The groaning from the rooftop shook the very bones of the mansion. For a brief moment they each silenced as upturned faces studied the ceiling.
Lux finished with a whisper. “You planted this abomination of a forest, Riselda. Speak to them.”
“What?” Morana and the mayor’s voices unified in equal incredulity and horror.
“They won’t listen. They won’t stop. No one is safe… I can’t keep you safe.” Riselda finally turned toward her, eyes heavy with sorrow. “I’m sorry, Lucena.”
The mad gleam had gone, and Lux didn’t recognize what remained.
“They won’t stop until what exactly?”
Riselda rested her head back, gaze unfocused above her. “Until they’ve taken every soul.”
The mayor’s face darkened, puce with rage. “Youmonster!You’ve doomed us all!”
The word was directed at Riselda who cackled, but Lux flinched all the same. “We are all monsters in our own right, Mayor. A man who preys on the weak and innocent counted among the worst of them all.”
Lux almost missed Morana’s penetrating stare, rotating between the three people before her, finally allowing herself to conclude what she’d refused for a long time.
The mayor only bristled further. “You were never going to uphold your end of the bargain.”
“I’d sooner rot, to be quite honest.”
With a shout of rage, the mayor flung back his chair, stretching to his full height. “No. You’lllive. You’ll liveforever. I’ll dump lifeblood down your conniving throat and force you to perform again and again so that I never miss seeing the day the fight leaves your soul. It will be my greatest achievement.”
When he dodged around Riselda, straight toward her, Lux lunged at the bookcase in want of a weapon, even if that weapon was paper. But the mayor never reached her. He didn’t make it past Riselda’s hand. With shocked eyes, he studied the ax buried in his side before he slumped to his knees.
“Riselda…”
A final heaving groan and the ceiling ripped from above their heads.
The night sky opened, the moon full and bright, its light touching every part of Lux. For a moment, all she did was breathe. Then the moon disappeared, eclipsed by a soaring canopy of black boughs twining inward.
Give us what was promised. Give us what is owed, Lucena.
Lux shot from the shattering glass at her back to dive beneath the desk. The lights had blown out, but even in the shadows, she glimpsed the mayor free the axe from his side—only to scream as he was caught up. When his body lifted from the floor, leaving a trail of red, all she felt was relief.
The scream abruptly cut off only for Morana’s to take its place. Hers was one of grief; the tree hadn’t yet reached her, and still it tore at Lux’s ears. For a similar cry had left her own throat once.
She couldn’t stay here, hiding in wait for her fate. With a staggering breath for courage, Lux climbed from beneath the desk, her face upturned in search of their assailant.
Except, the trunk of the tree had stilled. Its branches curling inward. Inward and out again. Lux shook her head in refusal, thinking she’d made a mistake and perhaps she should simply wait out the rest of her life beneath the expensive furniture. Until she caught sight of Riselda.
Standing, a dark and regal statue, she faced the tree. The smile on her face was serene. Her eyes were closed. The tree didn’t beckon to Lux. It beckoned toher.
The silence pulsed along with her heartbeat, and the boughs wound forth. Riselda allowed her head to rest back, ebony hair trailing long. When the first branch wrapped around their caretaker, it was gentle in its touch.
Riselda’s brow furrowed with the next, tight about her waist, and as the third crept around her chest, her eyes snapped open. Her head turned, and her gaze found Lux’s.
“I’m sorry, Lucena. For the past. For the future.” Her eyes fell closed as the branches constricted, dragging her upward.“Remember me. Remember this: a necromancer can revive more than the dead.”
Lux caught a flash of a coal-black handle and a glint of steel clutched within a pale grasp before the tree opened and closed around the body of the woman she’d long believed to be family. All without a sound. Lux felt the warmth of another who’d not long ago, only ever sent a chill across her skin. Morana moved beside her. They watched together, the boughs stilling, the silver twining up its length until it outlined every vein in every leaf.
Content, it spoke no more.
Chapter fifty-two
Dawn neared, and stillLux ran.
