Rory Blackwood's Arc

Chapter 10 of 13

The eclipse was set. Rory spent the weeks before it drilling her sigils until her fingers cramped. She showed Aphrodite the clean version of her magic in the grove: fire she could pinch out, a chill she could pull back. What she never showed anyone was the other thing. The part that came up under the pretty part. The part that killed the yard on her birthday before it grew back doubled. It felt like a second mouth behind her ribs, and it opened when she got scared. Luna sat on the floor of their room the night of the eclipse, braiding a red thread around Rory's wrist. She tied it off and did not let go. "You're going to lie to him down there," Luna said. "Aren't you." "I don't lie to him." "You hide. Same thing under a foundation." Luna finally let go. "He's opening a hole in the world for you. If it collapses because you didn't tell him what you actually carry, that's on you." Rory looked at the cat curled on her pillow. Void watched her back with those bright eyes and did not blink. "He'll stop," Rory said. "If he sees it." "Then he stops," Luna said. "Better than buried." The chapel room was cold. Kael was already crouched at the flagstones, palm flat. Shadows pooled at his wrist like water. His eyes were fully black. "Ready," he said. "Wait." He looked up. The black held. "There's a thing I do," she said. Her throat closed. She forced it. "Under the fire. Under the cold. It kills first. Then it makes more. I don't know how to stop it once it starts. If I panic down there, it will come up." He watched her. He did not move. "Show me," he said. She held out her hand over the candle. She let the second mouth open a crack. The flame went black and thin. The wax under it curdled. A dead smell lifted off the table. She shut it again fast. Her hand shook. Kael did not flinch. He took her shaking hand and pressed it flat against his chest, over his heart. His skin was warm through the black shirt. "Okay," he said. "Okay?" "I can hold shadow around it. If it comes up, feed it to me. Don't hide it. Look at me and feed it to me." She nodded. She was crying and did not wipe it. He leaned down and kissed her. It was short and steady, like in the ways he spoke. His mouth was warm. Her second mouth stayed shut. He pulled back. The flagstone under his hand dropped away into black. A passage yawned open under the old foundation. Cold air came up from it. "Now," he said. Rory picked up Void, tucked him under her arm, and stepped down into the dark with Kael's hand in hers.