Page 77

T HERE WAS A BODY IN THE GRASS , and her hand was in a fist.

Briony felt the cold seep into her chest, crawling up to her mind.

Her breath shook, air shivering into her lungs and rattling out.

There was a body in the grass …

“Briony.”

A man whispered her name.

Her mind was a library of books. She reached for a blank one and wrote Cohle across the spine. She filled it with a body in the grass and her hand in a fist, and she pushed it onto a low shelf where no one would see it.

“Briony.”

There were hands on her face, tilting her head toward gray eyes.

Toven stood in front of her, his gaze wide and searching.

She placed her hands on his wrists.

“There’s no time for this,” she said, and she didn’t recognize her voice. “Bring his body over the line so I can help you lift him.”

Her mind ticked on, because her heart was torn open.

***

They levitated his body down the lane. When they came to Vesper’s body, she looked so small.

Toven knelt down and whispered words over her. She was still blinking.

Briony watched with empty eyes as he looked up at her.

“I can’t … I don’t have enough strength to—”

With a thump, Briony lowered Cohle back to the earth— there was a body in the grass —and moved to Vesper’s side.

She ran a scan over the fox’s spine, finding the broken bones and the severed nerves. She’d never specialized in healing, but she knew Toven knew enough.

He pointed at the nerves. “You’ll need to knit those back together. Put her under first.”

Briony passed a hand over Vesper’s eyes, and the fox was asleep.

Everything was much simpler when there wasn’t anything else in her head to think of.

She followed Toven’s instructions, realigning the bones and clearing the pathways of nerves.

At a certain point, when Vesper was no longer on the brink of death and her magic could flow to Toven again, he took over.

Briony stood over him, feeling hollow as he poked the fox’s bones back together and knit her nerves into place.

Inside her mind, there were shelves upon shelves of books that begged to be opened and read—but it wasn’t time for that.

If she opened herself up to any of them, Cohle would tumble down first. And then she’d need to feel her heart rip open again.

She’d have to understand what killing a person did. What murderers feel.

Because that’s what she was.

Her pages shivered, and she silenced them.

Toven lifted Vesper into his arms. She was still asleep.

Without another word, Briony levitated the body in the grass, and they continued up to the house.

***

Serena stood vigil over Reighven and the female nurse. Her eyes turned wide on the two of them as they walked into the drawing room.

“You caught him. Good.”

“I killed him.”

She tested the words in her mouth. They didn’t feel any different from other words.

Serena’s lips opened in shock as the color drained from her face.

Toven laid Vesper on the sofa and looked around the room. “Where is the other nurse?”

“I let him go.”

Both sets of eyes swung to her. She stood in the center of the drawing room, a shell of herself.

“He was Eversun. We will say he died and produce a body. I promised him.”

Serena gazed at her with careful eyes. “I see. And he will tell no one about what he saw today?”

She shook her head. “They have his sister at Biltmore. She’s a Barlowe Girl. Her name is Maggie.”

She rattled off the details as if she were being quizzed in school.

“All right.” Serena sprang into action. “I’ve sent my albatross for your father.

We will deal with …” She gestured to Cohle’s body and then wrung her hands, staring between the clock and the bodies.

“Cohle attacked us. He intended to steal the golden heartspring for his own. Reighven was incapacitated early, as were the nurses. The male nurse was caught in the crossfire, and I killed Cohle as he tortured my son.”

“No,” Toven said. “I killed him. He was absconding with her—”

“You cannot kill for her, Toven,” Serena said swiftly, eyes filled with something Briony couldn’t read. “I can kill for my son. You cannot kill for her.”

Briony thought Toven would argue again, but he seemed to hold his breath tightly.

“So that’s the story,” Briony said. “but that’s not what Reighven saw. He will tell Mallow the truth.”

Serena swallowed, pacing. “We will fix his memories. His and the nurse’s.”

“But that’s highly advanced mind magic,” Briony said. She glanced between Toven and Serena.

And then she remembered the meditation chamber near the kitchen. The way Toven could slip into her mind and fall into her memories. The way one glance from Orion Hearst felt like she was being sliced open and inspected.

Through the haze of her own mind barriers, blocking emotion from interacting with her brain, Briony felt a spark of horror as she wondered how many times her own mind had been invaded by Orion and Toven Hearst. But before she could let the panic seep in, Toven spoke.

