House of Salt and Sorrows(94)

“No!” I cried, whirling around. “I’ve lost too many people tonight. Silas, Fisher…I can’t stay here, doing nothing, and have Verity added to that list. It will kill me.”

“And she’s counting on that,” Cassius shouted over the storm. “Kosamaras knows she riled you. She wants you to do something stupid.”

The sob rose up again, this time bursting free. “Why? Why would she do any of this? We’ve never done anything to her!”

“She’s not targeting you personally. Viscardi often uses her to collect his end of bargains. He’s drawn toward the theatrical, and Kosamaras never disappoints.” He sighed. “She’s the Harbinger of Madness, creating so many false visions and skewed realities that the poor soul takes his life just to end the torment.”

Laughter, bitter and hollow, barked out of my throat before I could block it. “She’s going to try that with my sisters. I have to stop her.”

“We’ll figure out a way.” Cassius pushed his hair back. “I know it’s hard, but we need to forget about Kosamaras for a moment. She’s just the puppet here. Viscardi is the one holding the strings. We need to figure out who agreed to his bargain.”

“Then what? Politely ask them to end it?”

His eyes shifted away. “Not exactly…This could get very dangerous, Annaleigh.”

I recalled Fisher’s broken body, Lenore’s silent stares, Verity pirouetting around her room with Kosamaras’s black eyes. “It already has….” I rubbed my temples, trying to think clearly. “I suppose we can’t kill a Trickster?”

“No, they’re immortal. But…” His eyebrows furrowed. “If the dealmaker died before the bargain was met…it would have to be over. Viscardi can’t fulfill his end of a trade with a dead partner.”

“And another person dies,” I muttered, looking up to the ceiling. Above us, Old Maude’s beacon flashed, again and again. Exactingly precise.

I’d loved that light ever since my first trip to Hesperus. Camille and Eulalie had been bored within minutes, wondering, rather loudly, why the lighthouse didn’t do something more exciting. They’d wanted flares or fireworks, something big and bold. They couldn’t see the simple beauty of something working with quiet efficiency, doing just what was needed.

But I saw it.

I breathed in deeply. “What if I make a bargain with Viscardi myself? I could stop this from happening, and no one else would have to die.”

He looked horrified. “Absolutely not.”

“Cassius, it might be the only way to stop this before someone else gets hurt. I can’t lose another one of my sisters.”

“And I can’t lose you,” he said, his eyes flashing over mine like burning stars.

Hot tears fell down my cheeks. “There must be something I could offer him, something that wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

He shook his head. “That’s what everyone who summons him thinks. They all think they’ll be the one to outsmart him. They’ll be the one who can create a truly perfect deal. It’s never happened. Viscardi always has an edge.”

He sat down on the top step, leaving room for me to join him.

“I heard a lot about his bargains while growing up. Pontus likes inviting Viscardi into the Brine. No one amuses him like the Tricksters. They were all terrible. Viscardi always manages to sneak in some twist, create some mischief. He told Pontus about a pair of sisters who each had her heart set on the same man. When the man fell for the younger sister, the older one, heartbroken, summoned Viscardi.”

I sank down beside him. “I can’t imagine wanting something badly enough to summon a Trickster.”

“When certain kinds of people get desperate enough, they’re willing to do anything.”

Thunder, booming and wild, echoed around his words. The storm was growing even stronger, and I too wanted to howl. I tried not to think about what was going on at Highmoor in our absence. I would only drive myself mad. Turning to Cassius, I fixed my eyes on him. “What happened with the sisters?”

“Viscardi appeared and listened to the older sister’s request. He said he’d give her her heart’s desire, happily, but he required one small thing. Just a memento, really. He wanted something of the younger sister’s. Something she deemed precious.”

It sounded so simple, such an inconsequential bargain. If I’d been in the younger sister’s place, what would Viscardi take from me? One of Mama’s necklaces? My favorite hair ribbon? What did I truly deem precious?

Verity flashed into my mind, safe and warm in sleep. Camille beside me at the piano, our fingers bumping into each other as we stumbled through a new song, laughing with every wrong note. The triplets, the Graces…

A cold snake of horror slithered deep inside me, coiling in the pit of my stomach. “She didn’t agree, did she?”

Cassius nodded slowly, knowing I’d already guessed the outcome. “The older sister was betrothed to the man and did marry him, as the bargain promised. It was a beautiful wedding, and the villagers said she made a lovely bride. But at the altar, as the man finished saying his vows to unite them, Viscardi arrived, demanding payment. ‘Payment?’ the bride exclaimed, mortified at the interruption. ‘My sister is over there.’ She pointed. ‘She’s even wearing her prized hair combs. Take them from her and leave me be.’?”