by Cate Corvin
Breathing hard, she squeezed the bars of the prison until her knuckles went white and bloodless. “Can you tell them about our dream, Locke?”
The twins looked at her like she was mad. “Our dream?” Roman asked.
“It was strange- like his memories started to become part of my dream. Or nightmare, I should say. But they were merged together. That’s never happened before,” she said, her brow furrowed, and both night-creatures gave me suspicious looks.
“I saw Albrecht and the Cage beneath Cimmerian,” I started to say, but no words left my lips. Lucrezia groaned.
“This geas is like a goddamn virus!” she spat.
“Mallory is a skilled witch, however little we think of her. She wasn’t named the coven heir for nothing.”
“I was hoping we could find a way around having to break the curses.” Lucrezia let out a rough sigh.
My sunlight’s features were drawn and wan, her voice a tough raspier than usual. A flicker of disquiet ran through me.
For once, I didn’t feel steadfast confidence when I looked at her. I saw a young woman, one who’d been sorely tried beyond her years already, but this time if she failed the consequence was death.
“We don’t have to do this.” I squeezed her fingers and touched a stray lock of blonde hair. “There’s a way out, Lucrezia. I know you feel Cimmerian calling out to you, but you don’t have to heed it. We can go tonight and find somewhere safe to make our own coven.”
Her lips were set, dark shadows staining the skin under her eyes. “And leave Dominic and the others without a word? No. I’m not afraid to admit I’m scared. Sometimes I feel like I’m terrified to open my eyes at all after what I’ve seen here.” She lifted her chin, her eyes flashing to the night-creatures. “I wish I could tell you, but maybe it’s for the best that I can’t. Locke knows now.”
I nodded, every fiber in my body screaming to break out of the prison between us. Her dream had horrified me on a visceral level. My lost memories seemed to call out to me from behind a distant wall, but I couldn’t breach that wall no matter how hard I tried.
What I could feel disturbed me immensely. The mummified creature of Lucrezia’s dreams was sickening… and he wanted her.
I even considered taking her against her will, knowing she would possibly hate me for it.
But I wouldn’t be able to watch her and keep her in place during the day, and the night-creatures might not feel the same. Even if Lucrezia was in danger, they would follow her to the ends of the earth.
For once I wished my sunlight wasn’t here. I couldn’t ask them to help me in her presence, where she could sway them.
Shane shifted in place and exchanged a glance with his twin. “Lu… we were ready to help you with the curse-breaking, but if Locke thinks it’s bad enough that we should run, then maybe we should take that advice. Steele might come with us.”
Lucrezia gazed at him mutinously, then turned that glare on Roman. He only crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll go where you go,” he said quietly. “But if the danger to you is too much, I won’t hesitate to drag you out of there.”
“Is it possible that your feelings towards Cimmerian might be a little more possessive now that you’re a Gilt?” Shane asked, clearly trying to keep his tone delicate.
Lucrezia exhaled. “I’ve been feeling this for weeks now. Long before she made me one of them. Being a Gilt has nothing to do with it. Look, all three of you- since the geas affects Locke too, let Dominic give me one more lesson in curse-breaking. If we get that book and it gives us any answers on… things, we’ll decide from there if it’s worth fighting or not.”
Roman nodded, but the look of determination on Shane’s face wasn’t necessarily in support of Lucrezia’s idea. If I had to approach one of the night-creatures to get her out of here, he would be the one I’d rely on.
“We’ll get the book,” Roman said decisively. “I’m with you, Lu.”
I gazed into the ash-gray depths of her eyes. What did it mean, that my memories of Albrecht were merging with her nightmares of Cimmerian?
There was one thing I could imagine, but the rational part of my mind pushed it aside as total insanity. It wasn’t possible.
Except for vampirism, immortality wasn’t possible. And yet...
“I’m so tired,” she whispered, resting her forehead on the bars of the prison. “It never seems to stop, and I have to figure out these curses.”
