Page 30 of As Many Souls as Stars
‘Stop,’ she said, eventually. ‘It is deep enough now.’
They laid the sack of books within the hole. At the last minute, Cybil said, ‘Wait,’ and stooped to reach into the sack. She withdrew the book with the black embossed cover, tucking it beneath her arm.
Miriam covered the hole with dirt; then Cybil covered the dirt with fallen leaves. There was something funereal about the whole process, as if they had dug and filled a grave. The way Cybil bowed her head after was a mourner’s movement, strands of red hair falling to veil her face.
‘Why are you aiding me?’ Cybil asked her. ‘Because you still believe I will bargain with you? Because you take amusement from my presence?’
Miriam smiled at her. ‘Perchance both.’
‘You laugh at my misery.’
‘I marvel at your destruction,’ Miriam corrected. ‘Do men not do the same? Gasp in delight when a great tree is felled?’
‘You are so insistent I will be destroyed—’
Miriam’s patience was beginning to thin, and she interrupted. ‘Because youshallbe, Cybil. We both know that. The grimoires may be gone, but Martingale will find something else. That house stinks of witchcraft.’
Cybil’s face remained hard, her eyes cold. ‘I know. And you are the one that led them here.’
‘What difference does that make? I have paid you a favour.’
‘Afavour?’
Miriam pitched her voice low, gentle. ‘Sweet Cybil. You are not made for this world. Someone had to take you out of it.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘How hollow is the heart of a mortal,’ Miriam said. ‘How starving the soul. Your kind has spent thousands of years crawling out of the dirt, and yet still to the dirt you return. A curse, a gift—whatever your power is, you deservebetter, my dear.’
‘Deserve better? I havekilledpeople, Mistress Richter. My curse has killed people.’
‘Mayhap that is so. But if you permit your life to finish here, at the witchfinder’s hands, that shall be the only legacy you ever leave behind. Make a deal with me, and your existence shall mean something more; its ending will mean something more.’
That resonated with Cybil—Miriam could see it upon her face. Scenting blood in the water, she stepped slightly closer.
‘I could give you all you desire,’ she continued. ‘I could find you a place without loneliness, without fear. Without the weight of your guilt upon your shoulders. I could bring you there.’
Cybil said, ‘The curse—you could truly lift it?’
‘Certainly.’
‘But it would cost me my soul.’
‘Eventually. Still, we could come to an arrangement. You would have years before then. Decades, even.’
Her expression wavered. Miriam took another step closer, and their skirts brushed.
‘How much time would you like?’ she asked her. ‘I am your willing servant. As long as you want me, I will be yours; I will follow your every command. Simply promise me, Cybil, that you will be mine, also.’
Cybil tilted her head up towards her, in a movement that seemed more unconscious than deliberate. Miriam cupped her cheek, and Cybil’s breath sped up, blood rushing to her face.
Miriam said, ‘I see the desire in your eyes,’ and looped an arm around her waist, tugging her closer. Cybil stumbled forward, and when Miriam pressed her mouth against her neck, nipping at the soft skin there, she whimpered.
‘You…’ Cybil whispered. ‘Youcannot—I…’
‘Just say it, darling. Say your soul is mine, and I’ll give you what you need.’ Miriam brushed her lips against the underside of her jaw, the skin beneath her ear, the crest of her cheekbone. She touched her mouth with hers—promising a kiss, withholding it at the last moment—and asked, ‘Youdowant it, do you not? All you need to do is ask.’
Cybil’s pupils were blown wide. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Yes, I—’
