Текст книги "Sinner's Heart"

Автор книги: Zoë Archer

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“A gun’s damned prosaic for a man with the Devil’s mark on his flesh,” Bram drawled.

“The gifts he has bestowed upon me are elegant and subtle.”

“Elegant and subtle can’t rip a hole in a man’s chest. Thus, the pistol. But it’s unnecessary, at least where I’m concerned. If it’s a blood oath you require . . .” He drew the tip of the poniard across his hand. Bright crimson welled. “Here it is.”

Smiling, John tucked the pistol into the back waistband of his breeches. He took the offered blade from Bram and made a cut across his own palm. Their hands clasped.

Stop, stop, stop! This is the wrong choice! Did nothing penetrate your obstinate skull? We have to fight John, fight the Dark One! You cannot—

“There’s proof,” Bram said, and John started. Bram had not realized he had all but shouted his words, trying to drown out Livia’s excoriation.

Satisfied, John stepped away. He took a kerchief from a pocket in his waistcoat and wrapped it around his cut hand.

“The gesture is appreciated,” he murmured. “And if you knew my intent, you would understand such an action’s necessity.”

“I cannot know your intent unless you tell me. The reading of thoughts is yourbailiwick.”

“That night outside Leo’s home, Mr. Holliday gave me another gift.” John’s words were laden with boasting. “I’ve but to look upon a man, or woman, and I know how they might benefit or harm me. As if a parchment scroll of their attributes appeared in my hands, visible only to me.”

“So this,” Bram raised his cut hand, “was unnecessary.”

John smiled, rueful. “As with my other gift, it does not apply to Hellraisers.” He narrowed his eyes. “What of you? Did not our patron bestow some further power to you that night?”

I stepped between you and the Dark One’s magic,Livia murmured. That may be why we are anchored to one another. His power had an unforeseen consequence—it bound us together.

But John didn’t know that. He had no idea about Livia’s whereabouts, particularly that she haunted Bram.

“All my falsehoods are believed,” Bram improvised.

“Like yours, this ability doesn’t extend to Hellraisers.”

“What a wondrous creature, is Mr. Holliday.” John’s smirk faded quickly. “Have you any word of Whit or Leo?”

“None.”

“That’s as it should be. I’ve made arrangements.”

Bram’s blood iced. “What sort of arrangements?”

“Nothing you need worry about. Even so, we’ll stay vigilant. I do not want them interfering with my plans.”

“The plans you still haven’t disclosed to me.”

“’Tis quite simple, truly. The key to supremacy in England is in Parliament.”

“I thought the king ruled the country.”

John scoffed. “He’s made too many concessions. Piece by piece, the royal authority has fallen away. The king is barely more than a figurehead. No, the cornerstone is Parliament.” He spoke like a scholar explaining a simple fact to a very dense pupil. “All that is required of me is to seize control of the entire body, and place myself in the central position of power.”

“Sounds difficult. And time consuming.”

“For an ordinary man. I am not ordinary.”

He’s the Dark One’s pawn,Livia spat. And now, so are you.

Bram clenched his hand into a fist, stemming the flow of blood, though it continued to well through his fingers. “To what end?”

“To every end. The country will belong to me.Every part of it will be mine, including its military.” Anticipation sharpened his words and his gaze. “I shall lay claim on other nations’ territories, their commodities. Russian timber. Hanoverian silver mines.”

“And if they protest these proposed acquisitions?”

John shrugged. “Then I shall make war upon them.”

Bram kept his posture loose, leaning back against a bookshelf and folding his arms across his chest. “I’ve been part of England’s military. We barely beat the French in the Colonies. What’s to say that these already overburdened and poorly paid soldiers and sailors could take on the armies and navies of France, the Hapsburgs, and everyone else?”

John’s face stretched into a grin. “There will be a wealth of assistance.”

“Given that you mean to make war upon the entire world, I doubt much support from other nations will be offered.”

“There is one realm whose collaboration is guaranteed.”

Goddesses and gods,Livia hissed. He cannot mean . . .

John’s gaze dropped to the ground. Then back up to Bram. His grin widened.

Numb cold crept through Bram’s chest and limbs. “The underworld.”

From a pile of books on his desk, John selected one large tome bound in black morocco. No decorations adorned its spine, nor its cover. The book seemed to draw in all the light in the chamber. John flipped through the pages until he stopped on one in particular. He held it up for Bram’s inspection.

