Page 294 of Alchemised
“The offer stands. Say the word, and I’ll get you out.”
She reached up, combing a strand of pale hair back from his eyes.
“What about you?” she asked.
He grimaced. “If I could run, I would have vanished while my mother was alive.”
“Would you go now, if you could?”
His eyes seemed to ripple with heat. “With you, I would.”
She forced a smile. “Then we’ll go together. After the war.” She gripped his hand and pressed it against her chest, letting him feel her heartbeat. “When the war is over. We’ll run away somewhere no one knows us. We’ll disappear—forever.”
His eyes flickered, but he smiled back. “Of course.”
He was lying.
They both were. It was daydream to think it possible.
She squeezed his hand tighter until the illusion faded.
She swallowed hard, dreading what she had to say. “The Eternal Flame has recently obtained new information about the process that the Undying undergo to gain their immutability. I was asked to question you about the details. To verify the information.”
Kaine just stared at her for a moment. Then his gaze turned dissociative.
“Kaine.” She touched him, and he started.
“It’s a blur,” he said quickly. “I don’t remember.”
“Anything helps. It really does.”
He was silent, his chest rising and falling several times before he spoke again. “What do you want to know?”
“There was an array involved?”
He nodded slowly.
“Could you describe it? Or draw it?”
He shook his head. “I never got a good look at it. I remember there were nine points, and I was in the middle. I was cooperating, but they still drugged me and strapped me down so I couldn’t move.”
He was staring at the far wall.
“They started to bring the staff in. The ones they hadn’t already killed. I hadn’t known how it worked, that they were going to—when I asked what they were doing, I was told I was lucky we had so many servants, they didn’t need to use my mother.”
“They used your servants?”
He nodded slowly. “We never had much company in the countryside. My mother was sick so often, and with all the rumours, my father didn’t trust anyone. He was busy managing the guild, so it was just the two of us there, and the servants. They were almost like family, some of them. My mother’s lady’s maid, Davies, had been with her since she was a girl, and came with her to Spirefell when she married. After the birth, when my mother was—Davies practically raised me the first few years.”
“I’m so sorry, Kaine.”
He was silent for a long time, not looking at her. “There was this platform over me, and then Morrough was leaning down. He had something in his hand. The bone shard, I think. I remember screaming. When I woke up, there was still screaming, but it wasn’t me anymore. I couldn’t hear it, I could just feel it. Like they were sutured inside me, all mangled but still alive.”
She stared at him in horror. “Do you still—hear them?”
He blinked slowly. “They’re quieter now.”
She swallowed hard. “According to the information we have, the Undying are a by-product of Morrough’s attempts to harness power without suffering from ill effects.”
