Page 32 of Warlocks Don't Win
I glanced at Jessica who stared back at me with big eyes, while her mouth was sealed shut. “I am looking for information about breaking a curse. Sage House has a lot of records on curses, but most are on their creation, not on dispelling them.”
“Ah,” he said, still staring at me. He spent a good sixty seconds just staring at me and considering while the grandfather clock in the hall ticked every second before he finally nodded and stepped back, letting us into the hall that smelled of lemon polish and respectability.
I should definitely stop for some lemon polish before I went home. The dust was gone, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t use some polish.
“Madame is in the back garden. If your friend would wait in the parlor, I will take you to her. She will have to give you permission to peruse the library.”
I pushed Jessica towards the parlor before she could protest, then followed the butler towards the kitchen. It was as grand and immaculate as I remembered. The cook with her cleaverwas even larger and more terrifying, hacking apart the lamb she was preparing for dinner with her enormous bare arms showing beneath her apron.
She gave me an evil look while I kept my distance, keeping close to the butler. Once we were past her and safely on the back porch, he turned towards me.
“You will approach Madame and stay where I can see you both. If she signals to me, I will shoot you in the head.”
He made it sound so elegant.
I blinked at him while I tried to see past the façade of appropriateness. If I wasn’t wrong, this guy used to be Winston’s companion when he was young. “You’re warning me? That seems like a miscalculation as far as strategy is concerned.”
He gave me a slight smile. “For Master Winston’s sake, I do hope I don’t have to.” He made it sound like Winston cared.
He nodded towards the lounger on the small lawn where the old woman was bundled up, wrapped in a pristine white down coverlet but still with a straight spine.
“Miss Sage,” she said coldly as I approached. “I sensed you the moment you entered. It seems that the bindings haven’t faded in all this time. Peculiar.”
I swallowed as I grabbed a chair and dragged it beside her so I wasn’t standing over her. One glance at her hollowed eyes and yellow tinted skin showed me everything I needed to know. She didn’t have much time. Anyone could see that her organs were probably collapsing.
I sat there, staring at the blowsy roses around us in shades of pink and yellow. The scent almost covered up her deterioration. What did I think I was doing here? What could I possibly do to save her even if the curse was tied to Sage House
“Well?” she snapped after I’d spent a long time avoiding reality.
I slowly turned to look at her. “Winston said that you’re under a curse.”
Her expression froze before anger lit her eyes like a live wire of flickering violet. “Did he? And you’re here to gloat?”
I raised my hands and shook my head. “No, of course not. I wanted to see if I could help.”
“Sage suddenly knows anything about breaking curses? Hm?” She narrowed her eyes at me while her pale lip curled. “The arrogance of you coming here to help me? The only thing you ever did to help was murder your mother and go to jail. At least it should have helped, but instead Winston became fixated. Poor creature, beguiled by a monster like…” She broke off coughing. When she finally recovered, she frowned at me. “What on earth happened to your hair?”
I tugged on a green stand. “It’s a curse.” What else could it be?
Her thin brows rose above those dangerous eyes. She knew so much that I could barely grasp. Power. Knowledge. Control. She’s what a voice should be. Except that she wasn’t as stable as she had been. The curse had unbalanced her. I could relate.
“Miss Sage, if that’s all, you should leave.” The weight of her voice, the disapproval and contempt she wielded like a dagger made me want to run away in shame. But she hadn’t abandoned me when everyone else had. I wouldn’t quit now until I’d had some answers that might lead to her cure.
I shook my head and pulled out the herbs I’d borrowed from Jessica’s kitchen. This whole trip was more spontaneous than I liked, but how else could I get around whoever had sent the golem and its death spell after me? Everyone would expect me to cower at home. I didn’t have time for that.
“I’m here to help, Madame Winston. Win asked me to come.”
She inhaled sharply and shot daggers at me. “You lie. He would never sully our name with a convicted murderer.”
That hurt. Still, “I was aquitted. This will only take a second.” I worked around her, frowning at the herbs I crushed in my hands and sprinkled on the ground while I muttered spells under my breath.
“You refuse me? At my own house? You have such contempt for your betters. No wonder my grandson testified against you. You have no shame, no propriety. You’re as shocking as your mother, invading your former betrothed’s home as though he didn’t make his feelings towards you imminently clear when he testified against you!”
Her letters hadn’t been nearly so cruel, but age made some people bitter. No doubt I’d be one of them if I lived that long. I sighed and continued my elaborate hand gestures and murmured words. I was responsible for any curses attached to Sage house, and also, I needed to find out where her curse came from so I could kill whoever did this.
Madame sputtered, “Where is the butler? Anthony, take this person out. Anthony!”
I finished my circle while her trembling voice rose, then finished with a clap of my hands. A flare of light flowed around her, running towards her and then spiraling out before shooting off in a straight line through the sky towards Sage House. I could feel when that light dart hit its target. It hit me as well, sending me stumbling to the ground, blinking up at Dame Winston where she stared at me, horror and rage on her face.
