Riselda grasped her hand in an icy grip. “This way, Lucena. The stage awaits.”
“The stage?” Lux pulled away her fingers. “What are you going to have me do?”
“What you do best. A demonstration of your brilliance. And I will do the same. The perfect distraction.”
Except the perfect distraction had already woven through the crowd as they spoke. Purple shadows stained the space beneath his eyes, but even if Shaw wasn’t yet healthy, he was at least whole. His brow furrowed as he neared them, sharp and suspicious. If Lux hadn’t known him, she would have thought him furious. She did know him, however. Quite well by now, and she wondered how much he had already guessed by the concern darkening his face.
“Lux. Riselda.” He nodded to them both as he stepped in their path.
Riselda’s smile begged to transform into something else. “Ah, the young man who not only survived the plague, but the prison. How…convenient.” She turned her severe smile upon Lux.
“It’s nice to see you again. Is your family here?” Lux kept her face smooth of emotion.Please, say no.
“Yes. Enjoying the vendors. Have you been here long?”
She shook her head. “We just arrived. And I think the celebration will be over quickly for us.”
Shaw’s gaze narrowed further at the same moment Riselda latched onto her wrist. “Yes, so we must be going. Enjoy the festival.”
Riselda didn’t relax her grip until the stage rose up before them at the edge of the square. “What do you think you’re doing?”
For the second time, Lux extracted herself. “I’ve done nothing.”
“Your friend may possess all the survival instincts of a cockroach, but he will not survive this. No one will. I hadthought you’d accepted that and embraced our future. Have you, Lucena? Have you embraced what you’re meant to become?”
What Lux longed to embrace was a black-handled blade again. “Yes, Riselda. Ghadra is dead.”
“Good girl.” She patted her cheek. “Now take the stage.”
But before she could, the mayor appeared instead, pushing aside thick, velvet curtains until he stood at the center, vying for the attention of the town. One by one, the masses turned toward him, with those too slow to do so helped along by the Shield.
“To the beautiful and fine townsfolk of Ghadra, I ask you, are you enjoying another flawless Festival of Light?” The most illustriously dressed clapped the loudest. The mayor’s grin broadened, his face flushed. “Excellent, and you’re welcome.” He laughed, swallowing a healthy sip of wine. “Now, the time has arrived for the main event of the evening! Once upon a time, I discovered—and refined—two of the most powerful manipulators of the fates. One that can breathe health back into another so near death they’ve glimpsed the afterlife, and another who can drag a soul from beyond the veil to walk amongst the living once more. Thanks to my governance, together, they can cheat the cloaked beast known as Death. Ghadra’s Healer and Ghadra’s Necromancer!”
The shove at the small of her back propelled her up the steps and onto the stage.
Lux stared across the jumble of bodies, one as unrecognizable from the last. Painted and glittered, their faces upturned, they measured her, and they whispered. Her jaw clenched.What is this game of Riselda’s?
“Thank you, Mayor Tamish. Both for another prosperous year and another spectacular celebration.” Riselda pitched her rich voice, smooth and intoxicating, and Lux imagined the mayor melting into a wine-soaked puddle at her side.
He spoke instead from an ornate, high-backed chair, both gaudy and ridiculous. He rested into it like a throne upon a dais. She could just glimpse Morana behind him. “The pleasure is all my mine, my pets.”
Those slurred words were for them, and them alone. Lux’s fury rose, and she spun away from him lest she do something regrettable. “Fool.”
Riselda pinched her arm.
“Citizens of Ghadra,” Riselda’s voice had lowered, eerie and mysterious, and bodies bent forward. “Fate would have you believe Death is inevitable. Death is permanent. But Death? While it may indeed be an unforgiving end,weand wealonecan change the fates.” Ice shot up Lux’s arm as long fingers twined within hers. “Behold!”
Riselda threw her head back, her eyes upturned to the somber night sky. And for Lux’s ears alone, she whispered, “Speak the enchantment with me.”
“Back from death we beckon—”
Lux joined in a beat too late, catching over the words in her confusion. Riselda’s grip tightened, and the words flowed over her in response, her instincts picking up where her mind could not. This was pointless, it would do nothing, and yet she spoke to them, and watched the people press closer, lapping it up hungrily.
“—a guide between life and fate. Mend what has been broken. Time. Mortality. Through the veil between realms, shall you follow this road. May your eyes become mine until you return home. Time of death, death in time—”
“Donte!” The name was a scream of disbelief over the crowd.
“Finish it.”Riselda dug nails into her arm. Lux kept speaking, searching for the cause of the scream and the man responsible.
