“But you do,” he said. A sickly smile twisted his mouth. “If you say the words, I will know you mean it.”
I stared at him. Disgust curdled my stomach. I could almost see, from his mind, how it made a grotesque kind of sense. This creature, this thing that had once been Will, wanted to bind me to him with whatever power could come to hand. And nothing was more binding than the bonds of marriage. The Stone would be mine, but what was mine would be his.
“Don’t do this, Will,” I said. “If you care about me at all, you will not do this to me.”
“I knew it.” He fell back, loosened his grip. “You mean to betray me. If I tell you where it is, you’ll leave me here to die.”
He turned away. I stood. I backed out of the room. And when I had shut the door behind me, I ran.
20
I wasn’t going to marry Will. The very thought of it made me want to scream. I ran down the stairs, out of the inn, into the cold salty night.
I wasn’t going to marry him, but I found myself looking up into the night sky for a church spire and following it to the church steps. A cold, horrible solution occurred to me. I could marry him, take the Stone, then let him die. Become a widow. I did not want to marry him, or let him die, but wasn’t it better to do both than lose the Stone, or live with Will as my husband?
What else was there? If I refused him, the Stone would die. Oh, I could look for it, of course. But I had little hope that I would find it. I tried to ignore it calling to me. Would the calling stop, one day? When it lay at the bottom of the sea, perhaps? I didn’t know which was worse: the thought of living with this longing unfulfilled for the rest of my life, or the fear of what would be left behind when it went away.
A breath became a sob, and I choked on it. If I let myself cry now, I would find it hard to stop. I had to think, but my mind swam.
Is this all it takes to deter you?
My mother’s voice again. The only voice in the world I wanted to hear even less than Will’s.
I would have done anything to make the Stone mine. Anything. This? This is nothing, and you quail. The Stone should have chosen me instead.
I shook my head. Nothing? Would it be nothing to take Will’s hand and swear to love and obey him? To bind myself to him for the rest of my life, or at least his? Even if I let him die immediately after, it would be a horror. Bile rose in my throat. Once I had dreamed of marrying Will, and now he had turned it into a nightmare.
I stood and started away from the church. There had to be another way. I walked down to the docks, staring at each ship. The Stone pulsed in me, but no stronger before any particular vessel. It was only a few hours before dawn. When it came, I could run down the dock and call out to each ship’s captain, trying to convince them to give me what Will had hidden. It would be impossible to reach them all before they sailed, but perhaps I would be lucky. Perhaps I’d find the right captain, and somehow he would be persuadable.
Despair lurched in my belly. It was too small a chance of success. Too great a chance I would lose the Stone. Lose everything. I had to do what Will insisted. I turned it over in my mind and forced down my revulsion. It was small comfort that I did not have to be married to him for long. Despite everything, I did not want to see him dead.
I turned from the docks in time to see a tall, blond figure in a blue military-style coat walking away. I squinted after him for a moment. My heart stuttered with instinctive fear. Valentin.
We were supposed to meet in Caen, not here, though it was no great surprise that he had chosen this port to sail from. I calmed myself. Then I followed.
I thought I stayed far enough behind to remain unseen, but on the steps of a tavern, Valentin turned. He looked directly at me, skulking in the shadows across the street.
“Thea,” he said.
My first, foolish thought was to run. I reminded myself of what I had to gain. I stepped into the light of the gas streetlamp.
“Is my father with you?” I called across the street.
“Yes,” said Valentin. “Is Percy with you?”
I did not answer at first. I knew what I needed from Valentin, but the old impulse to protect Will had not yet died.
“Do not worry, Thea,” said Valentin. “I am here to do as you asked. Your father made a convincing case. I have brought Dominic, and we will all go to France with the Stone to heal your mother. When that is done, you will give me Percy, and the Stone. Just as you said, yes?”
It was late. The street was still and dark. No one was out but Valentin and me, and yet the shadows seemed full of witnesses.
“Yes,” I agreed. A lie. “But I need your help.”
Valentin went very still. “What kind of help?”
“He has put the Stone on one of the boats, but he will not tell me which one unless I … unless I do something I am not prepared to do. He requires…” I hesitated. Will deserved it. This was the only way. Yet still the word left a nauseous taste in my mouth. “Persuasion.”
Even in the dim light I saw the grim satisfaction spread across Valentin’s face.
“Tell me where he is,” he said.
I swallowed hard. Will