It showed a cavern of fire, with wretched naked humans writhing in misery as their bodies endlessly burned. Hosts of misshapen creatures dwelt amidst the flames, some of them presiding eagerly over the suffering people. Set in the cavern’s stone ceiling was a gate. Directly above the gate stretched the surface of the mortal world, complete with houses and churches.

I recognize that image,Livia whispered. I saw an earlier version of it when I delved into summoning the Dark One.

“The boundary between the two realms is surprisingly slight,” John said. “One only needs a sufficient supply of power, and the gate that divides our world from Hell can be opened. Once it is opened . . .” John’s lips quirked. “Let us say that I shan’t want for soldiers.”

For a moment, Bram could only stare at John. The cut across his hand began to throb, a delayed pain that radiated up his arm.

“Demons,” he said at last. “Fighting for England.”

“Fighting for me,” John corrected. He closed the book and set it back on his desk. “And, Bram, when the time comes to lead this army, there is only one man I want in command.” He stared levelly at Bram.

Despite his intention to appear impassive, Bram couldn’t stop his startled frown. “Me? At the head of a demonic army?”

“Who better?” John spread his hands. “Your military skill is unparalleled. You’ve a surfeit of expertise—and there is no one I trust more.”

“I resigned from the army. I’m done with war.”

“Ah, but think,” John said, persuasive, insinuating, “this war will be fought under yourcommand. Every wrong you saw on the Colonial battlefields, every error in judgment, every misguided order, you can correct them all. You shall have thousands, nay, millionsof soldiers—human and demonic—at your command. Combining your ability with such might guarantees clean, unequivocal victory.”

The end,Livia whispered. The end of everything.

Bram said, “You promise me an army of demons, but that illustration is likely the work of a bedlamite. It can’t be taken literally. There’s no gate between Hell and our world.”

A condescending look crossed John’s face. “You do not know what I know, Bram.”

“And you know how to open this gate.”

“I do.”

“Tell me.”

John narrowed his eyes. “That knowledge shall remain mine. For a while longer, at least.”

Bram felt his mouth thin. “I’m to be your general, but already we’ve reached the limits of your trust.”

“I simply do not want to confuse the issue.” John paced around his desk. “For now, I only want you to stay alert. Let me know if, in your nocturnal ramblings, you hear anyone speak of me. And if you can use your gifts of persuasion and dissembling to gain more information, all the better.”

Bracing his hands on the desk, John leaned forward. A sliver of afternoon light pierced the curtains, drawing a line down the middle of John’s face, burning white.

“There are only two real Hellraisers now, Bram. You and I. That means a greater share for each of us.”

“Share of what?”

John placed his hand upon the black book, as though taking an oath. “Everything.”

The sexton at St. Paul’s usually did not allow visitors in the upper galleries after dark, but Bram slipped him a shilling, and so by the light of a single taper, he made his solitary way upward. The stairs climbed ever higher, and he ascended like a fallen angel arduously trying to return home from banishment. He half expected to be barred entrance, a clap of thunder or streak of lightning hurling him the hundreds of feet down, to smash his body upon the checkered quire floor and stain the marble with his blood.

Livia continued in her silence. Not a word or thought from her since Bram had left John’s study. She said nothing, even as Bram wound his way into the soaring dome of the cathedral. Candles flickered far below, distant as dreams, but the stairs and upper galleries remained dark. She expressed no awe in the gold and white walls, nor in the towering height. Her silence felt like a constricting band of iron. Yet he forced himself upward, from the Whispering Gallery to the Stone Gallery encircling the dome. Until, at last, he reached the Golden Gallery at the very top.

Stepping out from the cupola, Bram walked to the railing. He blew out the candle and set it at his feet. There, spread out on all sides, was the whole of London.

“A god’s prospect,” he murmured.

Livia shimmered into view, the light of her form coalescing. She had been so long in his mind, to actually see her again produced a strange, resonant thrill. Though an icy wind blew, causing Bram’s coat to billow, her robes remained still and her hair kept its intricate arrangement. She stared out at the city, giving Bram the clean elegance of her Italianate profile.

Still, she remained mute. They looked at the city together, yet separate, choked in silence.

“I’ve been up here a few times.” He spoke into the darkness. “Always during the day. Hard to see much of anything at night.”