I stroked the velvet skin of her face. “Go to sleep. I’ll watch your dreams.”
She nodded, a faint light of hope coming back into her eyes, and I kissed her through the prison.
Tonight, I would keep watch over the glittering jewel of her dreams, and if it darkened into a nightmare, I would crush it out. Albrecht wouldn’t haunt her under my watch… not if he wanted to continue to live his stolen life.
Chapter 7
Lu
My head pounded as Ivy droned about haruspicy at the head of Divination class. I barely batted an eye when she laid out a headless chicken on a plastic-covered table and began to sort through its guts.
“If you’ll all take a closer look at the liver…”
I had one more night to figure out how to unravel a curse-chain, and I had no idea what I was going to do if I couldn’t figure it out. Lay down and die? The idea of leaving everyone else here to fend for themselves was as tempting as it was appalling.
“As you can see from the discoloration and fleshy appendages…”
After Locke’s dream had twined through my nightmare, warping Grandfather into his memory of Albrecht Gilt, I felt like I’d been knocked off balance completely. Even knowing that Josephine Locke had once been a beautiful young woman, one whom Locke had deeply loved, it hadn’t occurred to me that the Gilt family had once had such a handsome, charming covenmaster.
Watching the phantom of Josephine dance in her husband’s arms had been disconcerting at best. Knowing that he’d somehow directly contributed to her death had been worse. She’d been so happy, completely unaware that her life was about to come to an end shortly after that dance.
Am I a man?
I shivered in my seat as Grandfather’s wispy voice echoed in the back of my skull.
He’d said I reminded him of Josephine. It was impossible, but at the same time… was it really? My brain kept superimposing the image of Grandfather’s shriveled skull over the handsome man with thick auburn hair and sparkling blue eyes, and my gut instinct told me that was right.
So how the fuck was he still alive?
Breaking the curses was my only option. The definitive answer would be in the Rites of the Cage, and I was going to find a way to steal that book by tomorrow or die trying.
Ivy held up a string of blotched purplish intestine and Daphne looked a little green around the edges. I frowned, propped my chin on my hand, and considered what I hadn’t done to fool the curses.
***
The curse-chain felt smug today, like it knew who I was and that I was back for round two of getting my ass whipped. It’d learned, too.
Dominic’s face was drawn, brows furrowed and eyes dark. “You do understand that I won’t just stand back and let you attempt a suicide mission?” he asked. He sat on the other end of the couch, one arm draped over the back, watching me with intense concentration.
“I wouldn’t try if I thought I didn’t stand a chance,” I lied, focusing on the little wooden box in my hands. “Now be quiet, I need to concentrate.”
I already knew the trick to unraveling Astrictus’s loose end, and the first curse dissolved into sparks of light in my mind. Cachinnatio and Cantus continued to whirl, winding around the box like vines.
I’d tried brute force, feinting, sneaking in from every side, snatching quickly, sliding in slowly. Every approach had failed.
But the thing about curses was that they were unique to their owners. It’d finally clicked with me while I watched my coven-sister’s teaching method, how different she was from someone like Dominic
or the scatter-minded Gray. They all did the same thing, but each was different.
Dominic had set these curses, so they would be keyed to his mind and magic on some level. And his mind responded to me.
I hadn’t tried seducing the curses.
If they’d been set by someone like Ivy, feinting might’ve worked. Brute force might smash through a curse set by Gray.
But Dominic liked to be the one in control. Force or fakery wouldn’t work on his curses, but a loving touch might.
I focused on Cachinnatio first, shielding my mind with feelings of warm love and affection, overlaid with the brighter, more heated sensations of lust and desire. Then I pushed that whirlwind of emotion at the curse.
It held back at first, but when the love twined through it the curse slowed down, melting into Cantus as the curse-chain responded to those emotions.
I mentally grabbed for the weak thread in the chain and pulled as hard as I could, unraveling the entire thing before it could snap.
