The pain blinds me for a second, and when I open my eyes, his hands are clasping my cheeks, and his eyes glow a vibrant red, boring into mine before he says: “Kill yourself.”
“No!”
The scream comes from Ada Astra’s room. Aliz runs out while I feel blood trickle down my face. She’s not wielding her sword, instead she simply sprints towards us while Gustavsson stares back at her, amused.
“The useless heir,” he says, before reaching forward and licking my face.
I can’t use my stake. It would damage the heart. Instead, I lunge at him, knee between his legs. Just as he lets out a groan, he turns into a bat. I’m not allowing a repeat of Inverness, so before he can fly off, I reach for the silver arrow behind the statue. I ignore the pain in my head as I aim and release the arrow. He transforms back into his humanoid form, the arrow in his stomach.
I don’t look at Aliz. I don’t have time to see her expression—the slow realisation that I have lied to her about absolutely everything.
“Not a bad shot,” Gustavsson says, his voice jarringly calm.Despite the fact that the silver will burn him, he wraps his hands around the arrow in his stomach, and pulls it out in one fluid motion, his hands sizzling. “But you should have aimed for my head.”
He’s wounded, but even so, before I can reach him, he again turns into a bat, disappearing down the staircase.
“No!” I shout.
I reach the arrow too late. When I pull back my bow, he’s gone.
“Cassie?”
Adrenaline continues to pump through my veins, and I lower my weapon, turning.
Aliz stares at me, face drained of colour. “He compelled you to kill yourself,” she says, voice tight.
“I’m fine,” I say.
I look along the hallway, into the open door leading to Ada Astra’s room. The open window is visible from here. And cut out against it, is a silhouette.
I recognise her even with a mask on. The woman who taught me how to survive in the shadows.
Penny lifts a weapon, a crossbow armed with a long stake, and fires.
Chapter
Thirty-Six
I push Aliz aside, the stake landing just an inch away from us. “Leave!” I shout, without looking at her.
Aliz stares up at me, eyes wide and confused. “What—”
“Run,” I say, just as Penny’s steps echo across the hallway, walking towards us, “Aliz, please—”
“What’s the rush?”
Penny’s rich voice, so familiar, fills the hallway. I stare at the crossbow in her hands, she arms it with another stake.No.“Go,” I say again, but Aliz doesn’t move, staring at Penny with a slack jaw. At the black uniform, the modern version of what Aliz is wearing. As soon as she’s close enough, Aliz shields her eyes from the cross on Penny’s white mask, hissing under her breath. “Aliz—”
“Don’t worry, Rebecca, I’m not going to hurt her.”
“Rebecca?” Aliz echoes.
I’ve been longing to hear her say my real name. But this is not how I wanted it to happen. My eyes burn. It’s over.
It’s okay,I tell myself. I just need to keep Penny distracted. Long enough for Aliz to run.
“What are you doing here?” I ask. I think back to our last call, when Penny said everything was fine.
“I won’t hurt her, as long as you give meThe Book of Blood and Roses,” she says slowly.
