A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)

by Deborah Harkness

me.” “You didn’t do it for me,” Sarah said, shooting Matthew an accusatory glance. “You did it so he wouldn’t feel the urge to bite Diana.” Matthew smiled mildly and pulled the cork from a bottle he’d brought in from the Range Rover. “Wine, Sarah?” She eyed the bottle suspiciously. “Is that imported?” “It’s French,” he said, pouring the deep red liquid into her water tumbler. “I don’t like the French.” “Don’t believe everything you read. We’re much nicer than we’re made out to be,” he said, teasing her into a grudging smile. “Trust me, we’ll grow on you.” As if to prove it, Tabitha jumped onto his shoulder from the floor and sat there like a parrot for the rest of the meal.

I was left with little to do but watch them—these three creatures I loved so much—and

No magic was necessary to understand his pain and regret. It was everywhere evident—in his gentle touch, the words he murmured in the darkness, and his body that was so solid next to mine. Gradually he let go of the worst of his fear and anger.

At the mention of another member of her species, Tabitha strutted into the house through the cat door. With a look of complete devotion, she dropped a tiny, dead field mouse at Matthew’s feet. “Merci, ma petite,” Matthew said gravely. “Unfortunately, I am not hungry at present.” Tabitha yowled in frustration and hauled her offering off to the corner, where she punished it by batting it between her paws for failing to please Matthew.

‘The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.’”

“Stephen Proctor was bewitching Ashmole 782 so that no one but his daughter could call it from the stacks.” Matthew sounded sure.

“Sarah Bishop, if you embarrass us in front of Matthew’s son, I’ll never forgive you.” My resulting fit of giggles quickly turned into full-blown laughter. Sarah was the first to join in, followed by Em. Matthew sat and smiled as if he’d been dropped into a lunatic asylum but was too polite to mention it.

Rebecca legally changed her name to Bishop. Rebecca was a widow, with no husband to argue with. It was an act of defiance.” Matthew gave me a long look. Defiance, it seemed to say, was clearly a genetic trait.

Tabitha was the first to avert her eyes when, after several long moments, the cat discovered an urgent need to groom herself.

“Do you think he’d let me walk past Diana to get her test results?” Miriam asked Marcus. “That depends on how pissed off he is. If you’d blindsided my wife that way, I’d poleax you and then eat you for breakfast. I’d sit tight if I were you.” Miriam’s chair scraped against the floor. “I’ll risk it.” She darted past.

“Is everything all right at home?” The words escaped before I thought them through, and Matthew’s eyes softened. “Home?” The significance of the word was not lost on Ysabeau either. “Yes, we are all well here. It is very . . . quiet since you both left.”

“Sleep,” he said, kissing me behind the ear. “I’m here.” His cold hand curved over my belly, already protecting children yet to be born.

Matthew shook his head at the exchange and took the opportunity (since everyone else was otherwise engaged) to pin me behind the refrigerator door. My shirt was askew and my hair tumbling around my ears when our son came into the room with an armload of wood. “Did you lose something behind the refrigerator, Matthew?” Marcus’s face was the picture of innocence. “No,” Matthew purred. He buried his face in my hair so he could drink in the scent of my arousal. I swatted ineffectually at his shoulders, but he just held me tighter. “Thanks for replenishing the firewood, Marcus,” I said breathlessly.

“Magic is not the only answer,” Sarah said tartly. “It’s like using a chain-saw to cut bread. Sometimes a knife will do.”

“Are you managing me?” I asked darkly. “You’ve just now noticed?” He chuckled. “It’s been my full-time job for weeks.”

Juliette’s nails cut into my arm. “Kiss her, Matthew, or I will make her bleed.” Cupping my face with one careful, gentle hand, he struggled to push up the corners of his mouth into a smile. “It will be all right, mon coeur.” Matthew’s pupils were dots in a sea of gray-green. One thumb stroked my jaw as he bent nearer, his lips nearly touching mine. His kiss was slow and tender, a testament of feeling. Juliette stared at us coldly, drinking in the details. She crept closer as Matthew drew away from me. “Ah.” Her voice was blank and bitter. “You like the way she responds when you touch her. But I can’t feel anymore.”

