Sixty-One

Quell

Darragh has Beaulah frozen in her grasp, her arm tight across her chest and her blade’s edge firmly at her throat. My grandmother—who tethers people to her House and who has murdered débutants who she accidentally gave toushana to. I can’t move. She is the only living family I have left.

“Leave my granddaughter alone,” she says.

Beaulah holds the red stone tight in one fist. None of Beaulah’s Draguns are here to save her. She sent them back to the Sphere, and we’re at least a hundred paces away. As hope twinges in my chest, Beaulah’s free hand slips into her robes. Silver glints in her hand and she slams the metal into Grandmom’s wrist in a flash. Grandmom howls in pain and Beaulah spins away. They circle one another. I search for the cold inside me, desperate to do something. But my skin is clammy and warm, my magic exhausted from Beaulah’s pull on it.

“You traitorous witch,” Beaulah spits.

“Says the woman trying to steal magic. I also know about all the bodies you’ve buried. Francis Clemmon Hughes, the reporter, the Cabinet!”

“You can’t prove a thing.” She dashes toward me. I scamper backward. My grandmother jumps in the way, jabbing her dagger at Beaulah’s face while blood runs down her arm.

“I said, get away from Quell.”

Beaulah narrowly misses the attack from my grandmother’s blade. I stumble up and back away. They deserve each other. I consider running to the Sphere, trying to salvage something for myself out of this mess. But the cold only answers in wisps. If I want to survive at all, I have to get out of here.

“I could see the betrayal in your eyes the day we made the pact, Darragh.”

“Murdering the Upper Cabinet and blackmailing the rest of us to go along with you is not my idea of good leadership,” Darragh says.

I freeze.

“And robbing your members of their memories to cover for your worthless granddaughter is?”

Covering for me? She altered Abby’s and the others’ memories to protect her secret tether she has on her House. Abby had no idea I was even there at Cotillion. Which gave me a ballroom full of guests who would swear I had nothing to do with the chaotic fallout of House Marionne.

“Don’t act like you’re above such things. I know about those pins you use. The way it softens the memories of your débutants so they can’t fully recall the horrors of those Trials.”

“Sending Jordan to you was a mistake.”

“It saved his life.”

“Too bad it’ll cost your granddaughter hers. You’re not half the woman I am. I do what is necessary.”

“Beaulah, darling, how long have we known each other? So do I.” My grandmother turns to me. “I am so sorry, Quell. Secrets destroy everything.”

I shake my head, my words not coming fast enough.

“Find Nore. She will see you through this.”

“Nore Ambrose is dead.” She told me that herself.

“So many are,” she says. “Find them.”

She puts herself between me and Beaulah.

“Wait.” I reach for her but she shoves me out of the way, hard, before dropping her blade. She opens her hands, where blackness writhes angrily.

“Devour her,” Beaulah yells to her Draguns, forgetting she sent them back to the Sphere. My grandmother slams her hands together, and the toushana between them combusts. Darkness explodes like a cloud of dust. The snow blackens, the ground burns. Beaulah growls, then lunges at my grandmother, her dagger poised to stab. Darragh dashes aside and grabs Beaulah with her dark, magic-filled hands. A shrill scream rips through the air. The air rots with the stench of burning flesh. Beaulah cries out in pain, fumbling the stone. It rolls. I’m dashing for it when Beaulah throws off my grandmother, making her stumble. Then Beaulah kicks the gemstone farther out of my reach. She snatches up my grandmother’s blade. Now doubly armed, she stands over Grandmom, her eyes bloodshot.

Grandmom shouldn’t die like this. Not when I still have so many questions for her. Not when she was the one to come to my aid. As I rush to help her, Beaulah grabs her by the throat and shoves the dagger in her belly. She lets her go and my grandmother falls like a tree. I’m trembling as I pull at her unmoving body while Beaulah dashes for the stone.

When suddenly the Sphere crackles like a clap of thunder.

The whole world stills.

Its dark undulating matter shimmers.

I lose all feeling in my limbs. The numbness moves to my chest. The scar from binding with my toushana throbs. Then a trickle of warmth runs down the crown of my head, slipping over my whole body.

Suddenly, my skin shimmers the same way the Sphere does.

Beaulah gasps. And so do I, as I realize what’s happening.

The Headmistress to House of Marionne is dead.

And so is her only daughter.

It’s passed to me.

I am now Headmistress of House of Marionne.