her mouth black. “We’re going to have so much fun later, you and I. So. Much. Fun. Goodbye for now, dear Annaleigh. Dream of me, won’t you?” She tapped my nose once before releasing her hold on me. “Have fun playing with your little poppet while you can, nephew.”
“There must be something to persuade you to end all this, please, Kosamaras,” Cassius said, approaching his aunt, hands up in supplication. “Something you want.”
Her grin turned sharp and pointed. “You know, there is something I’d like right now. I fancy a dance with the littlest one, the little—what’s her name? Patience? Prudence? Charity?” Her sharpened teeth winked, a wolf going in for the kill. “Verity. I’ve been visiting her for a very long time. Her little mind is just so open to everything I throw at it—dancing, balls, ghosts….”
My heart thudded. “You’re behind all her visions.”
“Every last one.” She beamed. “If you only knew the things I’ve shown her…You wouldn’t believe how she screams.” Her eyes sparkled, imagining fresh new horrors. “Hurry back to Highmoor. You won’t want to miss it.”
“No!” I screamed, throwing myself toward her, but with a crack of thunder, Kosamaras was gone.
I was halfway across the watch room, ready to race down the spiral staircase and out into the storm, before I realized I was alone. “Cassius?”
I heard his footsteps on the stairs, heavy and regular. When he finally appeared, his face was stricken gray. “I can’t get us back there now.” As if to prove his point, a white flash of lightning skittered across the sky. “It’s too dangerous. Something could happen—”
“Something is happening! You heard what she said: she’s going after Verity. I can’t just stay here and let that happen!” A sob pushed up from my throat, begging to be released. I balled my hands into fists. I couldn’t give in to tears now. I had to do something, had to act. “There’s a boat! I’ll go myself.”
“In this storm? You’ll never make it. Annaleigh—” He grabbed my shoulder.
“No!” I cried, whirling around. “I’ve lost too many people tonight. Silas, Fisher…I can’t stay here, doing nothing, and have Verity added to that list. It will kill me.”
“And she’s counting on that,” Cassius shouted over the storm. “Kosamaras knows she riled you. She wants you to do something stupid.”
The sob rose up again, this time bursting free. “Why? Why would she do any of this? We’ve never done anything to her!”
“She’s not targeting you personally. Viscardi often uses her to collect his end of bargains. He’s drawn toward the theatrical, and Kosamaras never disappoints.” He sighed. “She’s the Harbinger of Madness, creating so many false visions and skewed realities that the poor soul takes his life just to end the torment.”
Laughter, bitter and hollow, barked out of my throat before I could block it. “She’s going to try that with my sisters. I have to stop her.”
“We’ll figure out a way.” Cassius pushed his hair back. “I know it’s hard, but we need to forget about Kosamaras for a moment. She’s just the puppet here. Viscardi is the one holding the strings. We need to figure out who agreed to his bargain.”
“Then what? Politely ask them to end it?”
His eyes shifted away. “Not exactly…This could get very dangerous, Annaleigh.”
I recalled Fisher’s broken body, Lenore’s silent stares, Verity pirouetting around her room with Kosamaras’s black eyes. “It already has….” I rubbed my temples, trying to think clearly. “I suppose we can’t kill a Trickster?”
“No, they’re immortal. But…” His eyebrows furrowed. “If the dealmaker died before the bargain was met…it would have to be over. Viscardi can’t fulfill his end of a trade with a dead partner.”
“And another person dies,” I muttered, looking up to the ceiling. Above us, Old Maude’s beacon flashed, again and again. Exactingly precise.
I’d loved that light ever since my first trip to Hesperus. Camille and Eulalie had been bored within minutes, wondering, rather loudly, why the lighthouse didn’t do something more exciting. They’d wanted flares or fireworks, something big and bold. They couldn’t see the simple beauty of something working with quiet efficiency, doing just what was needed.
But I saw it.
I breathed in deeply. “What if I make a bargain with Viscardi myself? I could stop this from happening, and no one else would have to die.”
He looked horrified. “Absolutely not.”
“Cassius, it might be the only way to stop this before someone else gets hurt. I can’t lose another one of my sisters.”
“And I can’t lose you,” he said,