I’d seen Ysabeau’s anger and Baldwin’s ruthlessness. I’d felt Domenico’s desperation and smelled the unmistakable scent of evil that hung around Gerbert. But Juliette was different. Something fundamental was broken within her.

“From birth I have searched for you,” Matthew whispered with a smile, his accent strongly French. “Since finding you I have been able to hold you in my arms, have heard your heart beat against mine. It would have been a terrible thing to die without knowing what it feels like to truly love.” Tiny shudders swept over him from head to toe and then subsided.

“Drink,” I said, steadying his head. Matthew’s eyelids flickered again, and his nostrils flared. He recognized the scent of my blood and struggled to get away. My arms were heavy and strong as oak branches, connected to the tree at my back. I drew my open, bleeding elbow a fraction closer to his mouth. “Drink.”

He tilted my head back and to the side, then lowered his mouth to my throat. There was no terror then, just surrender. “Diana,” he said with complete satisfaction. So this is how it happens, I thought. This is where the legends come from.

I pressed Matthew’s body into mine, encouraging him to drink more deeply. His relish when he did so was evident. How he’d hungered for me, and how strong he’d been to resist.

I love you. He gave another start of surprise. This was my gift. I am inside you, giving you life.

“Giving him your blood like that was unspeakably dangerous. He might not have been able to stop drinking.” A note of admiration had crept into her voice.

“Ysabeau?” My voice cracked, and my eyes filled with sudden tears. “I am here, Diana.” Ysabeau sounded as musical as ever. “I almost lost him.” “You should have obeyed him and gone as far away from Juliette as you could.” Ysabeau’s tone was sharp before turning soft once more. “But I am glad you did not.”

“What did you promise the goddess in exchange for his life, Diana?” “Anything she wanted.”

“You promised me you would be less reckless.” There was anger in his voice. I was angry with him, too. “You were supposed to be indestructible.”

“Do I count as a thing?” he asked her. “Do you have a pulse? Of course you’re not a thing!” It was one of the most positive statements Sarah had ever made about vampires.

“I told you this wasn’t about the Bishops or the de Clermonts,” Em said to Sarah. “It’s not even about Matthew and Diana and whether they can be together. It’s about Sophie and Nathaniel, too. It’s about the future, just as Diana said. This is how we’ll fight the Congregation—not just as individual families but as a—What did you call it?” “Conventicle,” Miriam answered. “I always liked that word—so delightfully ominous.” She settled back on her heels with a satisfied smile. Matthew turned to Nathaniel. “It would seem your mother was right. You do belong here, with us.”

When Matthew started after us, Sarah put a hand out and stopped him. “Stay here.” Matthew’s face had gone gray again. He didn’t like me in a different room, never mind a different time.

“It’s time for you to take a big step into the mysterious, Diana. The magic and wonder that was always your birthright is waiting for you. Now, think about where you want to be.”

“How long have I been gone?” I felt light-headed and disoriented, but otherwise fine. “About ninety seconds,” Sarah said. “More than enough time for Matthew to have a nervous breakdown.”

“What should I do?” “Nothing.” This would be the hardest thing about timewalking for him. “What are you always telling me? Close your eyes, relax, and let me do the rest.” I grinned wickedly. He laced his fingers through mine. “Witch.”

“I did wonder if you would take him on, once you knew who he was—who he still is. It would seem you’re not afraid to have a tiger by the tail.”

“I wish you didn’t have to go.” “I’m sorry, Marcus.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and rested my warm fingers lightly on his cold flesh. “For what?” His smile was bright and true. “For making my father happy?”

“Good thing she isn’t a witch,” I said when we got back into the car. “She would have turned me into a newt and flown off with you on her broomstick.”

The Shadow of Night, Containing Two Poeticall Hymnes devised by G. C. gent. 1594. The book smelled old but not unpleasant, like incense in a dusty cathedral. Just like Matthew, Sarah thought with a smile.

Remember the past—and await the future.