Page 83 of Better in Black
“Either he got it or he didn’t,” Julian said. “Either he’ll come or he won’t.”
Emma always hated it when Julian didn’t let her in on his plans. This time, he had, and it turned out that was stressful too. Now she had to worry about whether it wouldwork.
Of course it will work. It’s Julian,she told herself. They’d reached the mouth of the cave. Kindling witchlights, they plunged into the darkness.
It was easy enough to follow the Other Emma, even when the marks of her footprints faded out as the sand turned to rock. She’d left them a trail of blood drops, one after the other, as if they were in a horrible sort of fairy tale.
They inched through the maze of caverns and corridors, until—
Emma stopped, her ears pricking like a cat’s. She could hear the rush of water in the distance, at the cave’s mouth. And over that: the sound of breathing. A cough.
She looked up.
Her witchlight illuminated a jagged outcropping of rock, a few feet above their heads. On it lay the Other Emma, flat on her stomach, glaring down at them over the lip of the rock. She held a knife in her hand, but loosely, as if it was too heavy.
She grinned at them in the dark. Then coughed a spray of blood. She wiped her mouth on her black sleeve, a snarl twisting her face.
“Emma, she’s trying to trick us,” Julian said. He had a new seraph blade in his hand, though it was unlit. “She wants us to think she’s weak.”
“It’s not a trick,” said the Other Emma. “This world is poison to me. It’s killing me. As Thule would have killed you, in time.”
“She’s not lying,” Emma said. She couldfeelthe truth, feel the sickness spreading through the Other Emma. She looked up. “We can help you,” she said, though she wasn’t at all sure that was true. “Maybe heal you. If you tell us what we need to know.”
“And what’s that? You want to know what dark plans my world has for yours? You want to know what bloody fate awaits you and all your courageous friends?” The Other Emma madecourageoussound like a curse word. “No,” she said, after a moment, her hungry gaze fixed on Julian. “That’s not it, is it? You want to know about Livvy.MyLivvy.”
“She’s not yours,” Julian said, fiercely. “Just like Emma is nothing like you.”
“Just like you’re nothing likehim?” Thule Emma said in a mocking tone. “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you? But I know better.” Other Emma’s voice was slow, a little thickened. “I see my Julian when I look at you.”
Jules stiffened. Emma traced her fingers along the back of his hand.
L-E-T-H-E-R-T-A-L-K
They had a little time. Maybe she would slip up, say something useful.
“You know it’s true,” Thule Emma said dreamily. “You just wantherto think that Julian Blackthorn is an essentially good person. That you only do cruel things when necessary. But what ifnecessitywas stripped away, and you still desired cruelty? What if everything you think matters—your family, your Law—is the distraction? What if therealyou, the best version of you, is the cruel one? What if deep down, she knows it? And that’s why she loves you.”
“It’s not,” Emma said tightly.
Thule Emma turned onto her side with a gasp of pain. “Yes, it is,” she said. “I was you. Once. But you’ve never been me. You don’t know what it feels like to be theonlything he loves. To be two sparks of celestial fire circling each other, and only each other. Which means you don’t know love at all.”
But didn’t she know? Hadn’t she and Julian blazed together, in terrifying spectacle? Hadn’t that love literally consumed them?
But it had been their love for others that had brought them back. Before they blazed into ashes.
“I don’t need to be the only person he cares about,” Emma said. “Because I’m not a sociopath.”
“Ignore her,” Julian whispered. “We just need to keep her here until—”
“You love him for his ruthlessness.” Thule Emma pressed on, her thin voice fraying, her eyes burning. “He loves you for your fire, for the rage that drives you. That used to drive you, I should say. But if he had to choose between you and his family…”
“Shut up,” Julian said, his voice ragged. “Emma is my family.”
Water was rushing around Emma’s boots. The tide coming in.Thule Emma glanced down and coughed, a racking, bloody cough. “Fitting,” she said, faintly. “I had dreamed of watching Julian see you die, Emma. Now we will all drown together. Good enough.”
“You don’t need to die,” Emma said. “We can bring you to the Institute. The Silent Brothers can help you. You just have to climb down.”And answer a few questions.“Otherwise we walk away, leave you here to drown. Your choice.”
A long hesitation. At last, Thule Emma rolled to the edge of the outcrop. She reached down a hand, its back marked with a scar where once there had been a rune. “Help me down.”