“What do you need?” He stared at his mother, as if waiting for her cue.

Briony’s eyes slid to Serena, suspicion bubbling in her chest.

Serena’s gaze never left the clock. “If Mallow recognizes my techniques from my own mind—if my signature is apparent—we’ll all be dead by sundown,” Serena said, voice cold. “She is in my head too often to risk it. I need a second set of eyes, so we will wait for your father.”

Realization dripped into Briony’s mind like water from a loose faucet.

Serena Hearst was the advanced mind magician at Hearst Hall. For some reason, Mallow looked inside Serena Hearst’s mind. Often. And Serena used mind magic to block her. No, not block her. To alter her own memories.

Briony stared, emotionless thoughts coming quickly.

There were no servants at Hearst Hall. They entertained no guests. They hosted no parties. There were secrets within these walls, and Briony had only scratched the surface of them.

“Let me do it,” Briony said.

They looked at her.

“Let me do it,” she repeated. “Toven just walked me through advanced healing techniques. I can be instructed on memory alteration.”

Serena shook her head, her eyes still on the clock.

“They should have left by now,” Briony argued, knowing that she was speaking Serena’s exact thoughts. “They should be reporting back to Mallow by now. It could take Orion hours to return.”

Toven strode forward. “We start with the nurse,” he said. “Come on, Mother. With the three of us, we’ll do it right.”

Serena took one last look at the clock and then joined them at the nurse’s feet.

Briony knelt next to her. “What is the technique?”

“We have to pull her out of stasis and keep her calm and still.” She looked at Toven. “That will be you.”

Toven nodded.

Briony felt the ticking of the mantel clock inside her chest. Her mind was focused and hollow. Was this what the inside of Toven’s head felt like all the time—absence of panic, absence of pain?

“I will instruct you with the nurse, and we will hope that Orion will be back to take Reighven,” Serena said.

Briony’s waters rippled. There was a book in her mind that shook loose, and Reighven’s dark eyes and acrid breath flooded her senses before she could shut it.

Briony closed her eyes and breathed deep.

Her shelves reorganized, and before she could even glance at one called Cohle , it shuffled to a distant shelf.

“Follow my thread,” Serena said, and she nodded to Toven.

Toven dragged his hands upward, tugging the woman up out of her unconsciousness. Her eyes fluttered open, and Toven pushed back down, grounding her. One hand held her muscles still, the other fluttered slow rhythms—her heartbeat.

Serena took the woman’s face between her hands, and Briony moved close to her shoulder. She focused on the energy emanating from Serena’s mind. The thread of magic from her forehead.

When she found it, it was a silver shimmering tightrope from Serena’s mind into the nurse’s. Taut, it glinted in her head, a steel connection that pulsed with energy. Briony danced on it, like a circus performer, and then she slid down, down, until she was entering the woman’s mind.

She stumbled inside, finding unfamiliar people and unfamiliar worries. A father who was worried about his daughter working for Mallow’s medical team. A sister who ran away early, narrowly missing their village’s sacking.

A warm hand seemed to drop on Briony’s shoulder, and then she was turned to face the memory of that morning.

Serena stood next to her, and together they stared at the scene. Briony lay on the exam table. The male nurse stood near her, raising his hands.

“Don’t—” Toven said. “She’s my property. Don’t I get a say here?”

Briony watched as all eyes turned toward him.

“Why, Hearst?” Reighven said. “You want pups?”

Cohle folded his hands in front of himself. “The Rosewood girl and all tied to her line must be sterilized.” He gave Toven a patronizing look. “Clearly, you know why.”

Reighven adjusted his belt with a grin. “Carvin’s wasn’t done right, either, and we took care of that yesterday.”

Inside Briony’s own mind, sorrow pulsed through her for Phoebe and her own losses.

She refocused as the male nurse began following orders, and she watched as the Serena from that morning reached out suddenly and ripped the nurse back, then shoved Reighven off his feet to smack into a wall.

Serena turned to engage with Cohle just as Toven ran for the exam table, covering Briony with his body.

Inside her heart, something fluttered. But there was no connection from her brain to her chest. She was empty still.

The scene slowed, and the Serena next to her inside the nurse’s mind walked them backward a step. Reighven was upright. The male nurse’s hands were extended.

“Don’t—” Toven said.

Serena turned to her as the moment froze. “We start here,” her voice whispered, though her mouth didn’t move.

