Edwin forced himself to wait until there was no sign at all of the curse left. Then he took hold of the invisible threads and tugged.
He lived an entire lifetime in the gap between his signal—go, twitch, live—and the response. But respond it did.
After three full, normal beats, Robin shuddered again, and thrashed his way through an inhale like a man pulled from drowning. Maud made another sound. Robin’s eyes opened.
“Hold still, Robin, please,” Edwin heard himself babbling. He satisfied himself that Robin’s heart was once again beating on its own, withdrew the threads of the spell, and let his hands fall into his lap. He felt as though he’d run up and down three flights of stairs. His thumbs were tingling; he’d held the necessary loop so tightly that he’d cut off the circulation.
Which was nothing at all compared to what he’d done to Robin.
Robin was coughing, looking around. “Did I—” he started, voice dry as leaves, and was cut off as Maud flung herself into his arms. Robin hugged her and Edwin swallowed a harsh, useless jolt of jealousy. Robin looked over her shoulder at Edwin, then Charlie, then Bel. Then Edwin again. “What happened?”
“Second time’s the charm, it turns out.” Charlie sounded as ebullient as ever. “Quite literally in this case.”
The moment of realisation was another jerk. Robin withdrew his right arm in its ruined sleeve from where it was wrapped around Maud, and stared at it for a long time. The smile that broke onto his face was a painting of relief and joy.
“You tried again? And it worked?”
“Mr. Courcey did something to you to make it work,” said Maud, unexpectedly. Edwin hadn’t had any idea she’d followed the proceedings. He and Charlie hadn’t exactly been explaining the steps. “It was frightening. You looked positively ghoulish. But,” she went on, hesitant, “I suppose for you lot it was quite an everyday thing?”
Bel laughed. “Oh, by all means. We lift curses every second day.”
Robin rubbed at his arm. It was a motion that by now seemed part of the fabric of him. He said to Edwin, quietly, “How did you manage it?”
Charlie and Bel were still there. Maud was there. Edwin considered lying; and, as usual with Robin’s gaze on him, was unable to do it.
“I killed you,” he said. “Briefly.”
“You did what?” said Maud.
Edwin said, “Slowed your heart,” and held Robin’s gaze until he saw the realisation there. “And then sped it up again, obviously. The curse thought you were dead. That was enough.”
Robin squeezed Maud’s hand. “Well, I’m not. I am ravenous, though. Go and finish dressing, Maudie, and I’ll see you at breakfast.”
“You’re sure you’re all right?”
“I’ve a devil of a headache,” said Robin. “Otherwise, yes. I’m fine. I’m better than I’ve been all week.”
Maud left. Now that the show was over, Bel and Charlie followed suit, though Bel shot curious glances over her shoulder at Edwin. She was looking at him with more interest than she had in years. It was discomfiting.
The library doors closed. Edwin and Robin sat in the window seat, not quite touching. Edwin had no idea what to say. He wanted to sit there for another week, staring at Robin safe and unmarked and free.
“You killed me?” said Robin finally.
“I—yes. I know. Oh, God. I’m going to have to write a paper about it. A book.” Edwin could feel a hysterical, triumphant laugh trying to emerge. “I didn’t know if it would work at all. But I couldn’t think of anything else. You wouldn’t wake up.” He took a sobering breath. “You were just staring into nothing, Robin. And . . . it was the foresight, not the pain?”
A guilty expression washed Robin’s face. He nodded.
Edwin tilted his head to the books on the table. “What were you trying to do?”
“Force it,” Robin said. “Make it show me something useful, something that would give us more information about the last contract. Or the curse. Anything.”
Edwin stared at him, aghast. “You ended up comatose.”
“We weren’t exactly swimming in leads. I wanted to try something more than leafing through books.”
“That doesn’t mean the answer was for you to go throwing your mind into a kind of magic you don’t know anything about, without anyone’s guidance. You might have—if—are you completely stupid?”
He bit his tongue, but it was out there now. Robin settled farther back. From a distance this arrangement, the two of them, probably looked cosy. There’d be no indication of the sudden drop in temperature.