“My goodness, just look at the crows! What a help they’ve been. Their minds—second only to a few.” Mistress Farrentail, bedecked in her feathers, stepped next to Riselda. Behind her came six more women. “It’s a shame you’ve ruined your relationship with the creatures, Riselda; this could have been over before it even began.”
Lux looked between the pair. “The vendor didn’t die?”
“I can answer for myself, Ms. Thorn, thankyouvery much. No, I didn’t die. Though I was severely incapacitated. I have a feeling we were planned additions to Mothlock’s staff. I’m happy to say our health was restored before that happy event.”
Lux’s eyes drifted to Riselda, who’d yet to change her expression. Instead, it was as though she herself had been frozen. Her features were immobile. She didn’t blink. She only stared at the body on the ground—the living one.
At Alixsander.
Who had begun to groan.
“What is this naked boy doing on the veranda?” Mistress Farrentail pushed farther out. “Holy saints and devil’stits! That’s—”
“Language,” mimicked Lux, meeting Mistress Farrentail’s glare.
“What is the matter with you, girl! Itoldyou not to revive him!”
“My choice was either that or something much worse. At any rate, he might not even be lucid. Though at least he has his soul.”
Riselda, thawing at last, knelt beside him. “Alix?”
Eyes as dark as a crow’s blinked open. The vacant look was gone, and they seemed to focus on Mothlock awhile—until they focused on Riselda. Alix’s brow furrowed. Lux looked for any recognition on his part and saw none.
Riselda, noting this too, said, “It is the glamour, I suppose.” Without breaking her gaze from his, she reached into her gown. The smallest vial pressed to her lips, and she swallowed the contents. “There, darling. Do you remember me now?”
Alix scrambled away with a cry of alarm. Lux nearly did too, but her legs wouldn’t propel her. Riselda turned from his fearful face to find her.
“You see, Lucena? You do not suffer from the madness of brilliance. Because if you did, you would look like this.”
Chapter fifty-four
Herskinwasnotsloughing. Her teeth weren’t blackened and her tongue remained a usual pink instead of bloated. But Riselda’s natural ivory tone was replaced with grey. And her eyes—her eyes were green.
Her hair, no longer lustrous, hung like a dull and brittle curtain about her shoulders. She pushed it back. “I had planned to take this to my grave, but the Grimrooks did value honesty between family.”
A pit formed in Lux’s gut. “That means I might—”
“No.” And now Riselda was stern. “What I suffer from does not follow any bloodline.” She glanced at Alix, then toward the bodies collecting on the gravel. “I know vengeance did this. I wanted Ghadra—and everyone in it—to suffer. Because I’d suffered. I wanted Grimrook House returned. For anyone in it to run screaming from my estate. And now…now I want every last one of these traitorous men to die.”
She left Alix and drew nearer to Lux. Near enough that Shaw stepped between them. Riselda rolled her eyes, and said around his shoulder, “I realized after a few decades what was happening, when nothing cured me. I hadThe Risen; I understood a necromancer could expunge the madness. But once it came to asking for your assistance in a revival, I simply chose not to.”
Riselda cackled so abruptly, Lux startled. “You see, Ilikeit.” Her finger rose as if she meant to stroke Lux’s cheek, the motion meeting only air. “You needed me though, didn’t you, darling? And so I did not abandon you.”
Lux could hardly stomach Riselda’s laugh—it was the phantom reincarnated. And Shaw had had enough.
Low and harsh, he said, “She does notneedyou. She is magnificentdespiteyou. And you cannot order her or control her or claim her. She is notyours,Riselda.”
For a brief moment, Lux thought Riselda was going to lunge at him with her teeth. But the smile upon her face only grew, stretching, wide as it could. “She is magnificent, isn’t she? Don’t worry, Cockroach. I do not want anything from her anymore.” Then she turned and crouched before Alix. “Dear Alix. I loved you like a brother. Why? Why did you betray me? You should have known you would be next.”
“Riselda.” Lux pushed around Shaw. “Don’t kill him. His soul is good. I think he would do good things for Mothlock, if he could.”
Riselda’s nails twitched beside Alix’s face, but she did pull them back. “Well, dearest?”
“I didn’t mean to betray you. I only didn’t know why you stole and why you ran. You were so secretive and withdrawn from me. I was worried for you, Riselda. Please believe me.”
“Because they were taking, Alix. Wasn’t it obvious? My family was dying and our estate pilfered piece by piece. How could I trust anyone but myself to fix it? You stole it from me, whetheryou thought you would do good with it or not.” She surveyed the grounds. “It grew sick, even twisted, with our absence.”
“I swear I didn’t know.”
