CHAPTER 45
MALLOW DIDN’T COME AT NIGHTFALL.
Briony stood at the window that faced the front gates, watching the horizon for the sizzle of a portal, but it never came.
The Hearsts didn’t come up to check on her, either.
Briony focused her energy on her mind barriers, pulling together everything she needed to hide from Mallow and finding a place for it all on her mental shelves. She went over everything with a needle and thread, just as Serena had done inside the female nurse’s mind, until Briony wasn’t even sure if Cohle hadn’t tried to take her that morning. She wrote over her own memories of her fist squeezing, threading over them with the image of a paler, more delicate wrist until it was Serena whose hand had contracted in Heartstop.
If she concentrated, she could find the truth in her mind, but it was also easy to think of that morning and have the fabricated scenario pull forward.
At four in the morning, there was a thunder of wings in the sky.
Briony looked up just in time to see the belly of the last dragon in the world skating over Hearst Hall, wings long and spindly.
Briony narrowed her eyes at the beast. So the dragon was not dead. no dragon, don’t Worry She puzzled over the words again as the dragon fluttered—almost
elegantly—over the forest where Vesper lived, settling gently in the field next to it. In the beginnings of the dawn sun, Briony could just make out a rider sliding off its wing, her long black hair shimmering down her back.
Deep inside Briony’s mind, beneath the shields and behind the bookshelves, she wondered at the necessity of bringing the dragon, much less riding it. Surely a portal was quicker.
The figure glided through the gates and down the lane. Once Mallow disappeared inside the front door, Briony returned to her chair to wait. Either the plan had worked, or it hadn’t.
Twenty minutes later, her door opened and Toven stepped inside.
“Mistress Mallow wishes to see you.”
His face betrayed nothing. She could be walking into anything.
Briony followed him down the stairs and into the drawing room. Her memories shivered on the bookshelves in her mind, but she was pleased to note they were the fabricated ones.
Mallow stood near the fireplace, the glow illuminating her silhouette, with Orion and Serena at her side. Though Briony had only seen her two nights ago at Biltmore Palace, it felt like it had been months. When she turned, Briony noted that her eyes were exhausted. Again, she wondered what Mallow’s true age was.
Cohle’s body lay in between the couches, like a coffee table.
“Briony,” Mallow hummed with a soft smile. “I hear you had a little procedure yesterday morning.”
Briony said nothing. Toven stood just off to her left.
Mallow slid forward, her long dress moving around her like oil.
“Did you know all along that you could still have children?” Mallow asked.
Briony hadn’t prepared her memories of the nurses who severed her first fallopian tube, so there was no reason to lie.
“I suspected it.”
“You will address her as Mistress,” Orion said firmly.
Her eyes flicked to him. Briony added, “Mistress.”
Mallow’s lips curled. “What else are you hiding, Briony?”
Her heart skipped, but her mind remained focused.
“What do you mean, Mistress?”
Mallow stood in front of her, her gaze black and her mind brushing up against Briony’s.
“Your country is Nevermore,” Mallow said. “Your people have lost, but still you find ways to rebel against my authority, don’t you?”
Briony’s mind shook, every volume she’d tucked away threatened to fall to her feet. Collars and notes and grapes. She focused on Mallow’s gaze.
“You must tell me what you know, Briony,” Mallow said.
And then the knives were in her mind.
Briony gasped as her memories were flayed. Mallow’s technique was blunt. Where Serena endeavored to get in and out without notice, Mallow wanted to be felt for days later.
She prepared herself to fight the knives, but Mallow swirled around a familiar scene.
General Meers was standing in her father’s study. “I really must object to so many ears in a confidential meeting—”
“You’re a fool if you think Briony’s ears to be the least useful of the five of us here,” Rory said.
Briony waited as Mallow slithered through the scene like a serrated blade, leaving her mark everywhere.
There was little she could do to hide anything. She had no idea what to hide.
Mallow flew through her mind, circling memories of Rory like a serpent.
She spent ages in family gatherings from fifteen years ago with aunts and uncles who had been dead for years. She slithered through any memories Briony had of her father, winding around the difficult lessons he would dole out and the requests he made that Briony be less of who she was so Rory could be more.