The shard of moon threw enough light to see the twisting, sluggish Thames snaking its way toward the sea. Tiled roofs reflected back the illumination, but the streets themselves were all in shadow, broken fitfully here and there by link and lamp. Despite the darkness, the city was not quiet. Shouts and screams rose up from all corners, harsh laughter and cries. A fire burned in Whitechapel. A clot of flame revealed a mob moving through the lanes of Smithfield. Only the distant hills of Hampstead were peaceful. Yet it wouldn’t be long before the madness infecting London spread outward and into the country.

Words spilled from him, as if he could build a barrier with them, holding back the rising flood. “I often thought it would be exciting to have a woman up here. She could grip the railing as I lifted her skirts. We’d see the entire city as we took our pleasure.”

“And if the height frightened her?”

He started. He hadn’t expected Livia to speak, or perhaps the first words from her would be a bitter condemnation.

He nodded toward the stone cupola behind them. “We’d make use of that wall. If she was very afraid, she could close her eyes.” He raised a brow. “Are you frightened by heights?”

“They mean nothing to me now.”

Again, smothering silence descended. Bram’s hand continued to pain him, though the wound was superficial. He glanced down at his palm. Within a few days, the cut would vanish, his body obliterating evidence of his actions.

“I’ve failed.” Her voice was flat, devoid of life. She still would not look at him. “For the first time, I did not accomplish what I set out to do. The others, Whit and Leo, and their women, they could not have defeated the Dark One without me. And this—turning you from him—was my most important task.”

“There’s been no failure.”

She gazed at his hand, where dried blood formed an arrow across his skin. “You have taken a blood oath. With him.”

“I cut myself. He cut himself. We shook hands. Nothing else happened.”

“How can you say that?” Disbelief edged her words. “The taking of a blood oath is sacred, inviolate—”

“Perhaps you’ve noticed,” he drawled, “that I don’t hold much respect for anything, especially the sacred and inviolate.”

She stared at him. “It was . . .”

“A ruse.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “John had to trust me. The meaningless spilling of blood seemed a ready means of gaining that trust.”

“And everything else, all the claims you made about joining his cause—more deceit?”

“John’s a chary bastard. He’d reveal nothing without securing my support.”

He thought she might smile, or sob her relief. Instead, her scowl was fierce, her gaze hot. “You said nothing! Played your part and kept me in ignorance!”

“Is that why you’re angry? Don’t like being in the dark?”

“Damn you,” she spat. “You might’ve given me the smallest hint what you were about.”

He shook his head. “John cannot read the minds of the Hellraisers, but he’s sodding perspicacious. If I let even a trace of duplicity enter my thoughts, he’d have read it on my face. So I kept quiet.” He stared at her. “You believed I meant everything I said to him.”

“Taking a blood oath is usually reserved for the sincere.”

“That, I am not.”

At last, her hands came up, covering her face. Her shoulders sank. He suppressed the urge to touch her, comfort her. She had no body to touch, and would rebuff his efforts, even had she flesh to touch. But her moment of vulnerability ended quickly.

“You are,” she said, lowering her hands, “a devious bastard.” She made this sound like a compliment.

“I wasn’t always so. Perhaps you’ve been influencing me.”

Bracing his forearms on the railing, he looked out over the rooftops of London. From this vantage, it was a collection of miniatures, tiny structures that could be scattered by a strong wind. Less than a hundred years earlier, half the city burned to the ground, and thousands of corpses littered the streets, felled by plague. It rose up again, but not much stronger. The city could burn once more. It did already.

His ride from John’s home to St. Paul’s had been fraught with horrors. More brawls, more destruction. Thrice he had beaten savagely men in the middle of assaulting women. Everywhere across the city, scenes were enacted. Atop the cathedral’s dome, he saw and heard all.

“In the Colonies,” he said, “I saw hell on earth. Acts of barbarism I never would’ve believed, had not I witnessed them with my own eyes. My father died of a fever whilst I was fighting, and all I could think was that he’d been given a clean, merciful death. Soon after I returned, my brother got a miniscule cut on his leg that turned septic. It killed him and I inherited a title I never thought to possess. All I sought to do with its privilege was staunch the memories with as much pleasure as I could grasp. Not precisely the heir my father had intended. But I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was ensuring I never experienced that hell again.”

Livia did not watch the city as it slithered toward pandemonium. Her dark gaze rested solely on him, and he felt it in every bone, every breath. He hadn’t known that a man could feel both ancient and restive, exhausted and spurred to action. The process of living, and nearly dying, brought him far more education than university ever could.

