Page 44 of Unbroken
“Since her woody parts didn’t burst into flame, no, it didn’t. Of course, green wood doesn’t catch fire easily, but I think it was more than that.”
“And you’re certain she had the mark of the Books on her, Sebastian?”
“Positive.” His glasses reflected the moonlight as he turned to look at Ves. “I know the magic of the Books doesn’t blend well with your own, but perhaps that isn’t true of all Dark Young?”
Mortimer paced a short path, then back, clearly deep in thought. “Can we assume she’s the one using the Book of Blood to create the leeches and kill the society members? The artist whose work we saw in the abandoned house and the attic? The one who drank Mr. Norris’s blood?”
“And the reason for the WHS’s award-winning flowers,” Sebastian added. “Did they compel her somehow? Is that why she hates them?”
“She’s resistant to sorcery,” Irene countered. “Unless they used old-fashioned methods, like threatening a loved one, I don’t see how they could have forced her to work for them.”
Mortimer folded his arms over his chest. “I have a question. Why did she kill Fuller with her bare hand, if she’s been using magic to murder the others?”
Ves rubbed tiredly at his eyes. “We’re missing a vital piece of the puzzle.”
“You’re right, angel.” Sebastian pushed himself off the wall. “Let’s hope Mrs. Rice has the answers we need. She’s the last WHS member standing—we have to get to her tomorrow and compel her to tell us the full truth. Her life depends on it.”
It was very late by the time Sebastian and Ves retired to their room in Bonnie’s house. Once Irene had finally dropped them off, they’d retreated to Noct’s chamber in the attic and told him everything that happened. He’d been as confused as Ves about the murderous Dark Young who could also use the magic of the Books, without obvious conflict with her own inborn powers.
“If only your wretched grandfather had just told you what he knows,” Sebastian muttered as he pulled off his socks. “Instead he has to be mysterious. Why?”
Ves paused in the act of removing his collar, clearly giving the answer some thought. The lamp cast yellow light over his features, warming his olive skin and gilding his dark hair. God, he was handsome; Sebastian was unbelievably lucky to share his bed.
“With Mother, it’s always about control,” he said at last. “Grandfather…I don’t know. It may simply be he knows I don’t trust him.”
“If he’d told you the Book was in the hands of another Dark Young, you might not have believed it, but at least you might have been prepared when it turned out to actually be true. And would have gained your trust in the process,” Sebastian countered.
Ves went back to removing his collar. “Most of the people who have trusted him ended up in shallow graves in the woods. So no, it wouldn’t have, because I know better than to take the lure.”
Poor Ves. Sebastian couldn’t imagine going through life unable to believe anything his family told him, with the obvious exception of Noct. True, his own mother had been less than forthcoming, but that had been about what she saw as her duty to keep the secret of the Books. She’d always been there for him and Bonnie, had said what she meant and kept her promises to them.
And of course Father, dead so long now that Sebastian was no longer sure he recalled his face correctly. Any pictures had burned along with Mother, but he remembered a tall man with a warm smile and strong arms, plain-spoken and somewhat bemused at Mother’s bookish ways. Gentle, kind, always there with a helping hand.
“You’re amazing,” Sebastian said aloud.
Ves quirked an eyebrow at him. “What?”
Hard sometimes to put feelings into words. “I just…a lot of people who’ve been through what you have would be bitter. Angry. Noct, too, of course,” he added quickly. “You both had every right to want to tear down the world. But you didn’t.”
A light flush darkened Ves’s cheeks, but he said, “Well, I live in the world, so tearing it down would create some problems for me as well.”
Sebastian laughed. “I suppose it would.” He held out his hand.
Ves, own hands on his buttons, extended a tentacle. Sebastian ran his thumb over its smooth skin, black with hidden iridescence of blue and gold, then bent his head and kissed it.
“What say we put these to good use?” he asked with a wink.
Ves’s heart beat faster at the naked lust in Sebastian’s voice. The skin along his spine tingled, and an answering ache started in his groin.
“You just want me for my tentacles,” he teased, running one across Sebastian’s hair.
Sebastian grinned. “Well, not just them,” he said, and drew the tip of the one in his hand into his mouth.
The tentacles weren’t inherently erotic, but the sight of Sebastian sucking it like a cock, drawing it in deeper, his mouth warm and tongue clever, was unspeakably arousing.
Ves had spent most of his life hiding what he was. Craving to be human, because he thought that would finally free him from what he thought of as a curse. Let him be normal.
But rather than change himself, he’d just needed to find the right people to be around.
