Unhallowed (Rath and Rune #1) - Jordan L. Hawk Page 0,92
been ascendant. The thick thread sent a fiery pain through him with every one of Ves’s movements, as inch after inch was dragged through the wound, going in white and emerging bathed in blood.
Stitching a part of Sebastian into a part of someone else.
The long-dead necromancer’s rage boiled through him, then calmed. The howls and cries died away, and in his mind’s eye, he suddenly saw it. No, saw her.
Emeline.
She wore the dress of a long-past era, mutton sleeves and full skirts meant to emphasize the slimness of her waist. Her blond hair was curled to either side of her face, the bulk of it mounded up into an elaborate, braided bun. Her hazel eyes burned with a cold fire, and the smile on her face struck him as genuine as that of a shark.
“Please help me, sir,” she simpered. “I only wish my freedom—is that too much to ask?”
“I…yes,” Sebastian objected.
Ves’s head snapped around. “Who are you talking to?”
“Keep going!” Noct shouted.
Ves bent his head and went back to the binding. The pain flared again in Sebastian’s arm, and he blinked, but she was still there. In his head.
“Of course,” Emeline went on, “I don’t wish freedom from you. Not at all. Stop this, and I’ll be so grateful, sir, I’ll do whatever it is you wish.” Her icy eyes blinked in an attempt at coyness. “You desire to be useful, don’t you? Not to let down any of those who depend on you? To save them?”
“Yes,” he said, though he didn’t want to.
“I can help with that. I can give you riches enough to make your sister wealthy beyond her wildest dreams. Send all of her many children to university for a good education, rather than the life of manual labor that awaits them.” She loomed larger in his mind. “More…if you say the word, I will make your lover a normal man.”
“No!” Sebastian shouted. “I love Vesper for who he is! So go to hell, you damned thing.”
Ves pulled taut the final stitch, knotted it—and severed the thread.
The spirit screamed her fury, but the sound was impotent. Even as the winds died, the thick mist forming her horrifying shape streamed back into the book. The pressure in the room fell, Sebastian’s ears popped—and then there was stillness.
“Oh thank God,” Irene mumbled and promptly collapsed.
Noct caught her before she hit the floor. A startled look crossed his face as he cradled her in his tentacles and arm alike. “Oh. Oh dear.”
She blinked. Then for a moment, her eyes seemed to fix on Noct’s face. “You…”
At that moment, Mortimer entered through the hole. “Irene!” he exclaimed, running to her. Noct hastily lowered her to the ground and squirmed away.
She lifted her arm to touch Mortimer, then frowned. “My coat is ruined.”
He pulled her close. “I’ll buy you a new one, darling. I’m just glad you’re all right.”
Sweeping her into his arms, he carried her out of the now-silent chamber. Noct watched them go in silence.
Ves rose to his feet and set the book on the plinth. Then he turned back to Sebastian, caught sight of his bleeding arm, and dropped to his knees. His hands gentle as possible, he pulled out the last of the thread. Then he wrapped a tentacle around the arm to put pressure on the bleeding.
“We need to get you properly bandaged,” he said. “But otherwise…are you all right?”
Sebastian nodded tiredly. His head ached, and he felt as though he could sleep a week. “I’m fine. The spirit touched my mind and tried to persuade me to stop binding her, but she didn’t have time to figure out the right approach the way she did with Arthur.”
“Still, I imagine your connection was far more intense.” Ves gently cupped Sebastian’s chin. “And what was that about loving me as I am?”
Heat rushed into Sebastian’s face. “I…that is…I know it’s a bit soon…”
“Really?” Ves bent closer for a kiss. “Because I feel like I’ve been waiting my entire life.”
Chapter 30
“In light of your actions,” Mr. Quinn said to Ves, “I’ve decided to rehire you. Though you came here under false pretenses, Erasmus was correct in his judgment to add you to our numbers. And of course, Widdershins always knows its own.”
Ves stood very straight, hands clasped respectfully behind him. Mr. Quinn’s dictionary had been returned to its place of honor with a few additional bloodstains, and the library put back in its usual order. “Thank you, sir. I promise, I’m not hiding any more secrets.”