.
"Then we leave tonight. The witch lives in the spaces between spaces. It will take time to reach her." He starts gathering materials, moving with sudden purpose. "Pack light. Wear something you can fight in if necessary. And Raven?"
"Yeah?"
"Once we do this, there's no going back. You'll be marked as mine in ways that Heaven will recognize. Ways that can't be undone." He meets my eyes. "Are you sure?"
I think about my grandmother. And about the possibility, however slim, that I might be able to change it.
"I'm sure," I say.
"Then we have work to do."
I spend the afternoon preparing.
Packing a bag with practical clothes, supplies, things I might need for a journey through "spaces between spaces", whatever that means. Nat finds me in my room and immediately knows something's wrong.
"You're leaving," he says.
"Just for a few days. Maybe a week." I don't look at him. "Croesus is taking me somewhere."
"Where?"
"He didn't say exactly. Something about a witch and blood wards." I stop. Look at him. "Nat, have you heard of watchers?"
His expression goes carefully blank. "Why?"
"Because apparently they've been tracking me. And Croesus thinks they might have killed my grandmother."
