She was so wrapped up in the thought she hardly registered his hands working to unlatch the pendant from her fingers.
“Yes,” he said, his breath sweet from the tang of wine.
“How?”
The question brought the black back into the whites of his eyes. Javier stepped away. For Eva’s sake, or his.
“Laurel. That woman—” His voice shook. “To everyone she was a saint. But to me? She hated me for trying to convince Enrique to betroth me to Celeste.” He chucked the pendant to the bedside table, where it clanked on the verge of shattering. “She hated Celeste’s burden of passing on the blood. And what did she care about valcos? She was just a lucky human who’d somehow managed to enthrall my brother. She had access to void magic, did you know that? And when I went to Gegania, I finally saw it for myself. Everyone spits on Do?a Ursulina’s name for practicing void magic, but Laurel was doing it behind closed doors—the hypocrite. And she cursed me—she thought herself so clever. But she went too far. She turned me into this!” He fiercely pounded his chest and continued. “That’s when she suddenly started feeling bad for me.”
Eva watched him pace the room.
“For that, I was glad to see her die.”
Despite the terrible connotation, Eva couldn’t shake off the fascination. “Did you kill her?”
He faced her. “No. It must have been divine justice. Or Do?a Ursulina, the conniving snake that she is. I didn’t have to lift a finger.”
He closed the distance again. “Please, Eva. Afterward, I’ll do anything. After I’m cleansed, I can be a true husband to you. I know I could… I would try.” His approach was one seeking tenderness, so she allowed him the embrace.
She liked his small frame, she decided—how her arms could wrap around his chest and feel the muscled leanness beneath the liqui liqui. His hair was soft silk against her cheek, smelling of salt and, faintly, of the island’s jasmines. He rested his head on the crook of her neck, his antlers angled in the opposite direction and his breath a tickle igniting a warmth in her belly—of the good kind. Eva held him as those muscles spasmed. Even as some of that darkness slithered from his body to hers. It couldn’t hurt her, she knew. Outside Javier they were nothing but shadows.
There was one last thing marring this moment, and it wouldn’t be perfect until she got the truth.
Eva squeezed his liqui liqui shirt and shoved him away.
“Eva?”
“Rahmagut’s invocation—I have to know. Are you planning to kill Maior and Celeste to cleanse yourself?”
She wanted to hear it from his lips. She wanted to see his crimson gaze shift and narrow when he lied, for she knew his expressions now, after being in his company all these days and nights.
A grimace was all he gave her. “No—it’s just a blood offering.”
Her face hardened. She inspected him. The lines from his frown. The confusion in his red eyes. His jaw muscles working and unworking into knots. This bewilderment was not a lie.
“They must give their lives,” she said with a steady voice, for there was no time or opportunity for vacillation. She told him everything she’d seen and talked about in Don Samón’s study.
Javier stepped back with his lips parted. The hope he had gained from her embrace withered, the determination of his eyes dulling. He shook his head, disbelieving. “Do?a Ursulina and Brother—they had us do this.” He stared at his open palms. “But how could he? I don’t believe he knows,” he said, meeting Eva’s gaze with clarity. “Or if he does—I suppose it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that he would offer up Celeste for sacrifice.”
“It can’t be,” Eva said in a whiny voice she regretted. But in truth she didn’t fully trust the ?guilas. She didn’t know them. And Don Samón, the only sane person in all of this, was convinced.
Javier’s lips rippled, holding back a barrage of thoughts. “It doesn’t matter what Enrique believes. What matters is that we’ve all been working toward this, on Do?a Ursulina’s counsel. I thought I was so fucking clever—that I had a solution.” His words were shuddery with panic, and there were tears in the corners of his eyes. He folded his arms over his chest like it ached him.
“So you won’t do it?”
“How?” he howled. “Yes, I hate her mother, but this wasn’t the plan!”
Eva let out an exhale as if a whole mountain were offloaded from her shoulders. “Do you think Reina will go through with it?”
His face twisted. It was clear he’d never considered Reina’s actions in his pile of worries from the inevitability of turning into a tiniebla. He shook his head and threw a palm in the air. “Reina loves Celeste.”
Eva sucked a big breath in agreement. Even if she could give Reina the benefit of the doubt, she didn’t want to risk anything. Maior was her friend. Without special conditions or concessions. Maior’s intentions were pure.
This time Eva was the one to close the distance and take his hand. “We can find another way for you. There has to be one. I won’t let you murder more people for this.”
His lips were a thin line, his eyes dark, as if imagining two conflicting paths. In the end he nodded, docile like never before. It bloated Eva with self-satisfaction. Past Javier would have never trusted her capabilities, but she had now proven herself. They had resources and allies. An exchange for Celeste’s and Maior’s lives was not the way.
Soft Tierra’e Sol breeze tickled the curtains of the open alcove doors. Outside, just like inside, the world had quieted. They changed into their traveling clothes, backs facing each other, because Eva wasn’t yet ready for that step. Despite his arrogance and occasional wickedness, he still allowed her the choice of intimacy.
Eva buttoned her shirt, thinking of Feleva ?guila’s purpose for him. Perhaps it had impacted the way he turned out. Desperate and broken, she thought. Una tiniebla.
She remembered the battle in Gegania, the moment when she’d slipped into el Vacío with that spell. The iridio book had said it was the spell for controlling them, warning such an act could fracture her soul. But as she pressed her fist to her chest, where she’d hung her iridio pendant, she felt whole.
Wicked and treacherous, the thought wormed into her—the idea of being able to control him. It seduced her. What if one day, while he was spouting his usual obscenities, she snagged his voice and commanded him to shut up? It would make for a wonderful surprise.
She could be the master, and he, the minion.
Of course, he’d never let her attempt it. Knowing Javier, he’d see it as an affront of the highest degree. Would he be able to tell if she attempted it, only a little bit? She stole a peek over her shoulder, catching him with his shoulders bare, his skin moonlight white with the faintest scars from sparring.
She turned completely to face him. Her heart was a steady drum as she thrust herself into el Vacío. The darkness swallowed her. She was at the bottom of an ocean. It was a terrible weight. It pressed on her shoulders, on her ears, on her vision. It stopped her from breathing.
Beside her, in the vast blackness, stood a figure. It turned around like her, to face her, its face leathery and wicked.