Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker #3)(67)

Pickled creatures, half created before they were destroyed, yellowed in their chemical baths along one wall. Each shelf was a trial and error in a series of experiments carried out on the Woven ages ago.

Toshi had asked Ivan once what they were for, and Ivan had replied, “To remind me of what not to do.”

“What’s troubling you?” Ivan asked, bringing Toshi back to the present with a small jump. Ivan perched on the edge of his scorch-marked desk and placed his hands properly in his lap, waiting with the same kindly patience he’d always given Toshi, even when he didn’t deserve it.

“Did you create the Hive for Grace?”

The question brought an end to the decades of good memories Toshi had of that room and, like a bad smell lingering close to good food, tainted all of them.

Ivan looked down and let out a long, tired breath. “How did you find out?” he asked.

“You are the master of kitchen magic. And it’s the only thing I could think of that she could use to keep you silent. You would have had to have done it in order to want to keep it hidden for so long,” Toshi answered. “What about the rest of the Woven?”

“I can’t claim full responsibility for them, but I was a part of it.” He swallowed. “A large part. I made Grace the kitchen, as it were, for her to make the Woven.” He swiped his hands over his face, his eyes older in an instant. “Bower City was just an outlawed trading post, scared to death that Salem would find out we existed and kill us all. We couldn’t stand against the Eastern Covens. Then Grace had this idea about the Woven. I was young and angry and, I swear to you, I never thought the wild Woven would last more than a generation or two. I certainly never considered that she would learn how to make them grow willstones inside their bodies so she could control them. That’s no excuse, but it’s the only one I have.”

“How many other people know?” Toshi asked.

“They’re all long dead,” Ivan said. “Like I should be.”

The irony of it was suffocating. Ivan was the one who created the soap that slowed aging to a crawl, which Toshi had improved until aging and the slow decline of the body into decrepitude were essentially stopped, but you didn’t have to use that soap if you wanted to grow old and die.

“Why aren’t you?” he asked, cruelty flaring inside of him.

Ivan smiled down at his folded hands, accepting Toshi’s anger and feelings of betrayal. “I knew I could never make up for what I’d done, but if I helped enough people, maybe my life wouldn’t be a complete travesty.” Ivan laughed softly. “Why aren’t I dead yet? Because I have so many sins to repent before I die, I just might have to live forever.”

The two of them watched a Worker crawl across Ivan’s thigh. Toshi saw the loathing in Ivan that he never dared show before, and he just knew.

They had worked together as teacher and student for over fifty years, so it was easy for Toshi to read the subtle shift in Ivan, a shift that signaled he wanted to get to work. Over the years they had cured the incurable, mended the irrevocably broken, and essentially ended the need for people to grow old and die. That much time working together solving the biggest biological problems gave them an advantage over the myriad eyes that watched them.

Without even changing the attitude of their bodies, Toshi and Ivan agreed to solve this together. Toshi stood up, took off his jacket, and went to get a lab coat. They were going to find a way to exterminate the Hive.





CHAPTER


10


At some point in the night, Lily became aware of the fact that she was thrashing about in a big, white bed.

She felt hands soothing her and smelled the grassy scent of Rowan’s ointment cooling her charred skin. No matter how many times Lily went to the pyre, burning on it never got easier. The trauma was not something the body could ever allow to become commonplace, and if she couldn’t—or, in this case, wouldn’t—transmute the heat fast enough, agony was the sacrifice she had to make.

When it became too much, Lily found Lillian waiting for her in the Mist. They sat on the raft, facing each other, their feet pulled in and their chins resting on their knees.

But you didn’t go to the pyre, Lily said in confusion. Why are you here?

I am here every night now, Lillian replied.

Your cancer is that bad?

Lillian smiled at Lily as they bobbed on top of the dark water. It won’t be for much longer, she replied after a quiet spell.

Lily thought of Toshi’s deep red willstone, and regretted not claiming him, if only for Lillian’s sake.

Can I help you in any way?

Yes. You can help me destroy Bower City.

Lily didn’t reply. She thought of all the people in Bower City who had no idea what Grace had done. They didn’t deserve to die. Lily had no idea how to keep them safe, though, once the war began in earnest. While she was thinking about this, Lillian asked her another question.

How did you get your coven from the sand dunes to Salem?

I can’t tell you that yet.

Why not?

I need you to wait for me and hear what I have to say.

I can’t wait. I’m dying.

Hold on, Lillian. I’m coming.

Lily woke with the sun. Her stinging eyes peeled open to see stone walls, wide windows, and on the far side of the room, a fireplace large enough for her to stand in.