“Father’s dead,” he said bluntly. “Ben is, too.”
“That’s too bad.” She glanced at the two of them with watery eyes. “Do you mind turning the lights off? Since he won’t be coming to bed.”
“Don’t you want to know how they died?”
“No. I don’t want to know anything.”
“Don’t youcare?” Nadine asked, shocked.
His mother cracked open a hostile eye. “I,” she said, “do not have the luxury of caring any longer, Nadine. I have borne the three children who do not respect me, and now I live in this cage—to be taken out whenhesees fit, always with the threat of death hanging over my head like a sword.”
“Mother,” said Cal.
She looked at him sharply. “I suppose you did it. You’re all killing something or another, so why not each other for a change?” She sighed wearily. “Why wouldn’t the serpent consume its own tail when it got bored enough? No, don’t tell me anything. I don’t want to know. It’s horrid.”
She leaned back against the pillow, like she was about to go to sleep. But then her eyes shot open again, like she had just remembered something awful.
“You look just like him, Cal. Caledon. TheoriginalCaledon. Nathaniel named you like that because you had his eyes. They said they looked like blood-speckled marble, and they were cold.” His mother shuddered. “I think he’d always hoped that your heart would be like that, too.”
“I’ve seen the portraits.”
“I never met him, but his sons . . . horrible. Nathaniel was . . . a monster. So was his father.” This time, the stiffness in his body seemed to ripple downwards to where his fingertips were beginning to feel cool and numb. Beside him, Nadine shifted restlessly. “He raped me. Did you know that? He took me from my friends and dragged me out to those woods and he had his way with me after doing far worse to—”
She broke off.
“He called them deer. I saw the whole thing. He called themdeer.”
“I’m so sorry, Corrine.” Nadine took a step towards his mother, but froze when his mother flinched back from her outstretched hand. “That shouldn’t have happened to you.”
“Is that what you did to her?” His mother jerked her head towards Nadine.
“No.” He folded his arms. “I let her choose.”
“Huh.” She blew the word out on a puff of air. “Guess that’s why she’s still here.”
There was a sharp, buzzing silence.
“Turn the lights off and shut the door.” Her voice faded, wearing away like old velvet. “I don’t want to have to see anything else.”
???????
“Thou art now the mistress of Ravensgate.”
“No!” Nadine shot up with a gasp from dreams washed in the color of blood, the sinister words echoing in her ears like a death knell. When she looked around and saw only darkness, her panic grew.
In her dream, a flock of ravens had pecked out her eyes before tearing each other to pieces in a flurry of blood and wings. Ravensgate exploded in a cloud of black feathers, obscuring everything. When they finally cleared, they had chewed through everything, leaving only a terrifying black abyss.
But how could you see anything without eyes?
The silence was thick enough to cut through and her shirtdress had slipped down one of her shoulders in sleep. She straightened it self-consciously, her breathing loud and vulgar in the darkness.
(Give yourself over to the pleasure that comes only from being lord of life and death)
“Cal?” she whispered.
“Yes.” The voice that came from beside her was weary. “I’m here.”
“I had a bad dream.”
