Page 105 of Bloodgrove

A slow smile spread across Will’s lips. “How thoroughly you destroyed me.”

Eric laughed darkly.

Chapter 52

“May I watch?”

Eric’s question had sounded so innocent, accompanied by kisses along Will’s throat as they lay among soft pillows. Will had thought nothing of it when he said yes, still lulled by the lingering high of what had happened between them.

But now, as he pushed open the double doors to the ballroom, he regretted it. The vast construction site opened before him, moonlight alternating with deep shadow, painting the mountains of materials in silver and black. Frost flowers from the Rough Nights spread across the windows where the rain had frozen.

Silent as though he were still the monster, Eric moved through the hall, picking up a mosaic tile here and there, letting sand run through his fingers, brushing his hand across the slabs of marble.

“It reminds me of my workshop,” he said, half to himself. Will had to strain to hear him. “This is how my chimeras begin. A pile of flesh and bones.”

Will had wondered about Eric and his creatures and decided he would rather not hear the gruesome details. But there was something fascinating about watching Eric wander through his construction site, dressed in one of Will’s shirts and trousers, and the last of Will’s doubts about bringing him here fell away. Was this what it felt like to grow up in a city where magic was allowed? Where people could speak so casually about the similarities between their crafts?

Will went to the place where he had prepared everything, positioned so that the entire ballroom lay before him. He spread his sketches and plans across the unfinished floor beside bowls and glasses filled with magical ingredients.

A curse escaped him when he tried to kneel. The freshly bandaged wounds protested at every movement.

From across the room, he heard Eric laugh, and he rolled his eyes. Eric had tended to his injuries with soft touches and warm care, but at times Will had suspected he had been admiring his handiwork more than treating it.

For now, he would ignore that.

He let his gaze travel over the ingredients. The siren scales shimmered even in the weak light, and pain tightened through Will’s chest. Saint would have been proud of how Will used his materials.

His memory ripped something open in him, and the nervousness returned like a tidal wave. He had to brace himself against the dusty boards, his arms trembling as he fought for breath, as though the water were dragging him under.

Magic was a cruel lover. It demanded sacrifice after sacrifice, greedier than any monster.

The taste of salt on Will’s tongue felt like a mockery, the presence of the Albatross a bitter reminder of what Will had to give up. He picked up the kitchen cleaver lying beside the ingredients the god had whispered to him about in his dreams, and his lips curled with contempt.

Why not simply chop off his entire leg while he was at it, or tear the ribs from his chest?

When he had dreamed among the vampires of turning his bones into a palace, it had still felt like freedom. But now that he knew the price of his magic, it was cruel. Magic did not merely want his life. It wanted his body as well, piece by piece.

“What are you planning to do with the cleaver?” Eric asked suddenly from behind him.

Unable to make himself say it aloud, Will slipped out of one slipper and revealed his right foot, where a poorly healed red scar marked the place his little toe had once been.

“I sacrifice.”

Eric crouched behind him and leaned closer. “There are mages who can regrow bone. I will look into it.”

Will glanced over his shoulder, irritated. “Why?”

“Eventually, you will run out of bones to sacrifice.”

He met Will’s gaze calmly, then reached into his trouser pocket and let a train ticket flutter down onto Will’s workspace.

“Take it.” Eric’s expression turned serious. “Finish this, if helping Elodie matters to you so much, and then go to the station. The train will leave as soon as you present the ticket.”

Will picked it up carefully. “I cannot. You know that. Elodie has a plan.”

He felt Eric shift his weight, wrap his arms around him, and rest his face against Will’s back.

“Please,” he whispered against the bandages. “Please go.”