“He knows more than we do,” I said, voice pleading. “We don’t even know the full range of our power because he’s kept it from us.”
“He wants to keep us docile and complacent,” Alexi said. “Like pets. Don’t you want to know how we came to be?”
“Or how ones like us might be killed,” I added quietly.
Both Magdalena and Alexi looked at me with shock.
“You can’t mean…” Alexi began.
“Sister, be reasonable ,” Magdalena finished.
I pulled them both into a tight hug, my heart hammering in my chest. We stood like that for a moment, the three of us entwined and shadowed by the flickering candles, until I began to speak.
“I should have told you both a long time ago, but I was afraid. Of losing him. Losing you both. But I’ve done this once before. And I’m terrified by what I found.”
I told them. I told them what I had discovered and what you had implied; that there had been brides before, a countless number, and none of them had outlived loving you. I spared no detail, and soon Alexi was trembling beneath my touch.
“We’re all in danger,” I whispered. “If he grows too displeased with us, if we no longer entertain him…”
Magdalena had turned to steel in my arms. She held me tight as death, thinking for a long while.
“We’re disposable to him,” she said finally. Her voice was stiff. “Replaceable.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I should have said more, I should have done something before now. But I was so afraid of him.”
“Don’t you dare apologize,” Magdalena said, dark eyes flashing with passion. “I never want to hear you apologize for something he’s done ever again. It has to stop, Constanta. It all has to stop.”
“What are we going to do?” Alexi asked quietly. He looked very pale and very, very young.
“Uncover what he keeps hidden from us,” I said. “Alexi, you can pick locks can’t you?”
“That’s right,” he said, still looking a little dazed. Finding out your husband would kill you at the drop of a hat was destabilizing, I knew that well. “I used to spring locks all the time when I was squatting with my friends. It’s easy enough.”
“I’ll need you to come with me as far as the door, then. You don’t have to come inside if you don’t want to.”
“I’m not afraid of him,” he said, puffing out his chest. A bold-faced lie, but a valiant one. “And I’m not letting you go by yourself. Maggie?”
Magdalena was gazing off into the distance with a hard stare, her lips pressed into a thin line. She was probably thinking of all the ways she wanted to punish you for your duplicitousness.
“Someone has to stay on the ground floor to welcome our dear husband home,” she said slowly. “Just in case he arrives while you two are still otherwise occupied.”
Alexi sucked in a breath through his teeth.
“If you cover for us and we’re found out, you’ll be paying double hell. You know he hates it when we take each other’s side.”
“He won’t find out,” she said, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly. “Because I’m more clever than him by half.”
“So we’re agreed?” I asked.
Your voice, sneering and snide, came into my mind. Levelling all sorts of ugly words at me. Ungrateful. Unfaithful. Mutinous.
I smothered the thoughts with a quick litany, begging any saint who would still listen to give me strength.
Alexi gave a decisive nod.
“Absolutely.”
“Then we’d better get going. He could be back any minute.”
I seized Alexi’s hand and we started to bustle out of the room, but Magdalena’s voice stopped me at the door.
“Constanta?”
“Yes?” I asked, turning back around.
Her eyes were as dark as a night without stars.
“Find out how to make him hurt.”
The basement was vast and dark, running almost the entire length of the house. Alexi made short work of the lock on the door with one of my hairpins, and then we carefully traversed the stairs one after the other. I could hear Alexi breathing behind me, shallow, quick breaths betraying his fear. He was terrified of being caught down here, but he had come with me anyway, and I was deeply grateful for his bravery.
The floor of the basement was made of damp earth, tightly packed down by thousands of footsteps. We picked our way through moldering wooden chests and shelves of wine left to age, doing our best to navigate without bumping into anything. My eyesight was keen in the dark, but Alexi was too young to have developed the skill yet. He followed closely, one hand clutching the sleeve of my dress so we wouldn’t be separated.