Page 34 of Blackwicket

“This spoilsport never lets me tease anyone anymore, and it’s one of my greatest talents.”

“Your magic.” I pulled the conversation in a direction that would lead somewhere. “I’ve never seen anyone with such remarkable control over it.”

“Well, Fiona is who you can thank,” Thea said, before remembering Fiona was gone. She stopped short, all hardness fleeing from her expression. “I barely knew how to handle it until she gave me a few lessons.”

I found it in myself to offer a small smile.

“She was a great encourager.”

“She was a great many things.” Thea gave no smile in return. “What are your plans while you’re here in Nightglass, Eleanora? I heard you cancelled the service.”

I wouldn’t let Thea throw me off course.

“Yes.” I shared no further explanation.“It’s so rare to meet a natural magic user. Does it run in your family?”

“Thea comes from a very prominent magical genealogy,” William answered in her stead. “I’m lucky to have acquired her. It’s hard to find someone whose magic hasn’t gone to rot.”

Discomfiture squirmed near my navel, and I resisted the urge to clench the tablecloth. Grigori Nightglass once spoke these exact words to my mother. It was becoming more and more difficult to hope that William hadn’t chosen to stand in the shadow of his horrible lineage.

The server returned with three different drinks—something golden brown, lacking frills for William, a martini for Thea. When he presented mine, the color of the liquid inside put me off. It was pink, but not the dreamy hue of cotton candy or the taffy from Galton’s, but the shade of diluted blood, the scent pungently sweet.

“What’s this?”

I placed my fingers on the cool glass, wanting to prove I was game to at least try it, if not for any other reason than to avoid offending the woman who might know something about Fiona’s child.

“Go on, doll, it’s not strong. I had Phillip put in half the amount of vodka it calls for.” Condescension poisoned this confession. As I brought the drink to my lips, I wondered how Fiona became friends with someone like this.

The drink bit into my tongue, its sweet notes demanding, the tartness of citrus overpowering. There was something else, something the overbearing flavors were trying to mask, and it spread in my throat. I coughed, pulling the glass away, yanking my head sideways as a jolt of panicked magic rose to eject the curse crawling from my drink. It was feeble, and slid from my mouth like a miniature squid, retreating into its pink haven,where it curled around the shadows of the ice cubes at the bottom. I gagged, coughed again.

“Not bad,” Thea said, reluctant to compliment me, even for something as basic as avoiding the ingestion of a curse-laced drink.

“Not at all,” William responded, a sultry edge in the reply as he watched me try to catch my breath, eyes watering.

“You’re the first person outside Fiona who didn’t just swallow that straight down.” Thea took a sip of her own cocktail.

“I didn’t come here to be drugged,” I rasped.

“Just a little test,” William said. “Not enough to do any actual harm, especially not to you.”

I slammed the glass down, bright pink sloshing over the rim. “This is beneath you, William Nightglass. Leave those tactics to the Brom.”

He chuckled, leaning back in his seat and raising his hands in a brief gesture of waiting, allowing me time to process my own words. My blood ran cold.

“You’re lying.”

“Come on, Ellie.” William shook his head, impatient with my indignation. “There’s no need for a disguise of righteousness. You’ve been running from the reach of the Authority for years. Beyond that incredible display in Devin, who knows what you’ve been up to.”

The cadence of his tone suggested he knew exactly.

“Your shame doesn’t serve you here. Weembracemagic. People travel from everywhere for this freedom. They fill the hole in their souls the Authority left when they enacted their ridiculous ban. Look around you.”

He swept his arm wide, indicating the theater, the crowd filling its tables. A sense of wellness and wholeness lingered here, unlike the streets beyond the doors, where the very air felt fractured.

“Magic begs to be used, Eleanora. We’ve made a business of doing just that. The Authority doesn’t bother us; in fact, some of them are patrons. Frequent ones.”

This moment revealed my position, the part that William saw me playing.

“What did my sister have to do with all of this?” I demanded.