“I require her blood.”

Julian looked at me. I nodded. With steady hands, he grasped the handle. “Sorry, Liss,” he said.

He pressed the tip into each of her fingertips. Tiny beads of blood swelled where it touched. Warden nodded.

“Paige, Michael—spread the cards.”

Together, we did. We arranged the new deck into a semicircle. Warden took hold of Liss’s hand and wiped her fingers across them, smearing the images with blood.

Warden wiped the blade clean with a cloth. He removed his left glove and clenched his fist around it. There was a gasp. Rephs never removed their gloves. Did they even have hands? Yes, they did. His hand was large, the knuckles scarred. Another gasp came when he drew the sharp edge of the knife through his skin, opening his palm.

His blood seeped from the cut, blurring my perception. He held out his arm and let a few drops of ectoplasm spot each card. Just as Aphrodite sprinkled her nectar on the blood of Adonis. I could feel spirits gathering in the room: drawn to the cards, to Liss, to Warden. They formed a triangle, a rift in the æther. He was opening the door.

Warden pulled on his glove, picked up the cards, and sorted them back into a pile. He placed them on Liss’s bare décolletage, so they touched her skin, and folded her hands over them.

“And from the blood of Adonis,” he said, “came life.”

Liss opened her eyes.

27 The Anniversary

27

The Anniversary

September the first, 2059. Two hundred years since a storm of strange lights crossed the sky. Two hundred years since Lord Palmerston sealed his deal with the Rephaim. Two hundred years since the inquisition into clairvoyance began. And, most important, two hundred years since the establishment of Sheol I, and the great tradition of the Bone Season.

A girl stood in front of me, watching me from the gilded mirror. Her cheeks were hollow, her jaw set tight. It still took me by surprise that this hard, cold face was mine.

My body was sheathed in a white dress, with elbow-length sleeves and a square neckline. The elasticized fabric cleaved to what little figure I had left. Though Warden had fed me as much as he could, there wasn’t always food to give, and he risked raising suspicions if he gave it. The rest of the time, I’d been on skilly and toke with the harlies.

Nashira had not invited me to another feast.