The Mortal Heart(15)

It contained all the laws that governed his kind.

It was the oldest of books. There were only a few copies in the world. His mother turned the brittle pages carefully, until she reached the right one.

“Carcer.”

The Prison.

The sketch of the Arclight looked exactly like the one resting in the velvet-lined box, sitting on his mother’s kitchen table next to her uneaten étouffée.

“How does it work?”

“It’s rather simple. A person need only touch the Arclight and the Incubus they wish to imprison at the same moment and speak the Carmen Defixionis. The Arclight will do the rest.”

“Is the Carmen Defixionis in the book?”

“No, it’s much too powerful to be trusted to the written word. You must learn the Carmen from someone who knows it, and commit it to memory.” She lowered her voice as if she was afraid someone might be listening. Then she whispered the words that could condemn him to an eternity of misery.

“Comprehende, Liga, Cruci Fige.”

Capture, Cage, and Crucify.

Arelia closed the lid of the box and handed it to Macon. “Be careful. In the Arc there is power, and in the power there is Night.”

Macon kissed her forehead. “I promise.”

He turned to leave, but his mother’s voice called him back. “You’ll need this. Give it to her, too—if she’s really someone you trust.” She scrawled several lines on a piece of parchment.

“What’s this?”

“The only key to that door.” She gestured to the box tucked under his arm. “The only way someone can ever get you back out.”





It was the thing Macon wanted least and most—to see Lila Jane one last time. It had been weeks since he’d seen her, unless you counted the nights he had followed her home from the library, watching her from a distance, wishing he could touch her.

Knowing he couldn’t.

Not now, not when the Transformation was so close. But she was here in his subterranean chamber now, even though he’d told her to stay away. “Jane, you have to get out of here. It’s not safe.”

She walked slowly across the room to where he was standing. “Don’t you understand? I can’t stay away.”

“I know.” He drew her into him and kissed her, one last time.

Macon took something out of a small box in the back of his closet. He put the object in Lila Jane’s hand, closing her fingers around it. It was round and smooth, a perfect sphere. He closed his hand around hers, his voice grave. “I can’t protect you after the Transformation, not when the one thing that poses the greatest threat to your safety is me.” Macon looked down at their hands, gently cradling the object he had hidden so carefully. “If something happens, and you’re in danger… use this.”

Lila Jane opened her hand. The sphere was black and opalescent, like a pearl. But as she watched, the sphere began to change and glow. She could feel the buzz of tiny vibrations emanating from it. “What is it?”

Macon stepped back, as if he didn’t want to touch the orb now that it had come to life. “It’s an Arclight.”

“What is it for?”

“If the time comes when I become a danger to you, you’ll be defenseless. There’s no way you will be able to kill me or hurt me. Only another Incubus can do that.”

Lila Jane’s eyes clouded over. Her voice was a whisper. “I could never hurt you.”

Macon reached out and touched her face tenderly. “I know, but even if you wanted to, it would be impossible. A Mortal cannot kill an Incubus. That’s why you need the Arclight. It’s the only thing that can contain my kind. The only way you would be able to stop me if—”

“What do you mean, contain?”

Macon turned away. “It’s like a cage, Jane. The only cage that can hold us.”

Lila Jane looked down at the dark orb glowing in her palm. Now that she knew what it was, it felt like it was burning a hole in her hand and her heart. She dropped it on his desk, and it rolled across the tabletop, its glow fading to black. “You think I’m going to imprison you in that thing like an animal?”

“I’ll be worse than an animal.”

Tears ran down Lila Jane’s face and over her lips. She grabbed Macon’s arm, forcing him to face her. “How long would you be in there?”

“Most likely, forever.”