A Darkness Strange and Lovely (Something Strange and Deadly #2)(56)

Elijah’s demon. I would know what to look for. Give me the letters, El. I can help.”

“Can you? Is this why you’ve wanted the letters all this time? To . . . to chase the Black Pullet?”

“What?” Oliver’s voice was barely above a whisper. “How can you say that? If all I wanted was to find the Black Pullet, I would have stolen those letters a long time ago. Yet I haven’t, El. I have kept your trust. I won’t deny those letters mean something to me, but it has nothing to do with the Pullet.”

“So what does it have to do with?” Then it clicked—something else he had said clicked firmly into place. “Your command,” I breathed. “Your final command from Elijah is unfulfilled, so it still drives you. You have to find the Old Man in the Pyramid.”

He twisted his face away.

“Does it hurt you to resist it?”

“Yes,” he whispered, emotion thick in his voice, “but I keep hoping that if you learn necromancy and free me, then the command will end. Or if I could just find this Old Man—before Marcus does—I can fulfill Elijah’s final order. Then this constant ache will stop. And then,” his voice turned into a snarl, “I can destroy the bastard who stole Elijah’s body.”

But to free Oliver—or destroy Marcus—I would need to train my necromancy. I wet my lips, almost relieved that I had to train if I wanted to help my demon.

No! I screamed at myself. You can’t practice necromancy! You promised Joseph.

A frustrated groan slid from my throat. What was happening inside me? Why were my heart and my head in such disagreement?

Oliver’s forehead knit with concern.

“Go on,” I said shakily. “Let’s find a place to . . . to train.” I gestured for him to lead the way, and he pulled me through a crumbling doorway and into a grand hallway. In one corner a wide staircase curled up . . . only to stop halfway, with a pile of smashed marble beneath. Overhead, the gray clouds floated somberly by.

I found a broken column and eased down. Oliver insisted on first dusting off his own broken column—“Do you know how hard it is to get limestone off a suit?”—before finally settling across from me.

My stomach grumbled. “What a shock,” I said drily. “I am hungry. Again. ”

“It’s part of the necromancy, you know.”

“Yes, I guessed that. Whenever I do a spell, I find I’m famished afterward.”

“No.” He shook his head. “You’re only famished when the spell wears off—and you will stay famished until you cast another.”

I tensed. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying you cannot make that hunger go away unless you train.”

“So, this”—I patted my stomach—“is a craving for more magic? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

Oliver didn’t reply, but the wariness in his eyes told me all I needed to know.

“So I am like an opium addict?” My voice grew high-pitched and sharp. “I need more spells to feel good? To feel normal?”

“You’re too bloody strong. I didn’t expect this to happen so quickly. You have a lot of magic to control, but it means there’s a lot of magic to control you.”

“You knew this would happen. You should have told me! I don’t want to be addicted to necromancy, Oliver.” I jumped to my feet and staggered to the foot of the broken stairs. I wanted . . . no, I hungered to destroy Marcus—that was all—but what was the price?

I pressed my hands to my face. Stupid Eleanor.

Footsteps thudded behind me.

“What if I do magic the way Joseph does?” I demanded, my hands muffling my words. “Will the hunger stop?”

Oliver strode in front of me and pulled down my hands. Everything about his expression—from the slant of his brow to the sag of his lips—was apologetic. “I don’t know if that will stop the hunger, El.”

“But I would be using electricity—external power instead of my own.” I searched his face for an answer. “Would that end this . . . this addiction?”

“Perhaps,” Oliver said, his nostrils flaring. “But then you’ll be using electricity. A magnificent idea in theory but ultimately absurd.”

I gulped. I remembered thinking something similar at Madame Marineaux’s—about how inefficient the influence machine was.

“There are limits to what you can do with electricity,” Oliver continued, releasing my hands. “You cannot make a phantom limb, you cannot cast a dream ward, and you certainly cannot defeat Marcus.”

“Why not?”

“Because it is weak, Eleanor.” He lifted his chin imperiously. “Electricity isn’t natural. It’s . . . it is a fake power.”

“How do you know?” I asked. “Have you ever used it?”

“No,” he spat. “And I never will. Setting fire to my veins? It will change me. Kill me. And for what? A single blast of power that I can’t even control. I use real magic, El. I am made of soul, and using my power is as safe and natural as breathing. Just as your magic is.”

“But my natural magic is addictive.” My voice came out quick. “And in the end I’m limited. I only have so much spiritual energy inside of me.”