‘Blood,’ said Katherine.
Looking down at her cup, she felt the cold strangeness of this small, bare room. Her old life seemed to recede, the dresses, and the shoes, the little string of pearls that matched so well to sprig muslin, the thrill of her first time getting her hair done à la mode, lifted high up off her neck by her new lady’s maid.
‘He said he’d killed ladies before and one wasn’t enough,’ she said. ‘It had to be all of them.’
He killed my mother, Will had said to her, and she hadn’t believed him. Until she’d heard the words that had turned her blood cold, and then the only thing she’d remembered Will saying to her was Run.
I need to kill all of them, Lord Crenshaw said in a conversational voice. And I have. They’re all dead. All but one.
Will pulled his stool closer and spoke to her urgently.
‘Was there anything else?’
Standing terrified behind the door, then having to find her way back to the morning room, watching him sit, and making small talk and smiling. All she could remember was pressing herself to the wall, shoving the side of her hand into her mouth to stifle the scream in her throat.
I was a fool seventeen years ago, acting on hints and rumours. I thought I only needed to kill one.
I was wrong.
I needed to kill all of them. And I have. They’re all dead. All but one.
Now I have the Stone, and I can finally succeed where I had failed all these years.
Her blood will release them from their centuries of prison, and by their hand His enemies will be felled. And when all of them are dead, He will rise.
‘He said he needed her blood to open a stone.’ She was only half aware of her words impacting the others, the looks they exchanged. ‘He’d release prisoners from the Stone to kill any resistance. He said when the ladies were dead, a king would rise.’
Will’s hands closed over hers, steadying them. ‘You did the right thing coming here.’ The startling touch grounded her back in the room suddenly. Her heart started beating in a different way when she realised Will had taken her ungloved hands in his and was simply holding them.
‘He’s mad, isn’t he? His mind is … He’s a madman.’ She looked up at Will, wanting nothing more than to be reassured that all of this could be put aside, like a bad dream.
‘I told you that if you came with me I’d explain everything,’ said Will. ‘And I will.’
Will didn’t look away from her, but from the other side of the room she heard Cyprian say, ‘Will, you can’t bring her into this—’
And Will’s voice. ‘She’s in it already.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Katherine, in a small voice.
Violet had taken a step forward. ‘At least have the sister leave the room.’
That was the worst possible thing to say.
‘I can listen to anything Katherine can!’ Elizabeth had stood up on her short legs and was glaring at Violet.
‘They came here together,’ said Will. ‘They’re in this together.’
‘Tell me,’ said Katherine.
‘You saw the tree light up in the garden,’ said Will. ‘You said it wasn’t natural. You were right. It was magic. Like this Hall. There used to be magic in the world, a long time ago.’
Magic. The strangest sensation passed over her as he spoke, the eerie sense of something lost, as though the dead, dark castle was a vestige of something vanished.
‘What happened to it?’ she said.
It felt important. As if what Will could tell her was more important than anything else. As if she had to know it.
‘A long time ago,’ said Will, ‘there was a Dark King. He was powerful and merciless, and he liked to control people. He wanted to rule the world. He almost did. He was only stopped at great cost, after he caused destruction and death.’
It felt true. With the flame light flickering in this cold ruin of a castle, it all felt true. A Dark King, rising up out of a past that seemed real as soon as Will spoke of it. But it was as if there was a piece missing, something right on the tip of her tongue—
‘Stopped,’ she said. ‘By who?’
‘A Lady,’ said Will, and suddenly she was caught in his gaze, unable to look away from him, magnetised. She remembered the flare of light in her garden. She felt like she was on the edge of understanding, even as something in Will’s eyes now flashed painfully. ‘They loved each other. Maybe that’s how she killed him. But even then, it wasn’t finished. The Dark King swore to return.’