Star Cursed
Page 53

Tess’s hands fly to her mouth, as though she’s trying not to be sick. “It’ll be a second Terror. They won’t know it was Inez and Maura, but they’ll find someone to blame. Just like those girls they arrested as oracles.” She turns to me. “We can’t let them do it, Cate!”
“Harwood!” Rory shouts. We all turn to stare at her. “People won’t know the Sisters are responsible. They’ll only know it’s witchery. And if they want to punish witches, or women in general—”
“The girls at Harwood are the easiest target,” I finish.
Rory’s breath comes fast. “We have to get them out. Sachi and Brenna. Now.”
I extricate myself from Finn. “When is the meeting?”
“Wednesday night,” he says.
It’s Saturday. That’s only four days. Not much time to engineer a jailbreak.
I cannot afford to panic. There isn’t any time to waste.
“First I’m going to talk to Inez, and see if there’s any possibility of changing her mind. With or without magic.” I turn to Finn. I don’t want him anywhere near Inez, lest she use him as a bargaining chip against me. “You’ve got to leave. Right now.”
“Wait,” Finn says, raking his hands through his already-messy hair. “What’s this about rescuing Sachi and Brenna?”
“Not just them.” I smooth my peach-colored skirt. “All the girls at Harwood. We’ve got four days to contrive a way to get them out.”
He doesn’t try to argue with me, to tell me that it’s mad or impossible. He just takes my hand. “What can I do to help?”
My mind races. “You said they keep all kinds of files in the Archives. Would they have files on the girls in Harwood?” It would help to know which of the patients are witches, especially ones accused of mind-magic. If Inez is going to start a war, we’ll need to be able to fight back.
“I’ll find out. Tomorrow I’ve got to be at services all day, but Monday I’ll pay a call on Brother Szymborska and do some snooping.”
“That would be grand. Meet me Monday night at the usual spot?” I ask. Finn nods, his gaze darting to my mouth, and I want to kiss him, but not in front of Rory and Tess. I squeeze his hand instead. “Be careful.”
His brow furrows as he slides on the cloak of the Brotherhood. “You, too.”
• • •
A few minutes later, I storm into Sister Inez’s classroom. She’s grading papers in the midafternoon gloom. When she hears me, she looks up, a sharp, wolfish smile flitting over her face. “Your sister can’t keep her mouth shut, can she? That girl needs to learn to control her temper.”
I stop before her heavy oak desk. “I would have found out eventually.”
“Fortunately, it wasn’t until after I had the information I needed from Brother Belastra.” She stresses the word Brother just a tad, and my temper rises, pulling my magic with it. Perhaps I shouldn’t bother with arguing; perhaps I ought to compel her to forget the time and location of the Head Council meeting now. It would be rectifying a mistake, because I should have compelled her in the first place, the night she caught me sneaking out to see Finn.
I don’t know if my mind-magic is strong enough, but I’m willing to find out. I lean over the desk, narrowing my eyes at her.
“Before you go to the trouble of compelling me, I ought to warn you that I’ve already taken precautions.” Inez clicks her tongue against her teeth reprovingly. “How do you ever tell a lie, child? You’re as transparent as glass.”
I am not a child. I clench my hands into fists at her condescension. “What kind of precautions? How do I know you aren’t lying to me again?”
“I never lied to you about my intentions,” she points out, maddeningly.
She’s right. She said she wanted war; I didn’t ask questions. I wanted Finn to stay in New London, and having him spy for the Sisterhood was a noble reason, far less selfish than asking him to give up his job and his family to stay near me.
“I’ve just posted a letter to a dear friend. She’s married a member of the Brotherhood, but she remains loyal to her former Sisters. I told her that I am in danger and gave very clear instructions: if she doesn’t hear about the success of my plan, she will post another letter for me. One that explains the Sisterhood is a coven of witches and that Brother Finn Belastra has known the truth of it all along. I daresay Brother Belastra wouldn’t fare well under charges of treason.”
The smug expression on her face makes me want to slap her. I lean over her desk. “You’re bluffing. You would never write all that down.”
“Perhaps. Or perhaps I wrote it all in code. You can’t know for sure.” Inez taps her pen against the desktop in a steady, maddening rhythm.
I narrow my eyes at her, focusing all my anger into my magic. Tell me who she is.
“I can feel that, Miss Cahill.” Inez’s dark brows slant down, almost touching in the middle. “I’m very good at compulsion myself, you know. I daresay we’re on the same level—though of course it’s hard to know. Feel free to keep trying, but you’ll only exhaust yourself. I’ve been training myself for years to be impervious to it.”
“I won’t let you do this,” I hiss. A muscle in my right eye begins to twitch.
“I don’t see how you can stop me.” She leans back in her wooden chair. “Not without sacrificing every girl in this convent—or starting an outright war between the Brotherhood and the Sisterhood.”
Magic simmers beneath my skin, twitching my fingertips. I fight down the frustration, crossing my arms over my ruffled peach bodice. “What do you hope to accomplish? You have to know this will cause a new Terror.”
Inez fingers the brooch at her throat. “We’re already halfway there, Miss Cahill. I will not stand by and do nothing while we are persecuted. I’ve spent the last twenty years watching Cora cower and cater to them. She’s content to let change come at a snail’s pace. I’m simply speeding things up.”
My mouth falls open. “You want a new Terror. You want the Brothers to do their worst, so we look good in comparison! Don’t you care about all the girls they’ll hurt in the meantime? What about the girls at Harwood?” I remember the beautiful, bruised Indo girl in the uncooperative ward, and little Sarah Mae, who buries birds in the courtyard, and the girl who thinks she’s engaged to a prince. They will be the ones to bear the brunt of this.
“There are casualties in every war.”
I press my knuckles into my stinging eyes. How can she speak of it so callously? “There must be some witches there. You’d give them up?”
“Cora’s already given up on those girls.” Inez shrugs a black-clad shoulder. “Your sister told me about your ill-advised plan to free them. I don’t think they’re worth the trouble. I have bigger fish to fry.”
I don’t. Those girls are not expendable. Not to me.
I throw my hands up in the air in a show of defeat and stalk toward the door.
“Don’t do anything foolish, Miss Cahill,” Inez warns. “Or someone you love will wind up hurt.”
• • •