Page 33 of The Unweaver

“We have a deal.”

Knife poised, he repeated the conditions of their Binding Agreement and sealed it with, “To hurt me is to hurt yourself.”

“To hurt me is to hurt yourself.”

He sliced her palm, deep. She gasped. Blood oozed from the cut. He made a matching incision on his palm and clasped their hands together, wound to wound. Blood and magic and a strange current of energy coursed through their joined hands. An iridescent shimmer enfolded them.

In her mind’s eye flashed a series of impressions. Visions of Malachy Bane. Naked and bathed in cream, smiling a slow,devastating smile. Then, hunched over and grimacing in pain, blood dripping down his arm. Then, kneeling between her thighs and gazing up at her with sky blue eyes. And finally, lying on a bed of stars, his heart beating in her hand.

The shimmer burst. A torrent of energy blew them apart and knocked her back into the armchair. Her hand was no longer bleeding, butglowing. Energy sparked from her fingertips to the ends of her hair. Half-formed thoughts teemed in her mind.

This was her first Binding Agreement, but it felt… unusual. What ramifications might come of this, she could only imagine.

Bane was mired in his own tumultuous thoughts. Transfixed by his glowing hand, he moved his fingers as if they belonged to someone else. “I have made a grave mistake,” he muttered.

He’d voiced her own concern, and it brought her no comfort. Seconds into their agreement, and he already regretted it. Perhaps it was the lasting static shock that perturbed him, or his own troubling visions he’d seen of her.

Their blood and magic had intermingled, yet she couldn’t bring herself to ask him why he thought it a mistake. Binding Agreements couldn’t be rescinded regardless of mutual regret. This mistake lived as long as they did.

“There’s no going back.” She drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “You can’t tell anyone who or what I am.Anyone. I’ll work for you, but in secret. No one can know. Understood?”

His eyes, glittering like coals, found hers. “It will take a lifetime to plumb the depths of your irrationality.”

“And a lifetime we’re bound to. I suppose the Binding Agreement has agreed for you. You won’t have a choice without hurting yourself.” She rubbed her tingling hand. The wound was healed, but the strange energy remained. “Now will you fill me in?”

He slid his hand into his pocket. “Very well. I’d planned on them instigating another war. Breaking the truce under the guise of a business dispute. Attacking me during parley, two against one. Threatening the Tribunal. I knew they’d take out at least one of my gang. Shame it had to be Moriarty.” Sighing, he raked back his hair. “Whole thing was predictable.”

He offered her a cigarette, and she placed it between her lips with a trembling hand. When he leaned down to light it for her, their gazes locked across the flickering flame.

“This business about your brother, though, intrigues me. Why frame me for Teddy’s death and get rid of all the evidence? It’s a blunder I’d expect from Verek, but Edwina is clever. She wouldn’t sacrifice her precious Animancer for nothing, or risk the Pyromancer’s incompetence on the job. This doesn’t fit with the other gangs either. They’re too afraid of the Tribunal to use Profane curses. Something more than this war is afoot.”

Cora forgot all about the cigarette. “You think someone else cursed Teddy?”

“The simplest explanation is often the correct one. Teddy was always unstable, but was he running with darker circles of late?”

She opened her mouth, closed it again. Unspoken between them was the sea of empty bottles in Teddy’s flat. “Drunker and less clothed circles, certainly. But nothing like the Profane Arts. Do you know any dark mages in town?”

“Not yet. But whoever they are, they have my undivided attention.”

“Your attention isn’t divided on, say, a war?”

He dismissed the bloodshed to come with a wave of his hand. His lack of concern was concerning. “The pieces are in place. Plans are running their course. Though Edwina will need closer handling after losing so many of her pets.”

“I doubt Mother considers losing me a loss.”

“With all the damning information you’re about to hand over to me? She will be feeling your loss most keenly.”

The Realmwalker’s capacity for scheming was much less disturbing when it benefitted her.Blackmailing the blackmailer.Delicious. “Happy to oblige. But what about Verek? What do you think about him?”

“I don’t. I’ll be running his gang within a year. I’d planned on a compromise with Edwina, but after this parley stunt, she’s in need of some killing. Would you like the pleasure?”

“I don’t want to kill anyone,” she said, and disappointment crossed his features. “Unless they deserve it. I’d love to pluck that old bird’s feathers off.”

His mouth curved. “Good girl.”

The words did something odd to her insides. A tightening, low in her belly. Not unpleasant, but very unwelcome. She pushed the sensation away. “Have you looked for Teddy in other Realms yet?”

“Aye, without any sign of him, body or spirit. You didn’t find him in the only Realm I have a one-way ticket to. His spirit might be trapped between Realms in a place I’ve never risked going to.”

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