As if she could hear his thoughts, she glanced over and quirked her mouth up at him. “What are you looking at?”
“You,” he said. “Did you know, you grow more beautiful every day?”
“Well, that’s odd,” said Tessa, resting her chin thoughtfully on the spine of her book, “because as a warlock I do not age, and so I should look the same day to day, neither improving nor worsening.”
“And yet,” said Will, “you continue to accrue radiance.”
She smiled at him. He could tell she was as relieved as he to be home, despite the extended and alarming events of the day. Their trip to Paris had been more harrowing than either of them had let on—it had taken all their joint diplomacy to smooth over the bitter anger of the French Downworlders. There were moments when, alone with Tessa, Will had worried aloud about the possibility of war. He had worried, too, about Charles: the boy had been too angry and defensive at first to realize the scale of his mistake, and then had sunk into a bitter gloom. He had not wanted to come back to London, either, and had agreed to it only when Will had pointed out that he was no longer welcome in Paris.
“You’re fretting,” Tessa said, reading his eyes. When she tilted her head up and brushed his lips with hers, he cupped her face in his hands. So many years, he thought, and each kiss was new as the break of day.
Tessa let her book fall to the floor, her hands rising to grip the front of Will’s shirt. He was just thinking that his night was markedly improving when their reverie was broken by a sudden shriek of horror.
Will spun around, surprising Tessa greatly, then frowned. “Jessamine,” he said sternly. “Don’t carry on. We’re married. And don’t be rude, show yourself to Tessa.”
Jessamine did whatever she did that allowed her to be visible to non-Herondales. It firmed her up around the edges, making her appear more solid and less translucent. “Of course I’d find you two kissing,” she snapped. “There’s no time for such nonsense. I need to tell you about Lucie.”
“What about Lucie?” Will inquired, perturbed by the interruption. He did not think that kissing was nonsense and had been eager to continue with it, especially after such a stressful day.
“Your daughter has got herself mixed up in bad business. I don’t like to tell tales, but it is a dreadful situation involving necromancy.”
“Necromancy?” Tessa exclaimed in disbelief. “If you’re talking about Lucie being friendly with Jesse Blackthorn’s ghost, we already know about it. It’s hardly that surprising; she’s been friends with you all her life.”
“And I must point out that you love to tell tales, Jessamine,” Will added.
“It would be all well and good if Lucie just wanted to be friends with ghosts, but that’s not the end of it.” Jessamine drifted over to Tessa’s dresser. “She can command them. I’ve seen her do it. They do whatever she tells them to.”
“She what?” Will said. “Lucie never—”
Jessamine shook her head, impatient. “Your lovely child summoned up the ghost of Emmanuel Gast, that disgraced warlock. She compelled him to answer her questions, and then at the end she—” Jessamine broke off, dramatically.
“At the end she what?” Tessa said, exasperated. “Really, Jessamine, if you truly have something important to tell us, we could do without the theatrical pauses.”
“At the end she destroyed him,” Jessamine said, and a shudder ran through her silvery form.
Tessa stared at Jessamine as though she wasn’t sure how to respond.
“That doesn’t sound like Lucie,” Will said, but a terrible prickly feeling was coming over him. He wanted to believe Jessamine was mistaken, or even lying, but what reason would she have? He’d never known her to be the kind of ghost that played pranks or made mischief. Of course, she was no help around the place either, but that didn’t mean she’d tell falsehoods about Lucie.
“On the other hand,” said Tessa, “she certainly concealed the fact of her friendship with Jesse’s ghost all this time. She’s entering a rather secretive age, I think.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Will said, then turned to Jessamine. “Where is she now?”
“Holed up in the Sanctuary,” Jessamine said. “I couldn’t follow her. I daresay it’s an oversight that no one has removed ghosts from the list of supernatural creatures forbidden to enter.”