Her body shook, knees weak. Mallow held her upright in the center of the room. Her mind could just barely recognize the scene—the shape of Mallow in front of her with wild black eyes, and the pale gray of Orion out of focus, twenty feet back.
She had no idea what Mallow was after. Briony kept from hyperventilating even through the pain, knowing that she needed the secrets she had to remain secret. At odd moments, she felt another presence in her own memories. Where Mallow was cutting and opening with wrenching slices, there was also another knife...sliding through her like butter. Careful to remain hidden.
After what felt like hours, Briony simply followed Mallow through her own mind like a guest, alongside the second mind.
Mallow was determined and laser-focused in her quest, leaving Briony suspicious of what exactly Mallow was looking for. The pain exhausted her, making Briony reckless. An idea slithered into her head while Mallow was elsewhere. If Briony could only know precisely what Mallow wanted...
The knives in her mind were attached to Mallow’s thread of mind magic.
And just as she had slid down the thread into Toven’s mind weeks ago...
Just as she had joined Serena on a single thread that morning into the nurse’s mind...
Briony waited until Mallow was focused on a memory with Rory and Sammy Meers, and then she walked that thread like a spider, sliding down, down, down, and into Veronika Mallow’s mind.
She balanced on a needle, like Serena had taught her, careful not to disturb anything.
But she needn’t look long. There was a question tattooed on the back of Mallow’s eyelids, living at the front of her mind without any barriers to fight
it.
Where is he?
Briony felt her consciousness floating. Her heart hung suspended. And before she could fully process what she’d found, she climbed up the thread, surfacing out of Mallow’s mind.
A mind that Mallow didn’t bother to barricade. Arrogance? Or stupidity?
As Briony latched back onto the path Mallow was taking through her memories, she focused on maintaining her heartbeat, unwilling to feel anything other than confusion and pain.
Because there was one he Mallow was examining in her mind.
Something’s not right with her.
The male nurse said Briony would be killed if she could conceive.
And the only thing Briony could focus on while her mind was flayed was the dragon outside the gates. The unnecessary shows of power. The
exhaustion in Mallow’s face. no dragon, don’t Worry The dragon that had refused to bond to any magician for six hundred years until Mallow.
A magician with a dragon familiar wouldn’t bother with any mortal
problems. They would be all-powerful.
Unless the dragon wasn’t her familiar. no dragon Briony felt herself outside her body. She could see the scene in the drawing room.
Orion and Serena at the fireplaces, having prepared to be interrogated over Cohle’s body.
Toven standing to her left, waiting for his heartspring to be returned to him.
And Mallow—not caring at all about the dynamics of the Ten or the death of her second in command. Mallow not concerned with the way things happened yesterday, only caring to search Briony’s mind for something she was missing—again.
Perhaps the nurse was close to the truth, but not quite.
Mallow was concerned about an heir to the Rosewood line who would stand to defeat her—the Heir Twice Over.
Only it was the same one she’d been battling with for four years, since
their father’s death. don’t Worry Briony thought it was strange she didn’t feel it when her brother died.
And maybe that was because he hadn’t.
The collar didn’t work on Briony because she had given her heart magic away to her brother. What if she still was giving it?
Magic freely given couldn’t be taken.
The room was silent except for her gasps of pain, but she was separate from herself now, in a world where Rory might still live.
Her mind was elsewhere as Mallow flew through her memories.
The sun was up.
And Briony had work to do.
She reached inside herself, finding a moment, fabricating it quickly.
Sewing over it the way Serena would, then inking it clean like Orion.
She and Rory sitting on the cliffside at Biltmore. Briony asked him what he would do if he wasn’t father’s heir.
I don’t know, Rory said. Maybe I’d be a sailor. I’ve always loved the harbors at Daward.
Briony took the moment—the fabrication—and slipped it inside a box in her mind.
When Mallow was ready to move on from a solstice gathering from years ago, Briony dropped it in her path, like a stolen bracelet, fallen out of her dress.
Mallow was quick to grab it up. The box opened for her.
And sooner than Briony expected, she was alone in her mind, and her body was dropped on the floor of the Hearst drawing room.
