Black Magic

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I can't breathe. I—I can't think, my mind is buzzing with words that can't be true—my head hurts, my chest aches. This can't—it isn't true, it has to be a lie, another cruel trick from Victon, another way for him to fuck with my head. Because—because—

"I am not your son." Sixten spits out the words, his voice pure venom and spite. I flinch, gasping on a breath that lodges itself in my throat like something solid. The words—they're confirmation but they're also wrong, they aren't true, and—I can't make sense of any of this. Everything is upside-down, mirrored, flipped and skewed and distorted.

Victon laughs; low, humourless and cruel. The scar through my hand twinges. "Repeat that all you like, Sixten." He grins, the point of his long canine glinting in the low light. "It won't change what we both know to be true." Red eyes flash to me—me, kneeling hunched over and nauseous on the ground, arms wrapped tight around my abdomen because I'm coming loose, spilling out. "You seem surprised, doll. Did you not recognize the similarities between us? Did you not wonder why you sought him out?"

Sixten—he actually growls. The sound is low and visceral and violent, reverberating down the length of my spine. "Do not call her that."

"Such insolence toward your father." Victon's tone is light and casual, as though—as though he hasn't just shattered everything. "Did your mother never teach you to respect authority?" Sixten jerks, chains clinking together. His fury—it swirls around him, powerful and destructive, corroding the edges of my panic. "Rather an entrancing woman, she was. Quite the spitfire." Another growl, vicious and senseless. Victon's gaze moves to me. "Rather like our dear Desdemona. They even look alike, pale eyes and blonde hair. Dear Freud would have been ever so delighted with you two."

"Shut up." I barely realize it's my own voice until the words have spilled completely from my mouth. My fingers brush along the hilt of my dagger, closing around it and pulling it close against me. "Stop—stop talking." There's a tremor in my voice, the words thin and wavering—but my world is starting to stabilize. Nothing is quite as off-kilter. "Don't talk about his mom."

Victon only smiles, exuding pure charm. "Jealous, are we? Don't bother, doll. It's been twenty-six years; I highly doubt dear Astrid is still up to my standards."

"Shut up!" Magic crackles through my blade as it swings through the air. A lock of Victon's carefully styled hair falls into his face with the force of it, his suit shifting as though hit by a strong wind—but Victon himself doesn't move. Like he can't even feel it. The grooves of my carved name dig into my palm, panic spiking like a drug in my bloodstream. He's—he's so powerful, so strong, I can't fight him I can't win—

Victon tuts, shaking his head at me. Scolding me. Like I'm a disobedient child. "There's no need for that, doll." Sixten hisses, his anger palpable; it's terrifying and electrifying all at once, running through the darkness like a current. "You don't have the power to defeat me, and I highly doubt either of you will be making any sort of escape." He smiles, sending painful shivers down my spine. "The simplest solution would be, of course, to give up. You belong to me, now. Both of you. You would both do well to remember that."

He's so . . . certain, like it's an inevitable truth that Sixten and I just haven't accepted yet. And—it's terrifying, horrifying, that he can be so sure, that he has that sort of control—but to a small, spiteful part of me, it's infuriating.

"Neither of us belong to you," I say, my voice low and stronger than I expected. Darkness laces along the edges of my tone. "You can't own a person, and you sure as hell don't own either of us."

"Don't be foolish, doll." Victon takes a step into the large room, hands clasped behind his back, cutting an imposing figure against the light of the hallway. "Everything in this hotel belongs to me. Everything in my domain is mine by rights." His grin sharpens, teeth glinting like a blade. "I am, after all, the most powerful being here. Who could stop me?"