Against her better judgement, she braved a second sip. She didn’t grimace this time, and when the bitterness doused her tongue, she embraced it. It matched the bitterness in her heart now. “What can be done?” she said.
Corvin’s glance pricked at her profile, but she didn’t turn toward him. She leveled her hard stare on Artemis.
The healer met it with a shadowed one of his own. “You have two options, and neither one has been practiced with any regularity.”
Lux braced herself with another sip of the bitter drink.
“For the first: You do nothing. You learn to cope with your hallucinations and dysfunction as best you can. Eventually it will lead to your death, but at what age and by what means, it is impossible to tell. Most of the Grimrook family, for example, met their ends rather young and by secondary methods.”
Lux felt as if she would never get the dark taste from her tongue. “Which sorts of methods?”
Artemis crossed his arms, revealing a paunch abdomen beneath the robe. “Accidents. Stabbings, drownings, being run over by a carriage. The mind can only handle so much.”
“And the second option?” A sourness filled her mouth now, her stomach a riot.
“The second option is something I’ve been working on for quite some time. It’s a means of removal. One I’ve had nothing but success with while in the experimental phase.”
Lux straightened. “A removal of the madness?”
“Yes,” said the healer and inclined his head. “Unfortunately, being as it is attached to your brilliance, that would have to come too.”
“Attached to my—” She stared down at her fingers’ grip on the mug. They were beginning to numb again.
“I’ve named it ‘The Stripping’. It’s a simple procedure but must be done with severe accuracy. Once completed, you should be returned to your rightful self. Sans necromancy.”
Lux’s balance shifted. She felt disembodied. “I need to sit down.”
Corvin’s hand was at her elbow, guiding her onto the table. “I’m so sorry, Lux,” he murmured.
“This can’t be all.” Despair bloomed through her. “This can’t be it.”
“I feel I need to ask,” began Artemis. “Considering the rarity of this. Does your family have any ties to this place?”
“No,” Lux said immediately.
“Yet you look just like her. It’s uncanny.”
“I thought the same,” said Corvin.
“Like who?” she asked.
You know who,her gut told her.
“Riselda Grimrook. Did you see her portrait? She was never found, you know. Perhaps you are a relation and were never made aware?”
“That’s impossible.”
“Impossible or undiscovered?”
Impossible or undiscovered…
Lux tumbled into a memory.
“Lucena is such a big name for her, Mads.”
The man sitting beside her on the sofa reached across his thin frame to tweak her nose. Lucena scrunched her face and laughed.
“Only you would think so. No one calls me Mads, but you.” Her mother came to sit at her other side.
