It made Lux’s insides boil. “Morana tells me you both have a long history. That you grew up together even. Does such a life-long acquaintance deserve your treatment,Aunt?”
Riselda blinked.
“I know Morana has lived long past her natural lifetime. Her family is selfish, scheming, and sordid, and so it didn’t shock me to learn they harvested the lifeblood of Ghadra’s poor as well. Very few would stoop to such an abomination. But you were there. A child as Morana once was.” Lux gripped the dagger hidden against her waist. “Who are you, Riselda? Because you’re certainly no family of mine.”
The words hurt more than she thought they would. She was alone again.
“I’m your aunt. Wearefamily.”
Lux laughed, hollow and cold. “You’re mad.”
Riselda’s face darkened. “Donotcall me that.” Her fingers twitched against the tabletop, as if they yearned for something between them. “I love you like my own daughter, Lucena. You’re powerful and strong, and you hate this world as much as I do. I knew it from the moment I found you, wide-eyed withexcitement in the Dark Market, that you would be different. And when your parents begged for my tutelage—you, a possible healer like me—it solidified our future.”
“What future?” Lux wiped clammy palms down her skirt, the page of the book crumpling further within.
“To destroy the mayor. To devastate his family. And to devour this cursed city’s walls to dust.” Riselda leaned in, and Lux fought the panic. She didn’t want to be in the presence of the demented gleam in Riselda’s eyes any longer, but she felt frozen to the chair. “Your parents were so weak, you know. Not like us. Your mother idolized me from a young age herself, and I let it continue. Admiration, remember? She called me her sister as a child, to anyone who would listen to her incessant chatter, but it wasn’t until she mooned over your father that I truly lost interest in her. She was too compulsive with her emotions. Shelovedeveryone and everything. Unfortunately, I noticed those traits beginning to surface in you as well.” Riselda’s wolfish grin blinded. “Andthat,I could fix.”
The wave of dizziness nearly sent Lux sliding to the floor. Riselda watched her closely, her head cocked and waiting.
“You killed them.” Each word felt like a branding iron in her throat.
It wasn’t a question. And Riselda didn’t answer it as if it were.
“You were born to the Dark. Did you know that? Your early childhood was filled with crumbling walls and moth-eaten rugs. I gifted them the home you knew. The fools. They didn’t even recognize the trap door for what it was. You should have seen your mother’s face when I appeared that evening.You’ve returned!” Riselda rolled her eyes in memory. “She was blind to the true nature of the world, Lucena, and she wouldn’t be convinced of what hid in wait. I’m sorry to have taken your parents from you, but it was necessary. It was the only way toshow you that Ghadra does not care for you. The world does not care for you. Only I do, and I will never betray you.”
Lux rose from her stool. “You have betrayed me beyond measure, Riselda.”
The blade slipped between the bones of her chest like marsh clay.
Several silent seconds went by with Riselda perched there, mouth gaping in shock, hands encircling the embedded ebony handle. Lux drew away from the table. “I admired you once. I even loved you, long ago. But I am nothing like you. I may have darkness in my soul, but you have become eclipsed by yours. It is all you are.”
Riselda pulled the dagger free, and it clattered to the floor, fallen from limp fingers. Blood pumped down the bodice of her dress, spreading across her skirt. When she made to stand, she collapsed, instead.
Lux turned away then frowned as an empty vial rolled past her feet, a drop of silver falling from its end as it came to rest.
“No—”
The blow to the back of her head thrust her into oblivion.
Chapter forty-seven
Grey walls shimmered andshook as Lucena walked along the corridor.
“Mama? Papa?” Her voice quivered. Knowing. Already, the feeling had taken root.
Curling vines pulsed up the walls, soiling the blue and gold flowers to black, and she staggered.
The bodies rested side by side upon the sofa with heads lolled forward. One dark. One light. Both stained crimson.
Lucena rushed forward, her slippers sliding in the puddle having formed upon the floor, soaking into the cushions, into the gold-tasseled rug. It splattered her sunshine-yellow dress. It had splattered the walls long before that.
She shook her father first, but when his head fell back, revealing the gaping wound, she screamed. Her mother’s was a replica of his.
Lucena stumbled away.
She emptied her belly onto the floor.
The walls pressed upon her, vibrating in her vision even as she ran.
