“Wait,” Rin said. The kit went totally still. “Did the last one speak during the ceremony?”
“I never paid much attention if I’m being honest,” Greya said. “Those ceremonies go on for so long… Do we really need to baptise their babies? It’s useful that they never get sick, but surely there’s someone we can set to the task? This is why weshould have hired a priestess. Someone to do all the annoying things for us. Aha—Ialways did the annoying sermons, the witch never said a word,” he concluded, looking at Nick as though he were a repulsive bug he wished to squish under his boot.
“You’ve spent ten years trying to find a capable witch.” Nick’s voice came out strained, his head twisted back, his throat horribly exposed. It would mean absolutely nothing to these people to maim him, probably even less to kill him if they thought him useless. “You really want to reset that clock again? Wrinkles are starting to show.”
Greya and Rin tensed. “Secure him and leave,” Rin barked.
Nick’s head was released, and his chained arms were quickly attached to the chair. The two guards bowed and left the room. Rin glared at him as Greya fussed with his wine cup, trying to catch his reflection in the metal.
“We shouldn’t have rationed it,” Greya said, alarmed. “He’s right. I’m getting crow’s feet!”
“She never spoke at the ceremonies.” Rin ignored Greya.
“Every witch does it differently,” Nick replied.
“Will these vanish? Rin?” Greya continued to peer at his own warped reflection. “It’s been so long I can’t remember. What did he say to Desre? He’d extend her life with his blood? But he never said anything about reversing ageing!”
Rin stepped into the space just in front of Nick. Her eyes had a golden hue in the iris, and a milky discolouration in the pupil that made it more grey than black. She ignored Greya’s panicking. Though Nick had said what he did about wrinkles to be a dick, this close he saw that he wasn’t wrong; lines grew around Rin’s eyes and mouth. This close she didn’t look ageless; she looked old. But there was something wrong about it. Like a twenty-year-old had some of the life of a seventy-year-old dumped over them, and it stuck in strange ways.
“How do you know about us?” Rin asked.
Nick remembered Kit’s fear around the topic. It was something he was petrified of discussing, even when they were no longer on the ship with Desre. “Do you think a council of people living for centuries can go unnoticed?” Nick deflected. “Your secret isn’t as well kept as you might think.” He didn’t understand what the whole obsession was about. Living for centuries? Extending your life forever? Wouldn’t that mean watching friends die while you went on? Going on forever without your family? It genuinely sounded like torture. Though Nick doubted this lot cared for anything beyond themselves.
“If people knew about us, we’d be fighting off armies,” Rin said, her voice hard.
“And what do you call that thing on your doorstep?” Nick challenged. “Besides, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to join you lot in eternity. I know I’d kill myself if I had to watch your stupid brother peering at his ugly mug in wine cups every –”
Rin’s hand shot out, delivering a hard slap. Nick’s head jerked to the side, skin smarting under the blow.
“I don’t enjoy entertaining untrained mutts.” Rin stared down at Nick with a cold glint in her strange eyes. “But I will insist on being given charge ofyou. Keep your tongue. I’m going to make you wish you’d been born without it. Leave that down, Greya. Let’s start.”
“Shouldn’t we let him change into the ceremonial robes?” Greya asked.
“Why? We’re not holding a ceremony. It’s just us.” Rin strode to the door, which opened just as she reached it. “Bring him.”
The guards released Nick from the chair and marched him into the main hall. Nick’s legs seemed to grow heavier with every step he took down the centre aisle, bringing the familiar silhouette at the altar closer and closer. Desre wore a goldendress and a veil that draped over her hair, making the wavy dark strands look like water weeds. The veins in her neck pulsed green; her skin was a deathly white. “Always dressing as the bride,” Rin muttered under her breath.
“Shewashis bride,” Greya pointed out.
“Only because she used her magic on him!” Rin snapped. “He liked me first.”
Nick put their bickering out of his mind. Desre’s hands rested upon the circular altar. She turned to them, meeting Nick’s eyes. The muscles in her cheeks fluttered, as if she were barely holding in a roar. It was the only part that moved; the rest of her was rigid. Nick felt her anger. Felt it in every breath he took, and every fearful beat of his heart.
They stopped at the bottom of half a dozen steps. The two kits escorting Nick bowed, and he was forced to do the same. His heart thumped hard, the courage to kick out like he had only minutes ago deserting him.
“We’re not holding a public ceremony. You can remove the veil,” Rin said, and her voice, though not friendly, had lost its acidic edge. As if she was wary of turning a biting tone of voice against Desre.
The click of heels echoed in the great hall, and feet in delicate white sandals entered the edge of Nick’s vision. The kit tightened his grip in his hair, ensuring Nick couldn’t even tilt his head to get a better look at Desre. Not that he wanted to. His brain trudged as he struggled to think of a plan. A way to get through this alive.
Alive, he knew, meant showing he could do what they wanted. Alive meant biting his tongue. And that, Nick didn’t think he could do. Knowing what this woman had done to Kit filled him with a hatred so intense he couldn’t think past it.
Nick felt Desre’s attention shift away from him as if she’d been physically touching him. At his side, Rin tensed. “You are meant to be organising our defence,” Desre said.
“They’ll come, and they’ll die. What defence is needed?” Rin replied, but her voice sank even more, losing not just its energy but its power too. “If we’re lucky, your husband will come first, and you can havehimorganise the defence. Against his own army! Hah.”
“Valor is no fool. He knows he cannot come before me.”
“They’re all fools,” Rin said. “You’re just in a bad mood because they’ve stolen your toy. Again. You really should keep a better eye on him. Or keep a hand on him. Seems to me the moment you’re not touching your men, they run away as fast as they’re able.”