The scene rearranged. The male nurse’s hands were extended.

And a thread seemed to weave over the scene, sewing up holes and knitting together moments.

The nurse’s hands tugged, and Briony’s body flinched as her fallopian tube was severed.

Serena showed her how, and then Briony took the thread.

Briony spent what felt like hours on those movements. She first focused on the nurse and his arms. The way they tugged. The thread moved over them until they were seamless. Serena instructed her to make Briony—the one on the exam table—jerk in pain.

They knitted over Toven’s reaction. Toven stood stoically now. He didn’t protest. He just watched as Briony’s chance at childbirth was taken from her.

They spent less time on Serena’s past self’s reactions than Briony would have thought, but Serena Hearst only winced when the male nurse tugged and severed Briony’s fallopian tube.

Once it was done, Serena guided the thread to stitch, writing new moments into existence. Briony followed her lead.

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Reighven said with a leer.

Cohle stepped forward. “Now that that’s been seen to, I’m afraid I have some bad news, Toven.” Cohle smiled. “Mallow has decreed that the golden heartspring should belong to her most loyal. Her second in command.”

Toven’s brow furrowed.

Serena pressed her fingers to her lips.

And then things began moving swiftly, some of it taken from reality.

Only, Toven was the one thrown against the wall, not Reighven, and Cohle was the one causing a ruckus.

The nurses were scared. Briony hid under the exam table. And Reighven hesitated for a moment and then began to engage.

Serena knocked Reighven out.

A stray curse caught the male nurse.

Cohle tortured Toven.

And then Serena killed Cohle.

It all happened quickly. But then they went over the scene again and again, until it was perfect. Serena instructed Briony to tailor everyone’s reactions. She hemmed here; she let out seams there.

At the end, Serena from that morning turned and knocked out the female nurse, and the scene went dark.

Briony felt the thread of Serena’s mind tugging on her, beckoning her backward.

They were in the drawing room. They were kneeling over the female nurse.

Toven’s hands were outstretched over her, shaking.

“Put her back under,” Serena said.

Toven flipped his hands and the nurse’s eyes closed, sliding back into stasis.

Serena looked at the clock, and Briony followed her gaze. It had been half an hour that they’d been inside her mind. And Orion still wasn’t home.

Serena rubbed her hands together and rolled her neck, summoning more energy. She looked pale.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

Briony nodded, feeling nowhere near ready to enter Reighven’s mind.

Toven moved to hover his hands over Reighven. He dragged his hands upward, and as soon as Reighven’s eyelids fluttered he pressed down again.

Eyes black as tar pits looked up at Briony. Though he wasn’t fully there, though he wasn’t leering at her, she still felt his eyes on her naked body, his hand between her thighs.

“I’m with you. Begin,” Serena instructed kindly.

Briony took hold of the thread in the middle of her eyes and connected it to Reighven. She slid down, falling deep into his eyes.

His consciousness was oily and suffocating. Briony wanted to pull out and ask if they could just kill him, too.

Images flooded up, moments that she recognized.

Her naked body.

The auction—herself in a slip in the spotlight.

A hand landed on her shoulder, and Serena pulled her close, leading her away from Reighven’s older memories and into the scene they needed to adjust.

That morning unfurled from a different angle, and it took Briony a moment to grasp it.

“Don’t—” Toven said. “She’s my property. Don’t I get a say here?”

From Reighven’s point of view, Briony saw Toven swallow.

“Why, Hearst? You want pups?” Reighven chuckled from right next to her.

And Briony began.

She stitched over the scene. She threaded through the moments that needed to be forgotten. And if she was ever sloppy, Serena was there with an extra eye, pointing out an extra stitch.

She thanked her broken heart for staying away from her head. She didn’t know if she would have been able to work like this if she hadn’t buried everything that had happened after she lay on that exam table deep inside her bookshelves.

Serena made her wind through the scene again, examining it from every angle.

Something shivered outside of their consciousness. Serena nudged her to refocus, but Briony was just about done.

They slid backward on that thread, up, up. The oil of Reighven’s mind dripped off her.

When Briony arrived back inside her own consciousness again, she stared down at Reighven, his eyes open and on her. Toven put him back under again.

“Well,” said a slick voice from behind them. “It seems like my family has been quite busy this morning.”

She twisted around slowly. Orion Hearst stood in the middle of his drawing room, staring down at her, looking murderous.