Page 131 of The Seven Miracles of Beatrix Holland
Minna’s head whipped up, the gun buzzing still in her hand.
The scent of gardenia blew through, raising the dust again, followed by a fetid, sewer-like smell of flowers left to rot, maggot-filled meat abandoned in the sun, a smell that made Beatrice want to retch.
I’m so glad you’re here, Button.The voice wasn’t audible exactly—it was a rumble instead, one that she felt inside her chest rather than hearing with her ears.
But it was clear.
It was real.
And it was male.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
When you’re looking for one ghost, but the wrong one bashes through? Run, honey. Just run.
—Evie Oxby, guest appearance onGhost Hunters
The despair that filled Beatrice was icier than the frigid water illusion. The bleakness in her soul felt worse than the day of Naya’s burial.
Naya wasn’t with her. She hadn’t written through Beatrice’s hand, nor had she told Beatrice where Minna was.
Taurus had.
That laugh rose again, the one that made her skull ache.For someone who wants to understand, you’re very slow sometimes.
“What do you want?” Beatrice tried to sound strong, but her voice wavered on the last word.
Give her the sigil.
Beatrice looked at Minna. “What’s he talking about? I don’t know his tattoo sigil, and I wouldn’t give it to you if I did.”
Instead of looking victorious, Minna looked scared. “I’vebeen trying to get to Valeska to receive the rest of the sigil, but she won’t come to me. He said only one person could help. I thought we would raise the answer by starting the tattoo.” She looked down at her arm, the dark black ink mixing with the red of her blood. “But then you came. So I think… you might be the answer. The lost twin.”
“I don’t know shit.”
“Did you open the sealed page?”
Beatrice sucked in a breath.
“You did. Iknowyou did. What was it?”
The page of the other lost twin. The curse.
But she’d never, ever tell this girl. The sigil was how to die for love. Of course that’s why Taurus wanted it—he wanted his child to die of love for him, to cross over to a place where he could take her power and leave her carcass to rot.
“You have to tell me.” Minna held up her arm. “He was only able to give me this much.”
Taurus did know part of the symbol—she could see that now. TheTshe’d seen on Minna’s arm, the one she’d been drawing on his grave, wasn’t for Taurus. It was part of the broken scale, but there were no slashes, no arrow, no bleeding teardrop.Shit.She shouldn’t even think about the image, in case he could see inside her mind.
“Please tell me, Aunt Bea.”
Tell her.
Minna’s voice broke her heart, but Taurus’s voice inside her chest almost stopped her breath completely. It hurt so much, she wondered if he was tying the ventricles of her heart into knots.
“It’s a love sigil. It’ll bring me and Dad together. You’ll see. You have to tell me.”
“Honey, that’ssonot what it is.” She sucked in half a breath.“It’s a Velamen curse so dangerous, it needed to be sealed away forever.”