She was barely conscious as Mallow turned and moved to the window overlooking the grounds. The window that faced the dragon in the field.
Briony fought to hold on to the present, panting on the floor.
Orion stepped forward. His movements smooth...like a knife through
butter.
“Mistress, how can I be of service?”
Mallow seemed to watch her dragon through the window. “Serena,” she said. “I’m sorry to say you’ll have to live without your husband again for the foreseeable future.”
Serena cleared her throat. “Anything for Bomard.”
Mallow turned over her shoulder and nodded at Briony’s body. “That will be all. Please excuse Orion and me.”
Toven began to collect her from the floor. Serena was at her side quickly, assisting.
But Briony was focused on the conversation at the window.
“I appreciate your discretion, as ever, Orion.”
“Of course, Mistress.”
She watched Mallow slip Cohle’s ring off his finger.
“It seems the position of first in line to the seat is open, since Cohle failed to name a successor after Burkin’s death. And while succession dictates differently, I’d be happy to offer it to you, Orion.”
Serena and Toven froze. Briony’s head was lolling on Toven’s shoulder.
Her eyes fluttered, watching Orion.
Orion took only a heartbeat to think. “You are kind, Mistress. But the Ten means a great deal to me. It always has. I do not wish to upset the natural order of things. I happily accept the advancement to seventh in line, with the death of Riann Cohle.”
The room held its breath. Mallow assessed him. “I appreciate men who
understand power but do not covet it.”
Orion inclined his head.
Briony felt her body shift as Serena and Toven moved her along again.
“Toven?”
They stopped at Mallow’s voice. Briony’s body slumped against Toven, all her energy being used to stay awake for this.
Toven stepped forward. “Yes, Mistress Mallow.”
“You are not bonded to Miss Rosewood as a heartspring. After I specifically requested it.”
The room fell silent, and Briony wondered if she’d passed out with the lack of sound.
“I am not, currently,” Toven agreed coolly. “Apologies, Mistress. The connection was terribly powerful when I attempted it. Apparently, it’s true what they say—the golden blood makes the heartspring that much more potent.” He chuckled. “I find I was a bit overwhelmed by the magic. I had to siphon so much of it off.”
Mallow stood at the window, eyes on her dragon. “Too much power?
Well, if that’s the case,” she said, “perhaps we’ll need to find more for you to do, Toven.”
Serena’s arm tensed around Briony’s body. Orion’s lips tightened. The back of Toven’s neck stiffened.
“I would appreciate any opportunity to further your cause, Mistress,”
Toven said.
Briony’s heart raced, and she finally gave over to the dark.
* * *
Briony woke up the next day. Her mind still felt sluggish.
There was a pot of tea waiting for her on her side table, and she dragged
herself up to fix a cup.
There was too much to do.
She reached into the jewelry box on her table and pulled out the note. no dragon, don’t Worry She traced the shape of the A. The curve of the R’s.
Could it be Rory?
Her chest ached with the certainty that she felt. Her brother, her piece of herself, wasn’t lost after all. Her eyes pricked with tears.
The simplest explanation was likely correct. Mallow certainly thought Rory was alive—that much Briony had gathered.
So somehow, Rory had found a line to the Barlowe Girls at the Biltmore.
Briony ran her fingers over the note. Rory had touched this. She was closer to him than ever in the last two months, but still so far away.
Looking around her room, Briony felt the weight of it on her. It was a nice cage, but it was still a cage. She needed to find a way around the tattoos, not just for herself, but for Cordelia and Phoebe and Katrina.
And after that...she supposed it was time to look into how to kill Mallow.
Now that Briony was questioning whether the dragon would fully bond to her, Mallow didn’t seem so terribly powerful. She was just a clever, enigmatic liar.
Briony chuckled to herself as she remembered how feared Mallow was because the dragon’s bond gave her the ability to read minds. It wasn’t a dragon; it was a poor study at mind magic, sloppy and painful.
Briony thought of Finola, and how Mallow had searched for her in
Briony’s head. Maybe that had nothing to do with her strategies and connections. Maybe it was because she was a Rosewood woman that hadn’t
been sterilized.
There was a knock on her door.
“Come in,” she said.
Toven slipped inside, and Briony’s heart skipped at the sight of him. His
face was set, distant.
