“I need to go home. Even if I have to tell my parents they were right.”
“They didn’t want you to go?”
“They told me a story once. Of a person they knew. Who went to Mothlock and never came out again. They said it’s a cursed place. And there are more of those stories.”
“That didn’t deter you?”
“Lord Corvin said they were lies spun by their enemies. That I couldn’t trust the slanderers. It made sense to me…at the time.” She rose from the rock. “Andyou’rehere. Why are you here?”
Lux followed her. Together, they made for the precarious steps cut into the cliff. “I’m sick too.”
Cecily turned sharply toward her. “The same as me? I thought—”
“No. Not the same.”
“But are you sure it’s true? Artemis felt excitedwhen he told me I needed his help.”
Lux’s memories retrieved an image of Viktar, cold and stiff upon his bed in Verity. “I wish it wasn’t. My symptoms began before I ever met a collector.”
“Well,” said Cecily, beginning to huff in their steep climb. “I hope you get better soon.”
“Me too.” Lux pressed her knuckles to her chest.Don’t give out on me, you lumped organs.But as they continued their ascent, she thought for sure she could hear the remnants of the sea she’d breathed sloshing around inside.
“I only have to get to the forest,” muttered Cecily in front of her. “They won’t be able to track me in there.”
“Not to be pessimistic,” Lux heaved. “But won’t they make straight for your home?”
The girl tripped while sidestepping a crab, and Lux reached to steady her.Ignore the pain,she demanded of herself. Only, she saw how much farther they had yet and knew she might pass out by its end. Her sodden dress felt like it weighed five times as much.
“I didn’t think of it.”
“I have some money—a good amount. It should be enough to get you by for several weeks while you contact your family.” Lux would have to say farewell to the necromancer’s journal. The disappointment hurt. “Though, I’m not sure how far you’re going to make it in those shackles.”
Already, Cecily had to take each step with care. The chain between her ankles wouldn’t allow her legs to stretch far enoughto walk up the stairs normally. Lux didn’t complain about the slow pace; she needed it badly.
The idea that they chained the girl nightly under the guise of safety… Lux clenched her teeth until they protested. “Maybe I can find something to cut through them.”
Cecily remained silent, and when they crested the cliff, Lux realized why. She was crying.
Tears pooled in the girl’s eyes and ran quietly down her cheeks. Every time she blinked, a fresh trail trickled.
“Cecily…”
“Why did I think I could go home? I’m so foolish.”
“You’re not. And maybe you can. Only, not yet. There’s something I—” Lux’s thought cut same as her words. Yes, there was something she needed to do. More than one thing now that she really considered it. But she didn’t know how she could succeed. Sneaking through a dark manor in search of a single room with a singular goal was one thing. Doing something worthwhile about kidnapping and other unearthed atrocities was another.
Shaw had burned the mayor’s experimentation room down with his sister’s invention. What worthwhile thing could she do? She had no one.
“It’s better this way. Lucena Thorn always destroys those we love.”
Lux jolted at the voice in her head. At finding the nightmarish version of herself standing rigid at the garden door. It waited for her, wraithlike and dripping in the night.
“We killed another tonight. Because we did not think, only acted. We kill those we don’t love too. We’re an ugly, mindless monster. Lock us away and spare the world of our presence.”
For the second time, Lux felt at a loss for air. She thought she heard another’s voice but couldn’t be sure. Waves bombarded her ears. Waves that weren’t a part of the sea.
“Lux? Lux!”