When I opened my eyes, the wooden box lay inert in my hands. I flipped the silver latch and opened it. “Done.”
Dominic stared at me incredulously and took the empty box from my hands. “That’s… stunning progress, to put it bluntly. How did you manage this?”
I frowned. Wasn’t he happy that I’d picked it up so fast? “It just occurred to me that since curses are linked to their casters, I hadn’t tried approaching it the way I would approach you. I was looking at it wrong.”
He put the little cursed box aside. The incredulity hadn’t left his face. “So, you still plan to go through with this.”
“Well, I wasn’t sitting here cursing myself for fun.”
Dominic gave me a flat look. Even when irritated he was so handsome, his need for control over his own emotions almost irresistible to me. I loved to see him break those walls.
“Maybe we should try this again with harder curses and see how easy you find it. I’m surprised none of the others have thrown you over their shoulder and walked out.” He hadn’t released my hand. My heart was picking up speed, thudding in my chest. “I’d do it myself if I knew the wolves would allow me to take you.”
I was glad he didn’t know just how much Shane wanted to do exactly that, and that Locke was on his side. I saw their trepidation in their eyes. Only Roman was fully onboard with remaining here and taking out the Gilts.
“I’m here for a reason, Dominic. This is all a part of it.”
I wasn’t sure if I really believed in fate. I didn’t know if I even wanted to believe in it.
But I felt deep down that none of this was a coincidence. It was meant to happen this way.
“Lucrezia… has Locke ever walked into your dreams?”
I narrowed my eyes, thrown off by the sudden change in subject. “All the time.” What was Locke doing in Dominic’s dreams?
“Ah. I thought as much. And how much does he see in yours?”
Locke must’ve walked in on a dream that Dominic really hadn’t wanted him to see. I found myself wondering intently what Dominic dreamed about- was it something he’d be ashamed of? Afraid of?
“Everything. I can only control them to a certain extent.” Which meant he experienced my nightmares right along with me.
Dominic fell silent, his eyes fixed on the couch between us.
Tonight was the last night he might want to talk to me for a while. I was going to set everything on fire tomorrow.
I hoped he’d forgive me, but I only had tonight to let him know how much I cared, and how much I was willing to do to keep them all.
“Dom… what did you see?” I reached out across the distance between us and ran my fingers over his face. He had the barest touch of stubble on his skin that send a pleasurable shiver down my spine.
“I’ll confess that I don’t appreciate Locke knowing my fears,” he said, and a dry smile cut through the tension in his features. “But he was right. I should tell you myself.”
“Tell me what?” I felt ultra-aware both of the slight distance remaining between us, and of the vow I’d made not to touch him again until Ivy was no longer between us.
This time tomorrow, he’d be mine, anyways. So what if I touched him now?
He nudged my collar aside and touched the silver moons on my shoulders, holding my thrall-marked wrist in the other hand. “They’ve all marked you. All I’ve done is give you a ring you refuse to wear.”
“Can’t wear,” I reminded him, but my breath had left my lungs.
“I feared that I wouldn’t measure up to the others in your eyes.” The twins must’ve sensed my emotional state, because low, pleasant pulses of affection came through the mating bonds as Dominic touched them. “And I feared I wouldn’t be able to keep you alive. I only played along with Ivy-”
I touched his mouth, silencing him. “Dominic. I’m not upset about Ivy. She’s a cunning bitch who plays everyone around her. Honestly, I’m glad you got the curses out of her, or we’d still be sitting here with no idea of where to go next. And I can’t imagine why you’d think you don’t measure up to them. You took me into the deadside. You’ve saved Holly from dying here. And now you’ve taught me how to break curses. If we win against them, it’s because you were part of us.”
“But you were right, Lucrezia. I’m a Justiciar, and I’ve had over a year in which I could’ve saved lives.”
“And blown your cover? Last time I checked, you weren’t clairvoyant. You had no way of knowing who was next.”
