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Of the Animancer who yearned for life and the Necromancer who yearned for death, the wrong twin had been culled.
She snorted. “If you want a doormat, find yourself a wife. We’re talking business.”
“How’s the, er, war going?” “Grand,” he said. “I left some body parts in the icebox for you to commune with later.” “Oh, grand. I thought I’d have to ask for that.”
Of course the bastard had a magnificent cock. No wonder he was so bloody arrogant.
“I believe that millions of years ago, this was all at the bottom of an ocean. In another million years, it all will be again. Anything that happens between now and then is insignificant.” And people call me cynical. “A nihilist,” she said at length. “Cheerful.” “Does the Necromancer disagree?” “Oh, not at all. Humanity is a transitory plague. Bound to drive ourselves to extinction sooner or later.” He glanced at her with a half-smile. “Cheerful.”
Money is the easiest currency of power and the least worth having.
Blood from the living was a pleasant change for a Necromancer. Not that Cora would admit that out loud.
“Got me a big bed upstairs with a handsome bloke tied to it. You as fun as your brother was, love?”
I can make a lady’s courses stop. Or start again.” She gave Cora a meaningful wink.
magic abortion!!!
“On the contrary. We should be grateful women only seek equality, not revenge.”
Straddling the Realms of Living and Death, she stood over Verek as his eyes emptied and his life ebbed away. She smiled.
“Let them fear you, Cora. Fuck them. If they slander you, rot out their tongues. If they strike you, rot off their hands. Send their arses to the Death Realm and be done with it.”
Cora was nine years old, on her knees on the cold stone floor as Sister Jessica lashed her with a switch and the bitter truth. She was twelve years old, sobbing as Felix stole the last of her innocence. She was sixteen years old, hanging from a noose as Mother’s pets cheered. She was thirty years old, stripped bare before her executioners. Abomination.
MY SHAYLAAAA 😭😭😭
“Someone’s smuggling cargo in my smuggled cargo?” Bane said. “Bastard.
“Were those your rotten handprints on her body?” he snarled. “The Unweaver’s devilish handiwork. Do you deny it?” She winced. The hands he’d been praising for their artistry an hour before were now atrocities.
😭
“Oh, mo chroí. You’re safe with me now. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Haven’t you done enough penance for being born?” “I’m a monster,” she whispered. Gently, he swept back her hair and trailed soft kisses down the column of her throat. “You are beautiful, Cora. Let me show you how beautiful you are.”
Lips parried in the mating of tongues.
we will never escape
As they shopped, Anita regaled her with gang gossip. Who was fucking whom? Everyone, apparently, all the time. Dimitri’s lovemaking was so tender Anita had been half-convinced she was in love with him afterwards. Who was trying to kill whom? Also everyone, all the time.
Cigar clamped in his teeth, his gaze fell on Cora in a lecherous onceover. “She’d be prettier if she had any tits.” Scowling, Cora crossed her arms over the tits in question. “It’s easier for you to change your beauty standards than it is for me to change my body to meet them,” she said. “Arsehole.”
He knew she’d killed Verek and could kill him too. It was both liberating and alarming how few qualms Cora had at that prospect. “Th–the Unweaver,” he whispered, palming the revolver strapped in an elaborate belt around his paunch. “The Unweaver… is… a woman?” Nope, definitely no qualms.
“So desperate to be loved, yet so convinced you are unlovable.”
He caged her against the piano, arms bracketing her. Their faces were whisper close. Reason fled and heat surged in its wake. “Do you have feelings for me, Cora?” he asked in a low voice. “Yes. Several. Contempt. Outrage. Disgust.” His hooded eyes caught on her parted lips, and the air thickened as he dipped his head. “Something tells me just how you'd like to”—he nipped her throat, over her throbbing pulse— “release those feelings.”
Cora ripped the wings off the butterflies in her stomach, one by one.
“Do you know what I see when I look at you?” he said softly. “Your latest scheme?” “I see a woman with enough power to bring the world to its knees, yet you let them hold you down with the tips of their fingers.”
“Won’t you introduce us to your enchanting mademoiselle, Monsieur Bane?” came an oily voice like dogshit squishing between her toes.
“What’s with this get up, anyways? My Lorena—my sweet bride that you took from me—would’ve never worn something like that. No real woman would be caught dead dressed in a man’s suit. Women should be feminine, but modest. Are you even a woman?” “That’s a lot of words for no one will have sex with me.”
“Do you have any weapons on you, mon cœur? Hm? Just this knife? Oh, and this one? And this one? And this one? And— just give me all your weapons.”
With a fierce rip, she unwove the causeway of threads through his groin. The skin of his scrotum loosened, splitting at the seams as the rot spread deeper.
Her eyes darted to Bane, fearful she’d gone too far. “Merciless,” he said. “I approve.”
The darkness in him called out to the darkness in her.
Of course. It was reasonable. Sensible. Devastating.
Dimitri thudded a heavy bag of weaponry onto the gold bar. “I have plan. Shoot way in. Kill everyone not dream mage.” “Wait, wait.” Cora held up a hand to stymie the gang’s chorus of protests. “Let the man talk.”
“Blow up door,” Dimitri suggested, tossing a grenade like an apple. “You oughta be a genius, Dimitri,” Cora said with growing appreciation for the Hydromancer.
“How old are you?” With an exasperated sound, he searched the dark hallway before responding. “Thirty-five.” “How long have you been thirty-five?”
okay Edward and Bella
All she had wanted, from one wretched day to the next, was to be with Teddy. But he had hated himself more than he loved her. He had been her everything, and she hadn’t been enough. Even in death, he didn’t want to be near her. Memories weren’t enough to survive on.
“You showed me more kindness with only a sliver of your heart than anyone with a full one ever has. Honestly, I’m amazed you weren’t even more of an arsehole.”
“Where are you going?” she asked his retreating back. “To throw myself into the Thames. I’ll make you breakfast first.”
A relief after all this suffering, when she didn’t think there’d be anything to laugh about again. Tossing her head back, she laughed harder. “Ah, there it is,” he said with a marveling smile. “My favorite sound. The moment your laugh becomes a cackle.”
Malachy had seen every darkness in her. Her worst moments, her most shameful secrets, her bitterest regrets. He saw the blood on her hands and the unrepentant fire in her eyes. He saw her. And in him, she saw a kindred darkness. They held a candle to the darkest part of each other and didn’t flinch.
“What is this feeling?”
SO SUDDEN AND NEW
The end of the world was nigh, and he was stuck in a fucking meeting.