“But hell is here.” He gestured toward the spires and roofs. “You might have brought it forth originally, but the Hellraisers and I . . . we gave it fertile fields. Watered it with our sins. It grows, and if nothing is done, the harvest will be plentiful.”

“A reaper of souls, is the Dark One.”

“Including mine.” He rubbed at his shoulder, the markings’ phantom heat spreading out in waves. “For me, hell is a guarantee. Yet I can stop it from consuming the world.”

Livia straightened, then drifted closer, slowly, as if afraid he might bolt away like a stag flushed from the bracken. He thought he might feel numb, or fearful. Instead, tumblers within him clicked into place. Unlocking a certitude he hadn’t anticipated.

“Speak plainly,” Livia urged, “for there cannot be uncertainty. Not in this.”

He gazed at the moon, then at her. They shared a timeless radiance, and she worked her will upon the tides of his intention. Yet no one could make him do anything. He alone dictated his actions. When words formed on his lips, they were hiswords, fraught and unsparing.

“I’ve been in hiding, but I can hide no longer.” He inhaled, smoke from the burning city clouding his lungs, then breathed out. “The time to fight is now.”

Chapter 7

It was an odd sensation—wanting something for so long, and then finally gaining the objective you desired. The feeling mystified Livia. She merely stared at Bram as they stood high above the city atop this immense building, aware of the vast blanket of night and the rooftops and the river and a thousand other things. Yet she was hardly able to understand the meaning of his words.

“I refuse to be toyed with,” she said. “I must know where you stand.”

“I’ve stood in shadow,” he answered, his voice low but resolved. “I won’t be accepted into the light—I’m too far gone for that—but I won’t turn away, either.” He rested his broad hand upon the hilt of his sword. “Since I’ve come back from war, I’ve done nothing with this blade but practice or battle imagined foes. But my strength is in the fight. In the killing of my enemies. That’s my true purpose.” His gaze burned in the darkness. “I’ll fight at your side.”

This thing welling inside of her . . . she struggled to identify it. A hard, luminous rising. She pressed her hand between her breasts, though she could feel no heartbeat, no flesh beneath her palm. Something was there, however, alive and emergent. The feeling grew the more she looked upon him.

The radiance from her spectral form cast silver light upon him, illuminating the sharp contours of his face and the gem-bright blue of his eyes. The veil of apathy had fallen away. Here was the man who had been a soldier. Was a soldier once more.

She moved closer, lifting her hands. He held himself still as she neared. The moment was fraught, an infinity of time within the span of a second. Once, he had looked at her with hatred. Now, tense anticipation honed his expression, as though he wanted her touch.

He would be solid beneath her hands, a powerful weapon of a man, taut with muscle. The beat of his heart would resonate against her. He was purpose and intent. She would feel all this in only a touch, and craved it as a bird craved flight.

When she placed her palms on his chest, disappointment stabbed her. She felt nothing. Her hands actually moved through him.

They both looked down at the sight. Until she pulled away. Her insubstantial body served as reminder—she could never again have the comfort and pleasure of touch. Especially not his.

This was not the moment for thinking of what she had lost. There were greater battles ahead.

Her thwarted touch seemed to turn the heat in his gaze to something harder, shadowed, as though a bonfire could be made of darkness rather than light.

“I’ll cut them down,” he said, jaw tight. “John and Mr. Holliday might know the way of magic, but I know war.”

At that moment, standing high above the city, sword at the ready and eyes ablaze, he waswar. Merciless and inexorable. It stirred a primal fear and fascination within her, and she could not look away.

“You’re a different soldier now,” she said.

“Stronger.”

“In body, yes. In humanity, as well.”

His mouth twisted. “I’ve none of that.” He tilted his head back, showing her the length of his throat and the scar that ran along it. “The pulse you see there beating quickly—it’s not the chance to do good that speeds my heart. I want to feel the bite of flesh against my steel. I want to smell blood again.” He lowered his chin. “It’s the fight I hunger for. Humanity has been ripped from me.”

“You say that to convince yourself,” she answered. “I know differently. The Dark One may have your soul, but it exists. And we shallreclaim it, no matter the challenge.”

“We can’t.”

