Page 98 of A House of Gold
"Yes."
She cuts my palm, quick, clean. Blood wells up, dark and red. Then she pulls out a small vial filled with liquid gold. Not metaphorical gold. Actual gold, molten and glowing.
"From the foundations of the house," she explains. "Croesus had to bring a piece of his domain with him. This is it, distilled, concentrated, the pure essence of everything he's built."
She tips the vial over my bleeding palm.
The gold hits my blood and ignites.
Not with heat, with power. I feel it sinking into my skin, into my veins, spreading through my body like wildfire. It doesn't hurt. It's just...overwhelming. Like swallowing sunlight. Like becoming part of something vast and ancient and hungry.
The tattoos on my arms start to glow. All forty-seven of them, lighting up like brands. The newest one, the coin from the last greed absorption, burns brightest.
"Don't fight it," Wren says. "Let it in. Let it bind you."
The gold spreads up my arm, across my chest, down my other arm. I can feel it rewriting something fundamental in me. Creating connections that weren't there before. Tethering me to the house, to Croesus, to everything he is.
I gasp as the binding snaps into place.
Suddenly, I can feel the house. Not physically here, but there, on the other side of the spaces between. I can sense its corridors, its rooms, its heartbeat. And underneath that, I can feel him. Croesus. His presence like a steady flame at the edge of my awareness.
"Good," Wren says. "Now the wards."
She takes my bloody, gold-stained hand and presses it against my chest, over my heart. Begins chanting again, faster now. The power in the circle spikes, and I feel something being carved into me. Not on my skin, deeper. Into my soul.
Protection. Concealment. A barrier that will make me invisible to Heaven's watchers.
But the cost, I can feel it. The tether pulling at me. The awareness that I'll never be completely separate from the house again. Even when I leave, even when I serve the other angels, I'll always feel this connection.
Always feel him.
The chanting stops. The power dissipates. The candles blow out all at once.
I collapse.
Wren catches me, lowers me to the floor gently. "Easy. That was a lot of magic all at once. You need to rest."
I'm shaking. Covered in sweat. My palm is still bleeding, now mixed with gold that's cooling into a thin line across my skin. It looks like a scar. Or a brand.
Croesus is there suddenly, kneeling beside me. "Raven. Can you hear me?"
"I can feel you," I whisper. "The house. You. It's...everywhere."
"That's the binding." His hand hovers over me but doesn't touch. "It will fade. Become background noise. You'll get used to it."
"Will I?" Because right now, it feels like I'm drowning in gold.
"You will." Wren brings over a blanket, drapes it across me. "The first few hours are intense. But your mind will adjust. Learn to filter it." She looks at Croesus. "Help her up. Get her dressed. I'll make more tea."
He helps me sit, then stand. My legs shake but hold. He hands me my clothes without looking, and I dress with numb fingers.
When I'm decent, I sink onto the couch. Wren presses a new mug of tea into my hands, something stronger this time, with honey and herbs that make my head clear slightly.
"How do you feel?" she asks.
"Like I just swallowed a building."
She laughs. "That's accurate. You're carrying a piece of the house inside you now. It will always feel heavy at first." She sits beside me. "But the watchers won't be able to track you anymore. As far as Heaven is concerned, you're part of Croesus’ domain now. Attacking you would be attacking him directly. They won't risk breaking the treaty."
