Page 109

Wisteria rolled her eyes and gave a dramatic sigh. She leaned in, her voice loud above the music. “If your tattoo burns it means there’s mutual attraction.” She gave Peri a nonchalant shrug. “The hotter it gets, the stronger the attraction.”

Peri glanced at her shimmering golden tattoo. Wisteria continued, her tone shifting to a haughty pride as they pushed deeper into the throng. “It’s why Tamzin’s always the security at my parties. She’s terrifying and competent—but also a dab hand at these tricky attraction enchantments.”

Peri rolled her eyes but finally took the drink Wisteria had been attempting to offer her while they talked. She cautiously sniffed it, her gaze never leaving Wisteria. Meanwhile, Wisteria sipped her own drink, her eyes scanning the celebration before them but instead of enjoying the party she obviously went to great effort to orchestrate she seemed… sad?

This struck Peri as odd. How could anyone look at what was some of the most marvellous magic Peri had ever seen, and not feel something akin to joy? Wisteria should have at worst been smugly bragging about how she’d orchestrated everything from an underwater ballroom to the way the room was cast in romantic tones—as if every light was refracted through a prism of tender rose petals.

Floating trays of delicate hor d'oeuvres or glasses of bubbly cocktails wove around delighted guests. Sofas somehow made of water were scattered artfully around the ballroom, and a full orchestra played on a raised platform off to one side above a dance floor so large that hundreds of magical beings had easily filled it.

Everywhere she looked she noticed more interesting touches, wisteria branches woven together, their blue raindrop flowers hanging over cosy nooks offering party goers a private moment when they needed a break from dancing. A staircase of water led up to another story where people lounged, enjoying drinks and each other’s company. The more details Peri noticed, the stranger she found Wisteria’s sudden melancholy at a party in her honour.

She couldn’t help but study Wisteria now under blushing pinks. Soft, delicate emotions shone in her eyes, when typically everything about her—her razor sharp hair to her meticulously styled clothing—were curated harsh lines and severity. After a moment, Wisteria sighed. “Ask.”

Peri hesitated, she had so many things she wanted to ask. But none of them felt like her place, they weren’t exactly friends and Wisteria wasn’t the type to open up to her even if they were. Yet, she decided to finally voice the one thing that had been nagging at her for a while now. “Wisteria… Slang gave you—or they marked you too, didn’t they?”

Wisteria let out a long, tired breath, her eyes fluttering shut. “Well observed, Wilder.”

“Wouldn’t the Morozjak just let you have it?” Peri asked.

Wisteria canted her head back and forth as she considered her answer. “Perhaps, but we’ll never know now. I’m glad, though. I never wanted to take the earring to the Lady of the Lake.”

Peri glanced at her. “Why’s that?”

“Because from everything I’ve heard, the Lady of the Lake eats demonesses who get too near her flames.”

Peri’s voice faltered. “What?”

Wisteria shrugged, looking more earnestly upset than Peri had ever known her to be. “Maybe I’m wrong. It’s just something my dad used to tell me. He claimed it happened to my aunt.”

Icy disbelief pierced her at Wisteria’s words. She’d been so determined to find and steal back the earring—now, learning that its return demanded a price of its own, that victory was not salvation but another wound, a crushing bleakness unfurled inside her chest. “No! That cannot be true.” She pinched the ridge between eyes to keep from crying. “The gorgons or—Bonegrundle especially!—wouldn’t have kept this information from me… no. No.”

Wisteria’s expression shifted to something unexpectedly soft and sincere. “I don’t know,” she whispered, lifting a shoulder. “But I spent a long time researching it, and could never confirm or deny the truth of it.”

Wisteria took Peri’s wrists in her hands, touching her thumbs to the two armbands hiding the scars that branded her wrists as well.

“My father tried to control me my whole life, and for the most part, he succeeded.” Wisteria took a drink then continued, “I was so desperate to make him proud that I spent years doing whatever I could to gain his approval.” Her voice dropped lower, almost imperceptible. “Then, when I realised how terrible he truly was, I couldn’t find a way to escape his web. And now…”

A flicker of vulnerability passed across her face before her expression hardened. “Now, I won’t let anyone control me again.”

A beat passed, the air thick with shared heartache. Then Wisteria’s slumped shoulders pulled taut, her posture sharpening—her gaze snapped to Peri.

Wisteria’s voice was now a blade, low and exacting. “If you don’t hear anything else I say, hear this.” They locked eyes. “Just because we accepted Slang’s Bite, doesn’t mean we don’t have a say in our own lives. Maybe we only have terrible options, but I swear, I’m not going to let that two-headed Serpent, my father… or anyone else decide my fate. Not now, not ever again.”

For all of Peri’s life there had been this sort of inevitability, a path laid out for her that she knew she must follow. Even when she deviated from the path originally forced upon her, it seemed there was always somebody else shoving new expectations upon her. Choice—true choice—seemed to be a fictional concept made up by demons who’d never been sat down and told what was expected of them. When she’d chosen to help the magical creatures undo this Cursed Bargain she’d never once considered the cost, because when had the cost of anything in her life been her concern? Demonesses don’t concern themselves with costs—it was the lot in life they were born into.

“I’m going to give you advice I had to give myself a while ago.” Wisteria sighed, her anger giving way to something almost vulnerable. “But this stays between the two of us. I’d stab you before admitting to it.”

The room around them grew too loud, the music grating against her skin, making her reach up with her free hand and rub her chest. A chill whispered over her until, to ground herself, Peri took a long drink of her cocktail, her gaze never leaving Wisteria.

“You can start small, choosing yourself.” The sincerity in Wisteria’s voice cut through the tension. “If you want to kiss someone, or more than kiss someone… do it. If you want your life to be different, and you have the power to change it, then fucking change it.”

Peri downed the rest of her drink and Wisteria replaced it with another full glass of the same cocktail. Wisteria laid a hand on her arm as she finished her short speech. “If you don’t learn to fight for what you want, you’ll end up living an eternity in someone else’s dreams… while your own wither and die.”

Peri’s heart thudded in her chest. “But… how will that change anything?”

Wisteria shook her head, a sad smile tugging at her lips as she took another sip of her drink. “That you’ll have to figure out yourself. I’ve—I knew a demoness like you. I—” She exhaled sharply, lost in thought. “We were… together. In love. I could see that she was drowning and thought if I told her all the correct decisions that she’d know what to do and then do it. But that’s not how life works. You have to figure these things out yourself.”

“What happened to her?” Peri asked.