My Marionette Lover novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Two Bars

I went back that night with two bars.

One was the jester, small and black, with its silver thread already worn thin.

The other was the Prince's control bar, which my grandmother had carved from one piece of walnut and which was a full yard across.

Birdie and Brad went somewhere else, with a screwdriver, a hand truck and Imogen's key card.

I didn't ask where.

I only knew that tonight Augusta had to look at me and nothing else.

The penthouse was dark except for the window.

Across the rooftops, the top of Redfern Hall glowed yellow.

A small figure stood in the tower window, with one hand at her throat.

Arlen sat where I had left him, in the armchair, with his eyes open.

"I'm going to try to get you loose," I said. "Answer with your eyes. Once for yes."

His eyes closed, and opened.

"All right."

I tied the first thread to his right wrist with the jester.

I tied the second to his left with the Prince's bar.

One bar in each hand, arms spread.

The black net lit up around him, hundreds of fine lines, tightening as I pulled.

Across the rooftops a hand closed on a brooch.

The weight hit me.

My knees folded and I caught myself on the chair.

Her thread was the river, and I was a hair standing in it.

But I had learned something in the cabinet, and I held onto it with both hands.

Silver is the only metal that bites black.

So I didn't pull.

I laid my silver alongside her black, strand against strand, and I let it chew.

It burned through my palms.

The first black line parted at his wrist with a soft sound, like a stitch being cut.

Then another.

Then five, then twenty.

Every strand I ate took a strand of mine with it, and I watched my silver go thin as spider silk.

I counted to three hundred and lost count.

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