But suddenly something invisible grabbed me by the neck. As if reaching through the spell itself. I fought, but how do you fight against thin air? Yet it held me tight, shoving me into the floor and choking me until I saw stars at the edge of my vision. The entire room darkened and turned red. I fought and my feet slipped and kicked at something wet. The pressure disappeared from my neck, and I gasped, sucking in breaths.
The nightmare was not over. The whole room was flooded with blood. The demon’s voice came then—tasting of sulfur and terror.Cave lupum in vestimentis ovium.The door swung open and the dimlight fell onto a tall, hooded figure, its face shrouded. Behind him, the vague shape of bodies, and I knew without looking that the blood had come from them.
My heart was cold with terror. My mind blank. I slipped in the blood and scrabbled at the floor for purchase. I knew without being told—this was a demon, and he had come to brutalize me.
Then, just as quickly as it had come, it went. The room fell back to normal. I laid on the floor in the center of the smudged circle, chest heaving. No blood. No monster. The parchment where the demon had written was blank.
Now I understood why my masters had not given me any instructions on summoning.
XXVIII.
Death’s Alone
Renaud returned right before dawn, just as the birds began to sing. I met him on the steps of the château, wild-eyed and exhausted.
As soon as he crossed through the hawthorns, I ran and fell on his chest, clutching at his cloak. “Something terrible is happening. I need your help to stop it. We can stop it.” For Death must know who was responsible for the brutality I saw in my vision, and my fear of it was now far greater than my fear of Renaud’s disappointment. Every time I blinked, I saw the blood rising.
He stiffened and his hands covered my wrists, softly rubbing the sensitive skin to soothe me. “Who needs your help? Have you been wandering again?” He pulled me off and guided me into the château.
“No. I mean …” I clutched at him, pulling away, lost to everything but my frenzy. “Not in the woods. I haven’t left, really. I tried to go … But I must help them, you see. What good is power if I can’t use it?”
He stiffened beside me. “What good is power if it’swasted?”
“I’m not wasting it,” I said. “I only want to use it.”
“On what?”
“On helping … there’s somebody, something stealing away women. You told me I could have helped Rochelle.” My voice cracked and emotion and exhaustion caught up to me like a wall of rain pouring over the ridge. “You told me, that first day, that I could have saved her if I had been who I am then. But I am here now. I need to save them.”
He paused on the stairs, gaze softening. “Ma petite chou,” he said gently, and I could tell they were the soothing tones of someone speaking to a person not in their right mind.
By this time tears were streaming down my face, and I did, Ifeltmad. I didn’t know whether I was talking about Dacia or Rochelle. I only knew that whoever was taking the women, whoever was torturing them, it was the gloved hands of Lord Death who received them. He knew. I just wanted to know too, so I could put an end to it.
“You cannot save Rochelle,” he said, still gently. “She is gone.”
“But don’t you see?” I pleaded. “You’re right. I couldn’t save Rochelle. But I can save Dacia. If I act now, I can stop it. Tell me what has been happening so I can stop it. The Baron has done nothing to help them. Who will save them? You must help me save them.”
“The Baron? You mean the Baron de Laval-Rais?” He pulled back. “What does he have to do with this?”
“Isn’t it the job of a lord to protect the people of his land?”
“How is he not?”
“I just told you. Women … girls are disappearing.”
“Girls?”
“People!” I insisted, feeling hysterical. “Dacia is terrified. All the girls are.”
“Has this … yourDaciabeen harmed?”
His tone confused me, hard now where it had been gentle. “No. Not that I know of. But other prostitutes are missing. Odette.”
He shrugged and turned. “Prostitutes go missing all the time.”
I would rather he reached out and slapped me, over the way he shrugged. The way he did not care at all, not even when I abruptly pulled back. Had he forgotten I had been a prostitute? Or was it that he, deep down, saw me as just as replaceable. Just as worthless. Furious and reckless, I raced after him. “How do they go missing toDeath? Do you not know the time and place of everyone’s journey into the abyss?”
It was as close as I had ever come to questioning him, and it stopped him in his tracks. Slowly he turned. “The names of the dead are sacred to me, ma petite chou. I could not utter them even if I wanted to.” He paused. His expression suddenly turned thoughtful as his gaze flicked over the fury barely contained in my body. “If it makes you feel better, I can send a warning to the Baron. For him to do his duty.”
