Steadfast(83)

—including Nadia.

How badly He had wanted Nadia to join them. How eager He had been for the child of two witching bloodlines to take up magic in his service. Already He valued Nadia.

Soon He would treasure her beyond any of His other possessions.

Even though Elizabeth was the one who had served Him for centuries, the one who would make his final triumph possible . . .

A thought flickered in her mind: It is unfair.

Elizabeth banished that thought immediately. It was not given to her to question the One Beneath. She was to love and serve Him with no thought of reward.

And yet the hot ember of new jealousy burned down deep within her heart.

Mateo felt numb. He pushed himself to his feet to walk toward Nadia.

She stood before him, trembling. “I had to do it,” she said, and her voice broke. “I know you don’t understand. I know you can’t forgive me for it. But it was the only way, Mateo. Please believe me.”

Very slowly he said, “Of course I believe you.”

Nadia sobbed once, but she shook her head, like it couldn’t be true.

Mateo grabbed her into his embrace. “Don’t you think I know you’d never do that unless—that you just gave yourself up for all of us? Nadia. Oh, Jesus, Nadia. I know you. I love you. You did what you had to do.” He kissed her hair, clutched her close, and let her cry her heartbreak into his chest, so that the sound was lost in the rolling of the sea.

Verlaine sat in the hospital room, her head on the same pillow as Uncle Gary. She’d already cried all of her tears for Asa. If the worst happened now, she didn’t think she could cry anymore. Maybe she couldn’t feel anything anymore. All the emotion that had been drained out of everybody else when they looked at her—she was starting to think it had been drained from her, too. By the end of this there wouldn’t be anything left of her but resignation.

She wondered where Asa was now, whether she’d ever find out what had become of him. Could she even ask Nadia? Nobody else cared about demons.

That’s the one thing we had in common, she realized.

If only she could have given him something in return . . .

Uncle Gary’s monitors started making different sounds. It was all just so much beeping and blinking to Verlaine, but she knew same from different, and this was definitely new. She jerked upright, terrified that at any moment he would flatline.

Instead she saw Uncle Gary open his eyes.

“Hey,” she whispered, squeezing his hand tightly. “Can you hear me?”

He nodded, then made a face. “Are there tubes in my nose? Oh, gross.”

“Lie still.” Doctors—they needed doctors! “Hang on, okay? I’ll be right back, I swear.”

In the next bed over, Mrs. Purdhy turned her head as she, too, began to awaken; Riley Bender started to stretch. They were okay, too. Everyone was waking up—everyone at once: Nadia must have won.

Verlaine had thought she’d never be able to feel anything again, but she’d been so wrong. Her heart still had room for joy.

By the time Nadia and Mateo returned to shore, Mateo had told her about what Gage had done. But she shook her head when he claimed he’d broken the spell. “Not possible,” she said. “You don’t possess magic.”

“Men being Steadfasts isn’t supposed to be possible, either,” Mateo pointed out. His arm supported her as they walked along the beach. Her entire body shook with exhaustion, and with the enormity of what she’d done. If Mateo hadn’t stood by her, she wasn’t sure she could have borne it.

When they went into Mateo’s home, Gage was gone—but Verlaine and Faye were sitting in the living room, munching on a large plate of toast Gage had apparently left behind. Verlaine was listening to Faye raptly as they sat by the fire.

“A thrall?” Verlaine said through a mouthful of toast. “What’s that?”

“A servant to a Sorceress,” Faye said.

Verlaine went very still. “You mean, like a demon?”

“No,” Faye explained. “Demons are supernatural beings, with motives and powers of their own. Thralls are humans who fall under a Sorceress’s control. Usually it begins with love—the thrall falling for the Sorceress, then going to bed with her. Once they’re bound by sex, then the Sorceress can take over his will as absolutely and often as she wants.” Then Faye saw them and smiled. “You made it.”

“Yeah.” Mateo’s eyes met Nadia’s, but only for a second. He tried to make a joke. “So, Gage finally got with the girl of his dreams without realizing she was the girl of his nightmares.”

“Before we bury the lede here—Nadia, you did it!” Verlaine flung her arms around them both. “Oh, Nadia, you did it! Uncle Gary’s just fine.”

“Momma’s spell worked?” Faye grinned at the group of them; Nadia suspected she would have liked to join in. “I’m so glad.”

“The spell worked.” Nadia’s words were muffled until she pulled back from Verlaine. “But it didn’t stop Elizabeth.”

And as she told them the rest—the price she’d had to pay—she could only watch as Faye’s and Verlaine’s faces fell. Even Mateo winced as he heard Nadia finish: “As of my oath, I’m the same as Elizabeth. I’m a Sorceress.”