“There are vaults, all geminikeep them. The souls of their prey are kept there. The vaults weren’t as impregnable as the Dark One and his minions believed.” She smiled cruelly. “That was my doing. Two Hellraisers’ souls I’ve helped to free. Doubtless your Mr. Holliday has learned hard lessons, and the vault where your soul is kept is surely more protected than the others, but heed me, we willfind a means of stealing back your soul.”

He pressed his knuckles against his chest. “Doing so would reveal to Mr. Holliday and John that I’m no longer their ally. No, the tactical thing to do is leave my blighted soul exactly where it is—in the Devil’s possession.”

“Simply abandonit?” She scowled. “That leaves you imperiled. If you should die before we retrieve your soul, your eternity shall be torment and suffering, like all the other damned.”

“If I die and am sent to Hell, it’s what I deserve.” He spoke over her objections. “We cannot let either Mr. Holliday or John know that I’m not of their number. My soul has to stay where it is. For now.”

Curse him, he was right. Yet, the thought of him trapped in eternal agony was a cage of burning iron around her heart. “When the time is right, your soul shall be liberated.”

He seemed disinterested, as though they discussed the retrieval of a pair of boots. “Issues of my withered soul aside, I own that I’m unfamiliar with battling the Devil. Military strategies won’t apply when facing demons and the powers of hell.”

“Not so. For the first matter of business is assessing strengths and weaknesses, and gathering allies.”

“Whit and Leo,” he said. “And their women, the Gypsy and the lady.”

“I’ve no way to use my own magic now, but the women can, and their men are strong.” She nodded. “We need them here.”

“The last I saw of them was outside Leo’s home, weeks ago. Just after—” His jaw tightened; he had to be thinking of his friend’s death. “They’ve likely made a temporary retreat from London as they regroup.”

“They must be found, and summoned back.”

He made a soft scoffing noise. “Neither Whit nor Leo are the kind of men who take well to summoning.”

Tilting up her chin, she answered, “Their masculine pride must suffer in these circumstances.” She had fought beside them before. Both men had proven themselves as willing and capable warriors. As had their women.

“We weren’t on affable terms when we parted.” His laughter was hollow, resonant with loss. “They’ll do nothing to aid me, and with good cause.”

“Much has altered between then and now,” she said. “That won’t escape them.”

“They need to be found before any of this can be tested. Once we lived in each others’ pockets. Now I’ve no idea where they are. Dozens or hundreds of miles could separate us. Nowhere to send a letter, and even if I had their direction, it could take weeks for any communication to reach them.”

Now it was her turn to scoff. “Your thoughts are too prosaic. Magic can shorten the distance between us.”

“At one time, yours might have. Conditions have changed since then.” His voice was surprisingly gentle.

“That fact is never forgotten.” She felt like a sculptor whose hands had been chopped off.

Hot anger constricted her throat. She had crossed the boundary between the living and the dead, exhausted herself time and again channeling magic into mortals and using her own power to fight. And the last, strongest Hellraiser had finally stepped into the fray. She could not allow herself to fall short, not now.

“If you had all of your magic,” he said, “would such a thing be possible? Locating Whit and Leo, mustering them to London?”

“Yes. The work of a few minutes.”

“Then we’ll make use of that magic.”

She scowled. “Already you’ve forgotten that I possess no magic.”

“You have half. The other half resides . . . in me.”

Her mouth dropped open. “The two of us, working magic together.” She could hardly believe him. “You said you would not attempt such a thing.”

“The last time you made that request, you were attempting to kill me with your magic. The poles have shifted since then.”

The wind gathered in strength, his long coat catching against his legs and billowing behind him. Strands of his hair came loose from his queue. A fierce living energy radiated from him, as though he had emerged from dormancy, his strength greater than before.

Perhaps this war against the Dark One was not as futile as she had feared.

Yet she had to tell Bram everything. She couldn’t lead him ignorantly toward danger. “The working of magic together has its own perils. So many ways it could go wrong, the damage it could wreak . . .”

“The Devil doesn’t frighten me. This doesn’t, either.” She shook her head. “With a single stray thought, we could become trapped between the mortal world and the realm of magic.”

“Every tactic has its risks.”

She saw he would not be dissuaded. “We shouldn’t attempt anything here.” Though they were high above the city, impossible to see from the streets below, they were still exposed. To the elements. To the possibility of the Dark One’s watchful spies taking notice. Bram was new to working magic, as well. She suspected the task would need silence, privacy, and some measure of security.

“Home, then.”

