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Around him, women and men nodded. Sometimes people were so desperate to believe in something that they clutched snake oil and swore they were healed.
In a world of monsters, darkness, and loss, who could blame them? We’d lived in a fast-food, one-hour service, one-click world for so long that the desire for simple easy answers wasn’t hard to understand.
“Everyone dies eventually,” I called back.
“Not everyone. I am above such things.” Chester’s words had a certainty, a ring of truth to them that made everything suddenly click into place.
I realized then that Chester had accomplished the two feats that alchemists dreamed of mastering: the elixir of life and the panacea. He’d mastered eternity by creating the potions that imbued him with eternal lifeandthe cure-all.
The fabled panacea, the cure-to-all-ailments, was why he wasn’t able to be killed.
This spell had to work because if not he would continue to cure whatever else we did to him.
33
GENEVIÈVE
After I whispered my theory to Iggy and Eli, Iggy nodded. “We need her in here.”
I tried to subtly send a thought to Beatrice:Panacea. Elixir. Need Nora to do this.
She didn’t reply, but I had no doubt that she understood. She cut a swath through the nuns to where Marcus was. Whatever she said or did was enough that the king ofElphamemarched toward the church.
“You attacked my heirs,” Marcus pronounced.
“You say that as if you are surprised.” Chester glared. “You agreed—”
“You attacked herbeforeI renounced them.” Marcus gestured widely. “There is protocol. The laws ofElphameare clear. You have declared war by doing this, Chester. If you do not appease our insulted pride, I have no choice. Surely you understand?”
Beatriceflowed—directly at Chester. She grabbed Gunnora by both arms and kept moving.
And for all that Chester could do, he could notflow. In fact, to anyone present who had nodraugrheritage, it likely looked as if Beatrice blinked from the fight to the church and then to me.
I watched her, saw her concentration, saw her struggling not to stop or falter.
All while Marcus continued, “I would accept a reparation in the form of sharing your knowledge with my colleague.”
“With your—”
“Beatrice.” Marcus gestured to where she had been. “I swear I left her over . . . oh, well, I don’t see her.”
By this point, Chester noticed that his wife was not at his side.
“You would betray meagain?” Chester glared at Nora, who looked like the picture of a domestic violence survivor. Her eyes were bruised, one was partly swollen, and her mouth was bloodied.
She wasn’t cowering. I’ll give her that.
Iggy quickly closed the spell circle.
“Because boinking a monster is better? Seriously? How old was she was when you starting hitting her?” I was as offensive in tone as possible. I might not like Nora, but IhatedChester. “Couldn’t get it up, so you hit her?”
Chester didn’t reply, and behind me I heard Iggy and Gunnora whispering.
In his rage, Chester decided to ignore me and started attacking our forces. I wasn’t sure what all his little sachets of nastiness were, but the air was thick with herbs.
Thedraugrarrived,flowinginto the crowd with the silence of shadows. They were dressed in head-to-toe black, faces covered, hands covered. If not for my affinity for the dead, I wasn’t certain I’d have noticed them.
The screams of the SAFARI members and the nuns were the only real proof that there were monsters ripping human throats out.
