JACE

"What the hell do you mean?"

"Pills. Very strong. You likely forgot whatever happened when she fed you those. I warned her that the incense would lose its effectiveness. And that the pills would turn into poison if given to you for too long."

Fury lashed through me and I gripped the arms of the chair. So Penelope didn’t seem to give a damn if she harmed me in pursuit of climbing to the upper branches of my family tree.

"Do you want revenge on Penelope?" asked Courtesan Lila.

"She’s my savior. As pissed off as I am, harming her is out of the question."

"She saved you?"

"I was sent to my family’s military camp when I was thirteen. Someone practicing archery missed the target entirely. If she hadn’t thrown herself in front of me, I probably would’ve been struck in the heart."

"Ah, I see. Penelope was what? Thirteen as well?"

"Yes. A village maid who sometimes helped out around the camp."

"And you think it was fate the day that she saved you?"

My gaze snapped to Courtesan Lila. "What else could it be?"

"A trap, of course."

"You mean she set it up so I would be indebted to her?"

"I have no evidence of that, but given what I know of her personality, yes. It’s likely she grew up hard. Scarcity creates unkind people. When you don’t have food or love or shelter, you crave those things. You want them in abundance. But even when you get them, you fear someone taking them away."

"You sound like you’re speaking from experience."

She smiled. Gentle. Sweet. She had such a tranquil demeanor. Soft. Comforting. Like a goddess indulging her supplicant. "I learned different lessons growing up. And yes, I was shaped by them. We are all the sum total of our experiences. But when we become adults and go out into the world on our own, we can’t blame our upbringing for bad decisions. When you know the difference between right and wrong and still choose wrong, you can only blame yourself for the quality of your life."

Her words made me feel uncomfortable. Not just because she said these things about Penelope, but because they resonated in my own heart. I thought she was talking about Penelope. Perhaps she was also talking about me.

"I’ll ask again, Mr. Willowmarch. Do you want revenge?"

"Yes," I answered. "I want that bitch to pay for what she did to me."

Courtesan Lila rose from the divan and drifted across the room to a tall cabinet that held a lot of little drawers. She opened one and withdrew a small gold case. Then she opened a different drawer and took a little leather pouch.

She returned and sat on the divan. She showed me the pouch. "This is a powder made from poisonous mushroom that make the user hallucinate their worst nightmares for twenty-four hours. Some people have committed suicide. Most survive, but they’re never the same afterwards." She paused. "It also works as an abortifacient. The slightest possibility of having your child will be destroyed."

"What if she survives what happens to her?"

"Depends. She might become a fool. Or she might lose her mind entirely. The results may differ, but only in the level of insanity."

"Dying might be better," I said.

"Death is a choice you can make as well. But isn’t suffering in a sanitorium a much better revenge?"

I nodded. "How much? I can pay you anything."

"I don’t need money."

"Then what?"

"I want you to be my knife, Mr. Willowmarch. I’ll give you your revenge if you will take mine, too." She lifted the gold case and showed it to me.

The dragon symbol associated with the palace was embossed on the lid. "This is a gu worm. I raised it myself. For one purpose. The gu worm burrows into a person’s body and takes over the person’s will. Someone with a gu worm inside them will do whatever I want until the creature dies in three days. When the gu worm dies, so does its host."

"You want me to use this gu worm on someone?"

"Fabian Velle."

Shocked, I stared at her open-mouthed. "Fabian? I can’t. He’s my friend."

"Which is why you can get close enough to him to let the gu worm burrow inside him."

"You’re sentencing him to death."

"He deserves to die. The same way Penelope deserves to rot in the crazy house."

I looked at the pouch. After everything Penelope had done, I wanted her to suffer. I thought about how I woke up, alone and naked and covered in my own semen. Used and abused by that woman just so she could secure her place next to my side.

How had I ever been enamored by her?

I thought about Sophia. Clean. Beautiful. Perfect. Already my wife in name. If Penelope were out of our lives, Sophia would love me again. I would give her children. She would give me everything.

Fabian Velle treated women like they were exchangeable. Toys for him to play with and discard. Had Courtesan Lila been among those flowers Fabian had crushed in his pursuit of beauty and pleasure? Even so, did he deserve to die for being a man? For making the mistakes that all men make?

"You’re going to the Governor’s Ball, are you not?" She pointedly looked at my dress uniform. "I take it Penelope will be there, too. She craves the opulence of the wealthy. She likes to pretend she’s one of you. Fabian Velle will be there, too. Two birds." She lifted the items and showed me again. "Two stones."

I could always agree to her terms and then "lose" the gu worm before it got to Fabian. What could Courtesan Lila do?

I wanted Penelope to writhe in a world filled with her fears and nightmares. I wanted to hear her screams as she suffered from the darkness that resided in her own soul. I couldn’t let go of that kind of revenge.

"I agree," I said.