Page 55 of The Rebel and the Rose (The City of Fantome #2)
Find the acolyte .
Kill her .
Bury her body .
Ransom was in the grip of a nightmare. On his knees in the dark, his little sister was finally within reach. Smiling. Trembling. All grown up. It was a gift of fate, a kindness from Oriel herself, but there was a worm in his head telling him to kill her.
He had to kill her.
Anouk’s hands were achingly cold, the chains around her wrist rattling as she gripped him. Her nails dug into skin, like she was afraid he would disappear. ‘Are you real?’ she whispered. ‘Bastian, is this real?’
The fog was creeping in again. Head splitting. World turning. Breath hissing. Like a puppet, he felt the strings around him tighten. No. No .
Kill her .
Bury her body .
Through his teeth, Ransom begged, ‘Anouk, let go of me.’
She shook her head, a familiar fierceness returning to her face. ‘Not a chance. Not after ten long years.’
Kill her .
Bury her body .
‘Anouk, you have to let go.’ Sweat beaded on Ransom’s brow as he fought the urge rising in his chest. His fingers twitched beneath hers, his eyes drawn to the column of her neck. How easy it would be to snap. And then it would be done.
He just needed it to be done.
‘ Caruso ,’ he groaned, fighting his own will. ‘Restrain me.’
The Dagger, who like Nadia had been observing their reunion in confused silence, stepped into the tower. ‘What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?’
‘ Yes ,’ he ground out.
Kill her .
Bury her body .
‘CARUSO! NOW!’ An anguished scream ripped out of Ransom.
Too late Anouk released him, scrabbling backwards.
He was already lunging at her, but Caruso was faster, collaring his neck and dragging him backwards.
Holding his elbows behind his back with one arm, he drove his knee into Ransom’s back, pinning him to the cold stone floor.
There was just enough space to raise his head.
Anouk, who had flattened herself against the far wall, struggled to catch her breath. Her eyes were so wide in her narrow face, the olive pallor all but drained. She looked like a frightened doll come to life, her cheekbones sharpened by weeks of starvation, her narrow limbs mottled with bruises.
And somehow, he still itched to kill her.
He had to kill her.
Nadia came to her knees beside Anouk, and in as gentle voice as she could manage, said, ‘Are you all right?’
‘Of course not,’ huffed Anouk, drawing upon that innate bravery she had had since she was a girl. ‘My own brother is trying to kill me!’
‘ Was ,’ corrected Nadia. ‘I’m predicting a change of plan.’
‘And if it makes you feel better, Ransom tries to kill everyone,’ said Caruso. ‘He’s Head of the Order of Daggers.’
Anouk grimaced. ‘ All hell .’
Nadia threw Caruso a withering look. ‘Against all odds, you’ve actually made it worse.’
‘I thought she’d be impressed.’
‘She’s a fucking acolyte, Caruso. What part of her incredibly pious vocation makes you think she’d rejoice at having a prolific assassin for a brother?’
‘Well, excuse me for trying, Nadia. I’m new to family reunions.’
‘There’s something wrong with him.’ Anouk turned her attention back to Ransom. Her dark brows lowered as she studied him. In her worry, she looked so like their mother. Even more so now she was almost eighteen. ‘He’s in pain.’
Ransom wasn’t in pain. He was in hell. Still thrashing against Caruso, he slammed his forehead against the ground, trying to destroy the worm inside him.
Twining his fingers in his hair, Caruso yanked his head up.
‘Seriously, what the fuck is going on with you? You’ve been praying for this moment your whole damn life. ’
Chains clanging as she crept closer, Anouk canted her head to study him. When their eyes met again, hers flickered burnished gold. The faint scent of lemon blossoms filled the air, tickling Ransom’s nose.
Sister .
Saint .
Helper .
Understanding softened her features. ‘There’s a darkness in your head, brother.’
Nadia and Caruso exchanged a glance.
‘It moves like a shadow,’ said Anouk, coming closer still, straining against the chains pinning her to the wall. ‘A burrowing sickness that veils your free thoughts.’ She shuddered, clutching at her hollow stomach. ‘I can see it behind your eyes. I can feel it. It’s a kind of magic.’
Kill her .
Bury her body .
‘ Yes ,’ Ransom eked out.
‘Is this how your power works?’ said Nadia, peering closer at Ransom. ‘Some kind of magical sight?’
Anouk’s lips twisted. ‘Depends on who you ask. Sister Madeline says I’m a Saint of Ruination.
That I destroy everything I touch. But I can mend too.
I rebuilt every wall I tore down on this island.
I would have put this prayer tower back together if she hadn’t chained me to it.
’ Anouk’s voice grew stronger, her eyes shining with conviction.
‘I can mend. I know I can. She never let me try with Honoria. I wanted so badly to try, but she took her broken body away.’
‘Try now,’ urged Nadia. ‘Fix the wrongness in his head.’
Caruso manoeuvred Ransom closer. This time, when Anouk reached for him, she laid her hands on his head.