“What is it?” she said.
“I wanted to see how you are.” His voice was clipped.
“Fine. Why do you look so strange?”
“Strange?” he said.
“Cold. You look cold.”
He pressed his lips together. “Once you are healed, we will do the bonding ceremony. I will make sure the collar doesn’t take away your ability to harness your magic.”
“But you will have access to it,” Briony said.
He nodded. Her breath was tight, thinking of giving a part of herself to Toven with nothing in return. She didn’t know what other options there were.
They’d gotten around this heartspring bond for this long.
They were quiet for a moment. His fingers played with the black ring as he looked around the room.
“Father doesn’t know how Mallow could tell I wasn’t using you as a heartspring, but she will expect me to remedy that soon.”
Briony nodded. “And your father? He’s left again?”
“Tomorrow. I don’t know where to.”
Briony did. To the port at Daward first, then to the home of every sailor in town.
“But once we are bonded,” he said slowly, not looking at her. He seemed to rephrase his words. “There is something to be said for Sacral Magic...and its effects.”
Briony lifted her brows as a blush rose on her cheeks. “Yes?”
“So nothing like the other night will happen again.” He looked
meaningfully at her bed. “It shouldn’t have happened in the first place. It was inappropriate.”
“Inappropriate,” she repeated, narrowing her eyes.
“You were emotionally very raw,” he said. “It never would have happened had you been yourself.”
Briony felt a sharp sting, as if she’d been slapped. Did he consider it her fault? Did he not remember leaning in first?
“Is it your habit to tend to emotionally raw women by lying in bed with them?” she bit back.
His jaw twitched. “I’m just here to inform you that nothing of the sort will happen again.”
“And I’ve been informed.” Her tone was acidic. “Is there anything else?”
His exterior cracked. “What has crawled up your skirt, Rosewood?” he hissed. “I said I was sorry—”
“You did?” She laughed. “I didn’t hear it!”
“Yes! I’m sorry. It won’t happen again!”
“And why is that?” She stepped closer to him, crossing her arms. “When plenty other Bomardi are happy to take what they own, what moral superiority does Toven Hearst have?”
He gaped at her. “Am I hearing you correctly? You’re asking why I haven’t had my way with you?”
“Yes,” she said simply. “Why is it that I’m here? Why am I so well taken care of at Hearst Hall? I get to keep my virginity and my fertility. My goodness, what hospitality!”
He pressed his eyes closed and paced away from her. “You are...so infuriating.”
“You know, I was on that stage, Toven. I was there when you bid on me. I didn’t just fall into your lap. You gave Reighven something to get me, and I want to know what it is.”
He spun back to her, advancing on her. “You don’t get to know, Rosewood! You are not entitled to know these things, contrary to what you believe!”
“Oh, finally!” She threw her arms wide. “Finally, I’m treated like a
second-class citizen in this house!”
“Is that what you want?” he said, arching a brow. His voice dropped an octave. “Is that what you want? Are you so starved for righteous indignation that you’d like for me to take away your magic and your books and your privacy?”
“I want to know why I have those things,” she said. His face was so close to hers, she could feel his harsh breath. “I want to know the Hearst endgame.
Is it because I am the Princess of Evermore?”
His eyes flashed at her. His breath hitched, as if the words were ready to tumble out of him. And then he said simply, “Yes.”
Briony watched his face harden. She felt it in her heart, when he failed to say what she wanted to hear—that she wasn’t special, but that she was special to him. But instead she was a gold-blooded bargaining chip to him and his family.
She nodded, swallowing back her emotions. “That makes sense,” she said weakly. “Your family is clearly prepared to play both sides.”
He said nothing, just watched her.
She tilted up her chin, preparing herself to play both sides as well. “Are you ready to begin the game against Mallow, Toven? Or are you content to stand on the sidelines while your father does all the work?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “What does that mean?”
She licked her lips, and when his eyes dropped to her mouth, she pushed back the hope that he would ever kiss her again.
This wasn’t a love story.
“It means,” she said, “that I am more certain every day that my brother is alive.” She watched his eyes slowly widen. “And I’m wondering if you’re going to help me or stand in my way.”
