Two servants came forward, but Aurelia spoke up.
“No! She should stay. You were always hiding her away, ensuring you’re the only one allowed near her. It’s just as I thought after all.”
Kaine’s expression tensed. “As Stroud said, it was at the High Necromancer’s personal command. I assure you, nothing about the process was pleasurable for anyone involved.”
“Well, that’s a pity,” Atreus said in Crowther’s low voice. Crowther’s clouded eyes drifted slowly across Helena as he came forward, an awful scent of astringent chemicals and lavender rising from him. “I’d hoped to hear this had at least invigorated you to do your duty to your family. I have it on good authority that you were once a regular at certain city establishments during the war. So clearly you do not lack experience or capacity, leaving me to assume you lack motivation.”
“I have better uses for my time than worrying over your legacy,” Kaine said, his eyes glittering with malice.
Atreus glared at him for a moment and then moved suddenly towards Helena. She shrank towards Kaine on instinct.
Atreus looked sharply at his son. “For a captive, she doesn’t seem very afraid of you.”
Kaine reached over and snatched Helena away from his father. “Well, that’s all thanks to Aurelia here. After she assaulted my prisoner in a fit of rage, I ended up in the heroic role of saviour.” Kaine smiled down at Helena, his eyes ice-cold and mocking. “Isn’t that right?”
Helena did not have to pretend to tremble. Her heart was pounding so hard, the room was swimming.
“It’s time I put her away for the night. You can both see yourselves out.” Kaine turned to leave, seemingly dragging Helena behind him.
Atreus spoke up again. “The High Necromancer may have given you a long leash in the past, but you have overestimated both your skills and importance by letting him use you as a dog. Now he treats you as one. It seems killing is the only thing you’ve ever done well.”
Kaine’s expression betrayed nothing, but Helena felt him flinch.
“You may threaten the others in compliance, but I am not afraid of you,” Atreus said. “You have flown too high, and all that is left for you is an immense fall.”
Kaine’s fingers spasmed against Helena’s arm.
“This is my house,” Atreus said, “and now that your failed tasks are mine to complete, you do not command me. Perhaps, when I have finished, I will ask our great leader to order you to produce an heir, since slavish obedience is the only quality you seem to possess.”
Kaine didn’t look back. “Do as you wish. I don’t care.”
He walked quickly and did not stop until they reached the west wing of the house, leaving Atreus and Aurelia far behind. He stopped then, turning and holding her face, studying her eyes, and she felt his resonance in her nerves, slowing the unsteady pounding of her heart.
He pressed his forehead against hers. “I am sorry. It didn’t occur to me that Stroud would do something so asinine.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s over now,” she said. “What did your father mean about your failed tasks being his now?”
“It’s nothing. Come, let’s get you back to your room.”
She wouldn’t budge. “What’s happened?”
He exhaled. “The task of hunting down the killer has been reassigned to my father.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing. He won’t find anything. Shiseo’s envoy will be back in a little over a week.”
The news was like a punch in the gut. She knew time was running out, she could see it every time she looked into the night sky, but news of Shiseo’s return made it so much more final. She was silent until they reached her room.
“That girl who was here, with her sister. Do you know her?”
Kaine’s eyes narrowed. “She was the one who let everyone into the Institute.”
“She was one of Crowther’s. She killed him because her sister died when we rescued Luc,” Helena said, nodding. “She’s convinced that the necrothrall with her is alive.”
“The reanimation is one of Morrough’s. He rarely bothers with such elaborate work, but that explains why. I would have killed her already, but she makes it difficult because she never goes anywhere without the necrothrall and doesn’t keep any others.”
SPIREFELL FELT HAUNTED ONCE MORE with the presence of Atreus and Aurelia.
With a room facing the courtyard, Helena would hear when anyone arrived. She watched Kaine and his father standing on the steps as a lorry drove in and prisoners were dragged into one of the storehouse buildings.
Kaine started to walk away, but Atreus called harshly after him. Kaine turned slowly, following his father inside.
The screams that followed pierced the windows, floating through the twisting halls of the house. They would not end.
Helena closed the curtains and huddled in the far corner of her room, trying to block out the sounds. She had too many memories of screams like that.
She flinched at a touch and looked up to find Kaine in front of her. She studied him. She could tell he’d washed recently; his hair was damp.
They stared at each other, feeling the weight of it all.
“Did—did any of them say anything that could incriminate you?” she asked, her voice hoarse.
His eyes flickered. “No. None of them knew anything.”
She swallowed hard.
Every word. Every life. Because of you.
She couldn’t speak.
“It’s late. Will you eat?” Kaine finally asked.
She looked over, catching sight of a tray set on the table across the room. The shadows in the room were long. She had hidden in the corner for an entire day.
Her jaw trembled, throat thickening.
“Why is he doing this here?” she asked, as if it somehow made a difference where it happened.
“He believes there are spies, and that’s why the killer has been so effective. He’s convinced Spirefell is the only place that remains secure.” He looked down. “You should try to eat. I’m expected to have dinner with him and Aurelia tonight.”
He started to stand, but she reached out. “Will you come back, after?”
She could see his silver eyes in the darkness.
“If you want me to.”
In the quiet, she went and pulled out her arrays, all her notes, studying them, altering certain components of the design she’d developed, squinting as she ran her fingers along the patterns, trying to feel the energy and remember if it felt right.
There were no books, no sources to reference for alchemical arrays designed for animancy. She had to rely on fragments of information and her own experience.
Arrays could take years, sometimes decades, to perfect.
At best, she’d have only one chance to get it right.
“SHISEO WILL REACH EASTERN NOVIS in a few days,” Kaine told her. They were walking in the hedge maze, because they couldn’t be seen there from the house and it was far away enough that she couldn’t hear the sudden screams. “He’ll be here within the week.”
Helena’s stomach dropped. “Oh.”
She knew he was telling her to brace her for what was so soon to come, but it didn’t feel like being braced—it felt like being struck.
Her throat worked several times. “Do you think there’s any chance I could go to the library with you? I just want to see if I’ve overlooked anything.”
“If that’s what you want.”
In the library, she could feel the weight of his gaze as she made her way slowly through the aisles, looking for old histories and commentaries on the qualities of alchemy. When he watched her, there was such visible grief in his eyes, she didn’t know how she hadn’t recognised it sooner.
She knew that to him, what she was doing was stealing time from them. If she found nothing, it was all wasted. Moments they could have had together, she had spent searching for a solution that did not exist.
Still, she pulled another book down from a shelf, fingers trembling, and added it to a stack.