Page 98 of Blackwicket
“What does any man want?” He said, raising my knuckles to his mouth, brushing his lips across them. There was a tingling pressure, magic seeking magic, and I pulled my defenses tight, so he felt nothing when he reached into the void between us. He released my hand, annoyed, and took my glass, setting it on the desk with a hard clink. “A family, someone to love, someone to stand by his side in the trying times. Grief divided, joy multiplied.”
As he spoke, he became more aggravated, at last slamming his hand upon the table, the crystal clattering. I jumped slightly.
“Someone whounderstands,” he emphasized, leaning on his cane with both hands momentarily, gazing into some far distance I couldn’t see. “My father was a lonely man, I watched him struggle with being the only one who recognized the collapse of our society under the weight of arbitrary morality. We feared the Fiend, feared the shadowy magic we were creating when we should have been embracing it. We were so close to breaking free in the war when the anxiety of weak men hobbled our efforts.”
There was a manic light in his blue eyes that unsettled me.
“What are you talking about, William,” I asked, afraid I already knew.
“Curses, Eleanora,” he barked, striking his cane forcefully, the point splitting the wood plank beneath it. After his outburst, he smiled, broad and indulgent, approaching me again with his hand outstretched. “Your family knew better than anyone the strength of magic fueled by suffering, fed by our most volatile emotions.”
His fingers traced my hairline, feathering along my jaw.
“The Authority is afraid of all of it, terrified someone will take hold of this incredible resource, dethrone them. Magicdidn’t flee from us, Eleanora, it was locked out, and the only way to break through is to harness what we’ve been left with. That’s what tonight is for: showing the weakest of our people that change requires discomfort, safety requires sacrifice, and greatness a piece of our souls.”
He kissed me then, his lips cold, corpse-like. His scent was overpowering, a combination of damp earth, with a sweetness suggestive of formaldehyde. Layered below it, the disturbingly familiar hints of natural decay, like the forest floor in autumn. Like Victor. To my everlasting gratitude, he didn’t decide to taste me further, didn’t attempt to part my lips. His magic pulsed, sickly and ravenous, but I held my defenses firm. Eventually, he drew his mouth from mine, but kept close.
“You smell like Fiona,” he muttered against my hair, and the corners of my mouth tugged down.
“Tell me what to expect tonight, please,” I asked, hoping my efforts to show willingness had softened him.
“You and I are going to show them how curses connect us to inimitable power, how stupid they’ve been for turning a blind eye to it all this time. Jack’s the key.”
I went rigid. William was going to attempt what his father had all those years ago, the efforts he’d made that had succeeded because I hadn’t wanted my friend to die.
“William, you can’t.”
He shushed me, wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me against him. Despite his injury, his closeness made it clear he wasn’t impotent. “It’s going to be a beautiful night, and later, when we have more privacy, we’ll celebrate our victory.”
My stomach curdled with the alcohol, bile rising in my throat as he pressed his lips to my neck. My insides screamed, and I released a breath to relieve the repulsion. William was as mad as Grigori ever had been, wearing the shadow of a man he’d hated well.
“Yes,” he murmured. “We’re going to do amazing things together.”
The impulse to bite off his ear was significant, but I was saved from having to restrain myself by the arrival of someone unexpected.
Victor’s hulk filled the doorway. He wore a double-breasted topcoat as dark as the midnight sea, lined with red silk, with a matching cravat neatly tucked in his breast pocket. He looked devastating, destructive, and furious as he watched William kiss my throat. My startled gasp was sincere, and Nightglass raised his head.
“Ah, Harrow. Is everything ready?” he asked, unbothered by the intrusion.
“It has been,” Victor replied sharply, his golden eyes fixed on me, the muscle in his jaw clenched tight. I wanted to explain why I was there, explain why William was so close, why his hands and mouth were on me. “Thea’s out there now, getting them loose. You have one last opportunity to impress the Authority, Nightglass, before they shut everything down, so don’t choke on your own cock.”
I ached to run to him, to warn him Jack was here, but he’d already gone.
“Hm,” William rumbled, “I sensed a bit of tension there. I admit an Authority inspector fucking a Curse Eater seems extensively unprincipled, even for me.”
“William,” I grated, finally unable to control my disgust, quailing away only to be caught at the back of my neck, held, William taking so much pleasure in my discomfort that he grinned.
“I don’t mind if you take lovers,” he said with a hint of menace. “As long as you come when I call, there’ll be no shackles required. And if your proclivities keep an Authority strongman pacified, I won’t pretend I’m bothered by it.”
“Was that your arrangement with Fiona?” I wondered how she’d been able to stand it, realizing it was Thea who’d made it bearable.
“It was, and she played her role very well until Roark disappeared. I miss her.”
His face twisted, expression unsettling, a battle of genuine emotion so deep it was unfathomable, warring with a kind of disgust, as if he were appalled by his own feelings. He winced as he had at the funeral home, releasing me and leaning in the direction of his injury, pain momentarily racking his body.
“Wait on the mezzanine, in the banquet hall, up the foyer stairs and straight ahead,” he huffed, his voice tight and peculiar. He kept his back to me, slightly hunched. “You’ll do what you have to do, or Jack will die, and if you play your part well, I’ll even consider changing my mind about gutting Thea for trying to keep the boy from me.”
I understood my sister’s decision to murder Grigori. I longed for a weapon—something I could use to ensure William would never harm anyone again. But I’d come unprepared.
