“How do you suggest I do that?” I ask. My voice is a snarl, but I can’t help it. “It’s impossible to treat if I don’t know the source.”
“Legally, yes,” he agrees.
Only now do I look at him.
Henry is no longer slouched on the sofa. His feet are planted firmly on the hardwood floor, an elbow propped on each knee. Though his blond hair is as messy as ever, his face is solemn.
“You can’t be serious,” I say. My voice is low, almost threatening.
After all, Iamhis boss.
“You’re right,” Henry says. He raises both hands in a gesture of surrender. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“It’s illegal,” I say anyway. If he hears the way my voice wavers, the way my words drop to a whisper, he doesn’t acknowledge it.
“Yes,” he agrees. “It is also dangerous. Potentially fatal, if not administered correctly.”
I swallow.
“She would never allow it,” I say. My voice is so quiet now, I’m not sure I’ve spoken aloud. The fact Henry doesn’t reply makes me think perhaps I haven’t.
Before long, he buttons his coat near the entryway of my house. I stand across from him, leaned against the metal-and-wire railing. The designer insisted it was a wildly popular trendin the human world,destined to gain popularity here, too. It’s one of the few features Mama didn’t pick.
“I truly am sorry about your mama, Elliot,” he says. “If you need anything, tell me.”
Something unspoken lingers beneath those words, but I can’t bring myself to interpret it.
“Thank you,” I say. My throat feels thick. Perhaps because Henry is a better friend than I deserve. More likely because I’m debating sacrificing every value I thought I had.
“You’ll get through it,” he says. Then, with an impish smirk, he adds, “If you need someone to take your mind off the stress, Mary has a couple friends who wouldloveto distract you.”
“I’m sure she does,” I say, rolling my eyes. “You be careful with her.”
“Nah,” he says, slapping me on the shoulder. “Careful isn’t my style.”
I know, I almost say.It’s mine.
Instead, I stay quiet, offering a final wave as he departs my doorstep. I stand there for longer than I should, staring at the gentle waves over Lake Astoria. When I first moved here, I had great expectations of spending weekends on the water, or at least the shore. I’ve been here for years, and I’ve only stood on its sand twice.
Long after Henry has left, when evening approaches and most witches are entering their homes until morning, I walk the path alongside the lake in the direction of the Night Realm.
5
A DAMNED LIABILITY
CORA
I’ve been keeping strange hours. There’s no reason for me to be awake at two in the morning. After being out last night and spending all day stressing over the mission’s failure, I should be exhausted. Instead, I’m jittery and filled with endless, half-formed ideas. The next clan meeting is in a few days, and I’ll have nothing to report on the sunwalker spells. Again.
It’s bad enough that Amelia, Beatrice, and Milas know the truth. I’m an utter failure, and there’s a high likelihood Iwon’tbe able to deliver the allies I promised. Disappointing those three feels humiliating. DisappointingSebastianis downright shameful. I can’t help but credit him for my survival all these years. Even if I could survive on my own now, I couldn’t have at fifteen. Sebastian saved my life, and Ihatethat I haven’t been able to repay the favor.
By three in the morning, I’m too restless to remain in bed. I drink a cup of green tea and wander the halls. I’m in the farthest-most quarters in the western wing. Partly for my protection. Partly for the vampires’ sanity. Witch blood smells putrid tothem—a handy trick my ancestors came up with to dissuade them from eating us.
It also dissuades them from being in our presence at all.
I stride down one hallway, then another, keeping on my side. The eastern wing of the manor is packed with resident vampires. There are hundreds of thousands of vampires in the Echo, and a few hundred of them live within these walls. They bunk in shared bedrooms, glaring out at the daylight through their protective windows. Many of them despise me for being a witch, for being the same species that brought this horrid curse upon them.
Never mind thatI’mthe one who magicked the windows. Never mind thatI’mthe one trying to fix it.
