Page 53 of Blood from the Marrow
It still didn’t make any sense to Marisol. And it didn’t explain how they’d known where to find Elena. Could someone from the private airport have tipped Sayah off? From the airport in Venice? Would she have spies everywhere? The feeling of being watched made Marisol eager to leave.
“You must all go now. I have work to do. Wilhelmina, go with them,” Sabina said with indisputable authority.
“I can’t?—”
“You can,” Sabina interrupted. “And more importantly, you must.”
“The Order?—”
“Others are going to smell this mess soon,” Sabina said. “The only ones who will ask me questions understand that I hold many secrets. Plenty worth killing for.” She spared Marisol a glance and the hint of a wink. “You don’t live as long as I have without acquiring leverage and liability. But I have both in manageable levels. They will see that I was targeted and I sent my most trusted mentee to adduce by whom.” She gave Marisol a nod before turning back to Hel. “None will question that I trust you like the blood daughter I never had. Who else to hunt for more would-be assailants?”
“Sabina,” Hel said with devastating vulnerability. She was a soldier who wanted desperately to disobey an order but couldn’t bring herself to do it.
“I have not heard of living Aglion in many years.” Sabina motioned for Hel to follow her up the stairs. When only Hel went, Sabina stopped and motioned for Marisol to follow as well.
Once they’d reached the top again, Sabina asked for Hel’s hand. Hel gave it to her without hesitation. A flash of fangs, and before Marisol knew it, blood was pouring from Hel’s open wrist.
Sabina bit into her hand for the second time. She pressed her palm to Hel’s wound and whispered in a language Marisol didn’t understand. It sounded old and sent goosebumps flying overevery inch of Marisol’s skin. Then she pressed Hel’s palm to the stone she’d used to open the archive.
When Sabina was finished. She asked for Marisol’s hand.
“This is your history, child.” Sabina produced something like a letter opener from an unseen pocket and cut a small, nearly painless incision on Marisol’s palm. “I hope that when you return, you will add what is missing. That you will contribute to the future.”
Sabina pressed Marisol’s palm to the stone that was alive with electricity. She felt like a bug getting zapped and living to tell about it.
When Sabina released her, Marisol’s wings sprang out before she could stop them. This time, she was the one asking for Hel and Sabina’s hands. For their trust when she hovered over their broken skin and closed their injuries as if they’d never existed.
“Go,” Sabina said, eyes brimming with emotion as she watched Marisol pull her power back into herself.
Hel shook her head as they descended the stairs to where Elena was pacing, and Zuri was openly vibrating with impatience. “What about this mess?—”
“I’ve been disposing of bodies since before your grandparents were born. Long before this consent fad.”
Marisol pretended Sabina was joking about mass murder.
“Go,” Sabina insisted when they reached the bottom. “I have work to do and you’re in my way.”
Zuri stared at Sabina, eyes searching. When the rest of them started for the door leading down to the crypt, Zuri didn’t move.
“You worked the magic into the stones,” Zuri said like she’d been analyzing something and finally arrived at a conclusion. “How?”
One corner of Sabina’s mouth twitched but all she said was, “Go.”
“I’ll be back,” Hel said like she wasn’t sure whether to salute Sabina or bow or risk a show of affection.
“I’m counting on it.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“We should leave now,”Elena said when they were back on the boat.
Her attention was on Hel, whom she had not invited to join them. Librada trusted her, but that connection had not been tested in eighty years. Elena remembered the expression on Librada’s stoic face. No, not her face. The brilliant light she’d seen in her eyes the moment Hel stepped out of the shadows.
Fuck. Time alone had made her soft. She was letting a stranger into her circle when there were unseen arrows aimed straight at her heart. And why? Because her blood daughter was still in love and Elena couldn’t find the will to snuff out the flame lighting her soul. Not when Elena’s own love had brought her back from the brink.
A great comfort that will be when we’re all dead.One day, she told herself. She’d allow Librada one day in Hel and then they’d be on a flight back home without the cultist in her midst.
“We’re all tired,” Marisol said with her hand on Elena’s arm. “We should rest before we go.”
