Page 214 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘You’d have to see it to know,’ Riley tells him. ‘Later on, have someone drive you out to the edge of the city.’

‘Are we definitely the only ones trapped inside it? Excluding you, Lee.’

‘That I know of,’ Vasily answers slowly.

‘So why us, then?’

‘The bubble and the curse,’ Céliane says, turning another card over and placing it down, ‘are a distorted cry for help, and both stem from the same powerful mouth, I suspect.’

‘Me?’

She smiles at him adoringly. ‘Much as I love your confidence and have no doubt as to the power of your mouth, no. Sways cannot alter reality. Your ability is to alter people, shaping the water.’

‘So, a Brightling then?’

‘Perhaps.’

‘Wait,’ Kade says, looking at Lachlan. ‘Am I doing it to you?’

Lachlan’s querying frown smooths out instantly. ‘No, baby.’

‘Oh, they really are back,’ Vasily observes quietly.

Kade ignores him. ‘If I’m this thing that can… control people—’

‘That’s not how it is,’ Lachlan says, pushing off the wall.

‘—I told you to get on your knees a few nights ago and you did it.’ His head feels light; his ears are ringing. ‘Have I been controlling you? Oh my God, is that… is that why you couldn’t let go of me? Why you loved me?’

‘I’d do anything you say because I love you,’ Lachlan tells him, confident and calm, pulling up a chair to sit beside him. ‘It wasn’t that.’

‘How do you know? You don’t know! You don’t—’

Riley cuts over him, uncharacteristically loud to be heard. ‘Vox only works on humans, Kade,’ he says with heavy emphasis. ‘He’s not human.’

Not anymore, not since the ritual, but what about before?

Kade shakes his head, panicking hard now, rethinking every interaction, every time he’s spoken, every single time in the last five days he’s focused… tasted salt on his tongue, he… fuck.

‘Count the rings in a cut-down tree.’ Lachlan has his wrist, is massaging the pulse point with his thumb. ‘Breathe slow, it’ll pass if you let it.’ Kade lets his body relax a little. ‘Good.’

‘I… I don’t want to force anyone to love me.’

Lachlan gives him a fond smile. ‘You’d hardly need to.’

After a few moments of tactful silence from the others, Kade gathers himself enough to look over at them.

‘Tell me about the connection, then.’

‘Blaire and I believe,’ Vasily explains, ‘that all problems are connected and if all connected, then single solution will fix all.’

‘You don’t know about my ritual, though,’ Lachlan says. ‘It didn’t mention anything about a bubble or a Death Knot.’

‘What did it mention?’

‘Well, I don’t actually remember.’

Lee mutters, ‘Quelle surprise.’