He said the word as if it was theirhome, not his. A remnant of warmth filtered through her—in her life, she had led a peripatetic existence, hunting magic, searching for power. She never sought such a place. Too confining.

It did not feel so now.

He motioned for her to proceed him through the doorway in the cupola. She shook her head at the gesture but glided past him. A ghost required neither courtesy nor decorum. He certainly hadn’t shown her much before, and she did not expect it.

Small though the gesture was, however, its deliberate use gave her another pulse of warmth. As though she was not a specter, but a woman. A woman who deserved respect.

What man might believe this? Against all probability, the man turned out to be an inveterate sinner.

* * *

They sequestered themselves in the chamber that Bram used for combat practice. Even without her magic, Livia sensed his strength imbuing the room. They needed all of his resilience for the forthcoming task, and here he was confident, focused. He paced through the chamber, pushing all the furniture and practice targets against the walls. His movements were assured and unhesitating. If he held any trepidation about attempting to work magic, none showed.

The same could not be said for her. Outwardly, she kept herself composed, directing him to give them as much space as possible—with unknown variables, anything might happen—but inwardly, she was uneasy. She’d spoken truly. Should either of them let their concentration waver, she and Bram might become prisoners of the Ambitus. As she had been for over a millennium. A terrifying thought to be trapped there again.

She had helped Whit cure Zora of a demon’s poison, but Whit hadn’t any magic of his own. He’d been her corporeal hands. There, the danger had been only the loss of Zora’s life. So much more hung in the balance with what she and Bram would attempt.

It was not his skill or unfamiliarity that troubled her. The unknown was her.During her life, she had been a student of magic, always learning, continually acquiring. She had never been a teacher, nor given to sharing. Powerful families had brought their daughters to her, hoping she would impart her knowledge, yet she hoarded everything—her power, her learning.

The seeds of her avarice now bore fruit. She was an untried teacher, utterly green.

Even if she could teach Bram how to invoke and use magic, the dangers were rife. How might she accomplish this? What if her own greed was their undoing?

“Stop worrying.” He shoved a large musical instrument against the wall, its legs scraping on the floor.

“I am not,” she shot back.

He gave her a look that said her protestation failed to convince him.

“This will be challenging,” she finally acknowledged. “Not only the perils of using magic. As a teacher, I’m . . . unpracticed.”

“Good to know you’re inexperienced with something.” He had removed his coat to move aside the furnishings, and he wiped his forehead on the full white sleeve of his shirt. “Mind, experience in a woman is an excellent thing.”

“Thank the gods I have your approval.” Yet his teasing strangely lessened her apprehension.

“What else will we need?” Hands on hips like a captain surveying his troops, he glanced around the chamber. “Black candles? The blood of a goat?”

She shuddered in distaste. “Props are for amateurs.”

The grin he gave her would have made a mortal woman tremble with want. Fortunately, she had no pulse to race, no breath to sigh. No wonder so many females leapt into his bed. Between his smoldering gazes and raffish smiles, only a dead woman could remain immune.

He had never smiled for her. Not until that moment.

“Again,” he said, “I give thanks for your experience.”

“Between the two of us, there is not a speck of innocence.” She steadied herself. “Let us begin.”

He moved toward her, unhesitating, the black of his unbound hair as dark as the shadows. They faced one another. She did not miss the way his gaze moved over her in swift, appreciative perusal, lingering briefly on her breasts. A man could not resist looking at a woman, regardless of whether the woman was alive or dead.

She fought the impulse to preen. After all, when she had been alive, many words praising her beauty had been spoken. She was no stranger to a man’s approving stare.

But it was thisman’s gaze that filled her cheeks with the echo of warmth.

What she needed now was focus, not the silly flutterings of a female craving masculine attention.

“When I had full possession of my magic,” she said, “locating someone was a simple matter. All living things have their own distinctive energy. A kind of light and sound unique to them alone. To find them, I searched for the flame of their psyche, followed it much as a ship is guided by a beacon.”

“Sounds abstruse.”

“Only in the telling. The doing becomes a matter of instinct.”

He frowned. “In this, I have no instinct.”

“We’ll create it.” She struggled to determine what she ought to do next, how to go about the utterly foreign process of developing someone else’s magic. Some people, women especially, made for gifted teachers. She was not one of them. To teach was to steal from herself, or so she’d believed. Even now, the compulsion to hoard gripped her. She had to mentally pry her fingers from their vise, clutching knowledge close.