Cursed by the Light for Loving the Dark novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Smile Drops

Rook did not wait for an answer.

He looked at the page in Cassian's hand for a long moment, and the gold light on his face went flat.

"Midnight, then," he said to me.

The column of light folded back into the lake, and he and his guards went down with it.

The water closed over them without a ripple.

The neighbors on the beach started to talk all at once.

Cassian turned to the court with the paper still raised, and his voice rang off the water.

"My steward. Bring me my steward. Every lord of the court will stay on this shore until I've spoken to him."

The lords looked at one another, and most of them didn't move.

"Now," said Cassian.

They went.

Someone took my elbow and I let myself be walked back along the dock, to the shadow of the boathouse.

I leaned on the old boards and shut my eyes.

My arms ached, and the lines under the flannel had crept another finger-width toward my heart.

"Well," a warm voice said, behind me. "That was unexpected."

I opened my eyes.

Odile stood in the doorway of the boathouse, alone.

She had put the veil down on a coil of rope.

Her gray dress hung straight and neat, and her eyes were clear.

"Odile."

"You must be so tired," she said. "Sit. Here, I'll help you."

"Don't touch me."

She stopped, and tilted her head.

It was such a small thing, a little tilt, and I had seen it a hundred times that week and thought it was sweet.

"There it is," she said gently. "You know."

"He smelled the ink."

"He smelled ink." She came a step closer. "He's clever, and he's had a long, bad night. He'll be able to say it's the Regent's resin, and the steward's old hand, and ten other people in the Abyss. He won't say it's me. He doesn't want to."

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