Lux’s eyes sprang wide. “How long have you known?”
“I was once his most prized possession, my dear. I have prepared countless tonics, endless potions, and uttered the incantations so many times, I can recall them in an instant. All for him. And believe me, I noticed when he failed to age. I also knew there was only one substance that could cause such an outcome.”
“So you’ve known how it’s harvested as well?”
Riselda stared down at her. “No. That knowledge is his guarded secret. Why? What did you see here?” Lux shifted her feet as a moaning cry echoed from somewhere down the tunnel. It jolted Riselda. “Let’s get you out. Forget what you’ve seen.” As Lux’s mouth opened in protest, Riselda held up a hand. “Not even a necromancer is worth so much. You will have disappeared by morning.”
“But I—”
“Lucena. Trust me in this. If nothing else…trust this.”
Her aunt’s gaze implored her to swear it. Swear she would put it all behind her. To trust her.
But Lux trusted no one.
“As you wish.”
Chapter twenty-eight
Riselda navigated the undergroundlabyrinth with ease. Soon Lux was beneath the evening’s somber sky, across the manicured courtyard, climbing within a carriage.
“Sleep, darling.” Riselda pushed a vial into her hands. “It’s mild. Nothing like the Shield utilizes. But it will help you rest without nightmares.”
Nightmares.
She mumbled her thanks, the door clicking closed to seal her within. She watched Riselda’s eyes harden as the horse jerked forward, watched her spin in a swish of dark skirts. Toward the mansion. Toward the mayor.
Lux shoved the curtains aside, throwing the potion with every ounce of strength she could muster, and listened with satisfaction to its shatter against an obscene townhome. She rested against the cushions.
She would never allow a fog to descend upon her mind again. Not of any kind.
Staring across the carriage summoned the image of Shaw’s smoldering eyes and a mask of bone. Lux kicked out with a heel, tearing a rip through the seam of the fabric and effectively destroying the mocking memory. What had he truly been after? The mayor’s likely stores of lifeblood? To avenge his long-dead grandfather and become mayor in his stead? Lux scoffed. He was probably working alongside the mayor. He probably had no family.
Aside from Aline…
Lux licked her dry, cracked lips and winced. The little wretch was likely his accomplice. They didn’t look much alike, after all.
The carriage ambled over the cobblestone street, and she lost herself in dark thoughts, spinning deep in sweet imaginings of revenge. She didn’t realize she had arrived home until the door was opened, and the night greeted her.
Lux managed to climb from the carriage with a quiet murmur of gratitude before her body went rigid. She didn’t register the horse moving on or the crunch of carriage wheels, as her eyes were focused solely on who paced in front of her door.
A sudden wind swept through the street, sending her hair streaming along with it and her skirt pulling against her legs. His gaze found her own then, and Shaw tugged on his cap as he stepped from beneath the streetlamp and into the darkness. Toward her.
“I’ll have you know I’ve been asking after you for hours,” he said. “Where have you been?”
Lux’s mind buzzed, numb. She didn’t move, and she didn’t speak.
He moved closer. Close enough to see her proper. And from somewhere outside her body, she registered his jagged intake of breath before hands gripped her arms, hauling her forward and into the light. “Saints! What’s happened?”
Her eyes tracked his. Concern, fury, terror. His emotions were unveiled. What a fool he was.
His rough hands continued to travel upward, his thumb brushing along the tender point of her neck, and she flinched. “Lux.” His voice cut on her name. “Tell me who did this to you.”
She had never heard him this way. Like he would scorch the earth.
But darkness, not fire, was all she knew.
You did.
