𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗘 | 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐰 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝

𝟏𝟎: 𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐄

"𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒕."

♛

"Daisy, you summoned a demon? All by yourself?" Lucie exclaimed. "How enterprising and brave and—also a terrible idea," she added hastily, catching James's dark expression. "A very bad idea. But also, enterprising."

"Well, it was certainly interesting," Cordelia said. She was perched on the edge of a table, nibbling the corner of a piece of shortbread. "I wouldn't do it again, though. Unless I had to."

"Which you will not," James said. He gave Cordelia a mock-stern look, and she smiled at him, and the stern part of the look melted away. Now they were gazing soppily at each other.

Dahlia was sitting sideways on the armchair where Matthew was sitting, reading a book. Her feet were on one side and her back resting against the other. She was laying her head against his chest as he read a book out loud to her in a soft voice only she heard.

They were all gathered in the library, where Bridget had set out sandwiches, game pies, tea, and pastries for them, since, as she loudly complained, she did not have time to put together a real supper for so many people on short notice. (Besides, she had added, the brewing storm was giving her the worriments, and she could not concentrate enough to cook.)

Everyone except Thomas and Alastair—who had, according to Matthew, rather inexplicably gone on some sort of errand in an Institute carriage—had gathered around the food. Even Charles had turned up briefly, taken a game pie, and stormed out, leaving them to an inevitable discussion of Belial's plans.

"Now that we know this whole dreadful bracelet business," Anna said, sitting cross-legged in the middle of a table near a shelf holding books on sea demons, "surely it points toward Belial's goals. Certainly breaking James's heart and tormenting him was part of it," she added, "but I do not believe it was a goal in itself. More of a treat to enjoy along the way."

"Ugh." Cordelia shuddered. "Well, clearly he sought to control James. He always has—he wishes James to collude with him. To offer up his body for possession. He no doubt hoped he could talk him into it using Grace."

Christopher, holding a chicken sandwich as delicately as he might hold a beaker of acid, said, "It is a terrible story, but an encouraging one in a way. The bracelet was Belial's will made manifest. But James matched Belial's will with his own."

James frowned. "I do not feel ready for a battle of wills with Belial," he said. "Though I have wondered if my training with Jem has helped me to hold out against him."

The courtyard below seemed to flash in colors of blue and scarlet as lightning speared through the clouds. And the clouds themselves—Lucie had never seen anything like them. Thick but jagged-edged, as though they had been drawn onto the darkening sky with a razor dipped in melted gunmetal. As they heaved and collided with each other, she felt her skin prickle, as if snapped by a dozen elastic bands.