Page 106 of Bloodgrove

“Why does it matter so much to you? I am leaving tomorrow anyway.”

“She has everything she needs. She will get her sacrifice. Please go. I will find you in the Capitol.”

Pain pierced Will’s heart, and his thoughts split in two, one half caught on that final sentence, on a promise he had never expected, had never even dared to dream of.

To love Eric outside Bloodgrove.

But his mind returned to something else.

“What do you mean, she has a sacrifice?”

“The angel told me that to become the Red Hand, you have to sacrifice the person you love most. If you stay and Elodie succeeds… the King will demand your life.”

Will almost laughed aloud.

He turned as best he could toward Eric. “Are you really that blind? Do you still not see it? The only person in danger here is you.”

Eric shook his head. “Do not worry about me. I am asking you. I am begging you. Go—for me.”

He kissed Will with such longing that it already felt like goodbye.

Will could barely keep up with his own emotions. Eric was speaking words meant for lovers. Even the madness of the night before felt simple compared with this.

“Eric,” he said carefully, searching his eyes. “I cannot. I want to finish this. I promised Elodie. What if she succeeds and becomes the Red Hand? Perhaps my blood can help her remain herself instead of becoming his puppet. I have to try.”

Something broke with pain in Eric’s eyes. “We are all going to die.”

“Then at least no one will be left behind alone.”

Eric laughed wearily. “So naïve.”

This time, Will kissed him gently. “So willing to sacrifice yourself.”

“Forgive me.”

“As though I ever could not.”

Eric drew away again, and it felt the same as it had an hour earlier when they had separated their bodies. Wrong.

And a small, uncertain voice inside Will wondered whether Eric only whispered to him like a lover because he knew how compliant it made him. If this was still part of their game.

“Now show me what you can do, great mage.” Eric slid backward across the dusty floor, but even in the dim light Will could read the restless thoughts behind his mask.

“I do not know,” Will whispered and forced his attention back to the plans before him.

He slipped off his other slipper, bit down on a tightly rolled napkin, and picked up the cleaver for the second time.

Holding the blade aloft, he stared at the siren scales.

Perhaps the Capitol was right. Perhaps it was right and good to forbid magic if magic always demanded something in return. Elodie had to sacrifice blood and love for power, and Will had to sacrifice years of his life and pieces of his own bones. Who knew what Eric had given up to become such a monster?

Perhaps magic truly was corrupt. How could anything good demand a price like this? His hand trembled. Had his father understood what Will had surrendered when he first saw the silver in his hair?

“You never asked me why I turn into a monster,” Eric said suddenly.

He had risen again and was pacing through the ballroom. Will frowned and made an unintelligible sound around the napkin between his teeth. What was going through Eric’s mind that made him think this was the right moment for this conversation?

“Your thoughts are so loud I can hear them from here.” Eric tossed a shard of mother-of-pearl into the air and caught it again. “After all these months with us, you still do not understand why we love magic.”