Book of Night(126)

Bellamy looked surprised. “I think you misunderstand the situation.”

“You’re letting her take him home, aren’t you?” Charlie said.

Vicereine gave a cruel little smile. “In a manner of speaking. But this isn’t something she chose. Do you know what she will be expected to do?”

“Hunt Blights,” Charlie said.

“And do you know why it’s considered a punishment, a way to make up for past crimes?”

“Because it’s dangerous?” she guessed.

“Very,” said Malik in slightly horrified tones.

What was it that Balthazar had told Charlie—that she could steal the breath from a body, the hate from a heart, the moon from the sky? Well, in this case, maybe she didn’t need to steal anything. Maybe they’d give her everything she wanted.

All it would cost was her secrets.

Charlie pasted a smile on her face. Glanced at the old “fear less” tattoo looping across the skin of her inner arm. “Fine,” she said, through gritted teeth. “In that case, I’d like to confess.”

“Confess?” Vicereine echoed, puzzled.

“Do you remember when Brayan Araya had his secrets written with a laser on grains of rice and kept them in a glass jar under his pillow? I snatched that like I was the tooth fairy. Or remember when Eshe Godwin got that book with all the detailed illustrations and no one could make head or tail of it? The secrets were written in the artwork, so I cut those pages straight out. I’m not sure she’s opened it up to know they’re missing. I took Owain Cadwallader’s eighteenth-century memoir and discovered a whole pile of notes stitched into the interior binding of another book—I forget the title, but it had these cool metal catches on the side—and took those without anyone being the wiser. Oh, and I grabbed Jaden Coffey’s whole collection of seventies shadow magic zines. Want me to go on? I’ve been doing this for years.” She felt giddy, like she was sliding down a hill, no way to stop now. All the exultation of finally admitting to something.

“You cut out pages from Eshe’s book?” Vicereine sounded pissed.

“I’m a bad person.” Charlie reached into the pocket of her jeans, took something out, and threw it to Malik. Startled, he caught it. When he looked at what was in his hands, his brows drew together. “I also grabbed your wallet when I brushed by you. Sorry.”

“You are making some very dangerous enemies,” Vicereine told her.

“What’s all this about?” Malik was tight-jawed. “What are you doing?”

“Punish me,” Charlie said. “I’m loads worse than Adeline.”

“You want it tied to you?” Bellamy asked.

The idea of someone inside her head, someone she couldn’t hide her worst thoughts from, someone she loved, made her feel a little queasy. “Yes. Reward or punishment, give him to me. I’ll be the Hierophant.”



* * *



When Vince came into the room, necklaces of onyx draped over his throat, and one attached to his arm like a leash, his eyes changed at the sight of her. He turned to Bellamy. “But where’s Adeline?”

“We sent her home,” Malik said.

“Then who—”

“Me,” Charlie said. “If you can make a stupid decision, then I can make one too.”

He shook his head. “This is supposed to be a punishment.”

“Oh, I know,” she said. “You’re going to be stuck in my head, with all my secrets. Even I don’t know all my secrets. It’s going to be awful.”

He appeared to be seriously considering strangling her. “Char.”

“She’s volunteered,” Vicereine said. “And confessed to quite a few crimes just to convince us.”

The look he gave her was scathing. “Did she?”

“I’ll need your feet to be bare,” Vicereine said, all business now.

Charlie reached down to take off her boots. They were already untied, the laces loose from kicking them off in the tower.

Vince appeared to be belatedly wondering if he could break free of the onyx chains and escape. She saw him pull against the shining loop over his wrist. It must have held, because his expression set into grim lines. “You don’t know what I’ll be like, after. No one does,” he said under his breath.

“You’ll still be you,” Charlie whispered back.

Bellamy said something to Malik and both of them looked amused. Charlie didn’t think it was directed at her, but it ramped up her nerves. She reminded herself that she’d been through this before, cutting loose her own shadow as she sewed it to her sister’s feet. Posey had to finish the sewing, and neither of them was a great seamstress. Still, it seemed to be attached. And Posey seemed fine.

She reminded herself that she was stealing Vince right out from under their noses.

Vicereine directed Charlie to stand in front of him, which she did.

“Winnie wanted me to tell you hello,” she whispered. “Your boss is furious, but probably you don’t want your old job back anyway. Oh, and believe it or not, Posey might actually apologize.”

Vince looked down at her and sighed. But when she reached for his hand, he let her take it.

She squeezed once before he returned to shadow.