He felt her fingers twitch against his scalp, searching, prodding…
and warmth trickled through his skull. It was a peculiar feeling, like honey drizzled over his mind.
Slowly, painlessly, the dark fog lifted, fractured by a creeping golden light.
Find the…
Kill…
Bury…
The voice dissipated. The worm destroyed.
Ransom opened his eyes and was himself again. The world shifted into stark focus, his friends kneeling at his side, his sister looking down on him with such tenderness, it made his eyes prickle.
Offering a wan smile, she sat back, folding her hands in her lap. ‘Better?’
‘Better,’ he rasped.
Caruso eased off Ransom, keeping his hand twisted in the back of his shirt as he rose from the floor.
With relief came the full, unvarnished truth of what had happened back at Marvale.
And with it, a rage so quick and violent, Ransom could taste it between his teeth.
‘ Andreas ,’ he hissed. ‘That malevolent prick got inside my head.’ A silver-tongue indeed.
With a few choice words, he had tied invisible strings to Ransom and used him like a puppet.
‘He compelled me to flee Marvale. To come here and kill you at all costs.’ His own flesh and blood.
And saints , he had almost done it too. He scrubbed his face, horror making his stomach lurch. ‘I almost killed you, Anouk.’
‘Andreas almost killed her,’ said Nadia, with her own dawning disgust. ‘You fought it, Ransom. You fought against his thrall with everything in you.’
And still it had taken Caruso to restrain him.
Hell’s teeth .
‘Lucky I’m so damn strong,’ said Caruso, puffing out his chest.
Nadia rolled her eyes.
‘Lucky I’m a saint,’ Anouk said, pointedly. ‘This could have been one hell of a shitshow.’
‘For an acolyte, you sure curse a lot,’ said Nadia.
‘I’m a dab hand at lying too.’ Anouk smirked. ‘Since I’m not Marianne Adina either.’
In the ruins of that damp prayer tower, a hundred and more questions crowded in on Ransom – there were stories to be traded, histories to be told. How had Anouk come to be in this place all by herself, living under a fake name, a fabricated vocation?
But this was not the place, nor the time. Not as the night darkened and the mist around them thickened. Nadia was on her feet now, examining the anchor stone behind Anouk, yanking at the rusted chains that bound her there.
Anouk reached for his hands once more, the light in her eyes filling him with hope. ‘Look what fate has done for us, Bastian. It brought you back to me. After all this time, brother.’ Gripping him by the shoulders, she pulled him close. ‘Now we can leave this place together and begin again.’
‘That might be trickier than you think.’ Frowning, Nadia turned from the anchor stone. ‘I don’t suppose the Mother Superior gave you a key?’
Ransom shook his head.
‘We were supposed to dump her with the anchor stone,’ supplied Caruso.
‘Callous old bat,’ muttered Anouk.
Eager to be of use – and to get his sister the hell away from this creepy place – Ransom got to his feet. ‘Leave the anchor stone. It’ll only sink us on the way back. I’ll go and get the key.’
Caruso stepped out of the tower, joining Ransom.
They didn’t have to go far to find Mother Madeline. She was standing where they had left her at the end of the peninsula. Illuminated by her dying lantern and with the rising wind tossing her robes around her, she looked like an angry ghoul.
‘Is there a problem?’ she called out. ‘I told you that girl was trouble.’
‘We need the key,’ said Ransom as they marched towards her. ‘Hand it over and return to the priory.’
Mother Madeline took a step back, gripping a brass key that hung around her neck. ‘What do you need it for? Just dump the body along with the stone.’
‘No,’ said Ransom, fast losing the only shred of patience he had managed to conjure.
He hated this woman for chaining up his sister – for beating and starving her, before marking her for dead – just as fiercely as he hated the prince who had chained up his mind, casting him from Marvale like a skipping stone.
‘Give me the key. I won’t ask you again. ’
She looked between them, aghast. ‘ Sweet Saint Alisa , you intend to free her, don’t you?’
‘I’m getting bored,’ warned Caruso. ‘You won’t like me when I’m bored.’
Ransom extended his hand. ‘ Now .’
Her lips thinned. Again, she backed away. ‘I refuse to let you help her. I refuse to allow you to take what belongs to this priory. I refuse —’
Crack!
Caruso snapped her neck. Her body crumpled in a heap, the lantern cracking as it rolled away, extinguishing the last of the oil. Mother Madeline stared up at them with blank, unseeing eyes, still clutching the key.
Ransom sighed. ‘That’s one way of doing it.’
‘Don’t act like you weren’t fantasizing about it.’ Caruso leaned down and yanked the key from around her neck, pocketing it without so much as a second glance. ‘Let’s go and spring your sister.’
Leaving Mother Madeline where she had fallen, they returned to the prayer tower, eager to be free of the Isle of Alisa. Tonight, they would save the saint they had come to kill.
And tomorrow, Ransom would kill the one who had commanded it.
And he would do so with deep, abiding pleasure.
For Anouk, and for Seraphine.
For himself.
And the knife edge on which the future of this kingdom now rested.