Page 41 of Lux

Minchae scoffs. “Honey, do you even know what a jackdaw is? What they do? They’re hellhounds with wings! They guard an object to the death. Once they get a taste of your blood, they don’t stop until you’re dead. I don’t know how the bastard came across them, but he has two—two! Just one was enough to haunt our nightmares in the Desinan. They claimed it guarded the High Master, but I never saw it for myself.” She shudders and holds herself so tightly her knuckles whiten. “My plan was to let the brutes go at you and somehow sneak the ledger away, but that’s done and over with now. It was wishful thinking anyway. It would have never worked.”

Feed me to the jackdaws. Me with dirty, corrupted blood. An abomination Altaris can’t even stand the sight of. I’ve never heard of those creatures before. Don’t know if they are magic or mortal creations.

In either case…

I’m willing to try. I survived being torn apart by a monster once. Twice.

Perhaps I can do so again. If it means seeing my mother—a fragment, a sliver—I’ll suffer anything. What else do I have?

“Oh no!” Minchae shakes her head and jabs a finger at me. “I know that look. Fuck, you’re just like Dabne. I said no! No! Don’t make me regret growing a conscience. Maybe I was never gonna do it anyway. There was a guy once. Who tried to run from the enclave. They displayed him for us, and he was in pieces. Literally, neat little pieces! They said the jackdaw did it, and we never fucking questioned after that.” Her voice trembles. She’s speaking too quickly to enunciate every word properly. Her eyes are wide and stuck in the past. She’s horrified.

Like my Caspian, there is a nightmare world inside her head that she’s desperate to avoid reliving. Perhaps…

In the same way she aimed to use me, I can use this to my benefit. To help us both. To get us both what we want.

“I think our plan will work,” I say, curling my fingers tight. “It will. It must. We must trust each other.”

Only for now.

Only until then.

I’m holding my breath as I wait for her reaction. I’m so anxious, my belly churns and throbs. I feel sick. At the same time, I feel electric all over again. Plotting and scheming is almost as fun as flying.

“You’re serious,” Minchae rasps. “Oh, fuck! What have I gotten myself into?”

“A plan,” I say with a stern nod. “We have a plan.”

A plan as seemingly hopeless as running away to the mortal realm with a vamryre in tow, all to see a museum. Crazy. Reckless. Stupid.

I lived it once.

I aim to achieve one more success again.

Even if the face of Night Aurelia is the last thing I see.

I’ll try.

Whatever it takes, I will try.

CHAPTER 17

Caspian

Cassius worked so hard to damage my memory, and now I know why. To shatter any recollection of her, my dear one. My sister, my heart. My other half.

With her, I was always stronger. She helped me remember. As his angry, sadistic, monstrous Caspian, I was a monster he could not control.

Together, we shielded each other from his corrupt influence.

All we had was each other.

Still…

She was taken from me without a second thought, and I rarely questioned him. I rarely asked him why. I forgot her at times, my dearest one. I forgot her face. Her smile. Her coldly mocking voice as we plotted against him in secret. She was snuffed out of my skull far more easily than she should have been.

In the end, Cassius got what he wanted.

I left her behind.

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