My anger had cooled completely. I’d been furious, but what would I have asked him to do? Smuggle students out the front gate past the wall guardians? They all would’ve been caught, and it would’ve been Dom against a hundred enemies. I’d let my own self-righteous anger get the better of me.
“I could’ve done something besides watching and waiting,” he said. His dark lashes obscured his brilliant eyes completely as he looked down.
“If you had, you wouldn’t be here now.” I forced his chin up. “I’m sorry I accused you of not caring. I know it’s hard to see this happen and know there’s no way to stop it.”
We were so close, I could almost taste the sweetness of victory.
Please don’t be furious at me forever, Dominic.
“Please don’t attempt to break those curses, Lucrezia. It’s a death wish.” He gripped my hands and stared back at me. “I would help you in any other way.”
I couldn’t help but smile at him. “But you taught me how to break them perfectly.”
“If you fail one, you die.” Dom’s full lips were pressed tight, his grip almost painful. “It’s not a joke.”
“Never said it was, Dom.”
Just on the off chance that he was right, and I would die tomorrow unraveling Gilt’s curse-chain, I wanted to kiss him one last time and let him know how I really felt. I didn’t care if he was a Warden or from a greater coven.
He was mine, and I was going to prove that to Ivy tomorrow.
I leaned forward and pressed a deep kiss to his lips, forcing him to open for me this time. He froze for a second but recovered almost instantly, burying his hands in my hair and gliding his tongue against mine.
For a moment I forgot the world around us and everything that had happened. I forgot that I’d ever been angry at all.
I broke away before I let myself get carried away. “From now on, you have to trust me,” I said, my breath ragged. “That means no secrets. You’re not operating alone here anymore.”
Dominic nodded, running his tongue over his lower lip where I’d nipped at him. “No more secrets,” he said.
His gaze was all iron promise. I believed him.
But he shouldn’t have believed me.
Chapter 8
Lu
Every hair was perfectly in place, my uniform perfectly ironed and straight. Daphne’s heels lifted me six inches higher than usual, and the Giltglass ring gleamed on my finger. My nails were freshly manicured in a delicate blush pink.
I could’ve gon
e up against Ivy Bloom in a cover model contest and stood a good chance against her.
The Lu in the mirror was a perfect facsimile of a Gilt, all smug superiority and entitlement.
I rapped on the Headmistress’s door. Anthony answered, looking me up and down before announcing me to the Headmistress.
“Come in, dear. Have a seat.” Gilt gestured to the chintzy pink chair. I restrained a smirk when I saw Ivy behind her- this would be both terrifying and satisfying.
As long as all went well.
Last time I’d been in this office, I’d felt like I was losing my mind and self as I signed her family grimoire.
It was strange that I’d be in her office again as a Gilt, but feeling more like myself than ever. I settled on the chair and crossed my legs, imitating the sort of poise Ivy had.
“What can I do for you, coven-daughter?”
Gilt had a stack of files out on her desk. She used a fountain pen and deep blue ink to scrawl notes in a ledger, barely looking up. Ivy gave me a filthy look over her aunt’s head as she slid a book on a shelf.
“Matriarch, I’ve had some time to think over the last few weeks. You know that Ashdarke was a very small coven- I never had much education in the way of manners.”
Gilt nodded and dipped her pen in the inkwell again, a faint frown on her lips as she listened.
Locke’s assessment of Mallory Gilt formed the basis for the first step of my plan: bank on her blind pride.
“I never properly expressed my joy at finding myself a part of a greater coven. When I came to Cimmerian, I expected to master myself, and that was all. I never expected the honor of joining Giltglass.”
That got her attention. She lowered the pen with a thin smile. “Why, of course, dear. Grandfather was so pleased to learn we had a force of nature entering the academy. You measured up beyond his wildest dreams.”
It took every last drop of effort to school my expression into happiness. “I’m so glad to hear it,” I gushed. “But… there’s one thing that I would like permission for, Headmistress. It’s not just a matter of selfishness- I truly believe this would benefit us.”
