Chapter 48 Moon Behind Clouds
Pearls
Sadie’s gaze lingered on his masked face. Strange fellow. Not content with lodging over a building that stored corpses, he had come here after midnight to tell fortunes beneath a lamp.
“Are your readings ever accurate?” she asked.
He gestured invitingly. “Try and you shall see.”
Sadie sat opposite him and picked a card.
He twirled it between graceful fingers. “Moon of the cast climbs full and bright; a passing cloud will veil half its light. Fear not when fullness breaks to void–what wanes will surely round again. Dark clouds hide the moon, so the road ahead remains unclear. It tells me you are caught in trials and doubt, Sadie.”
Sadie kept her features still. The Francis family has cast me out, and Zephyr means to kill me; of course, the road ahead is cruel.
She inhaled to steady herself, rose, and said, “I should be going.”
Madison’s eyes curved in a lazy smile as he watched her walk toward the shrine doors.
Sadie pressed against the heavy door, but it refused to budge. Panic pricked her skin. Adonis and the others had left and locked the shrine behind them intentionally.
Sadie gritted her teeth, ready to slip through the window. She turned and crashed into a broad chest. Madison stood before her, his snow–white robe flowing, a green demon mask covering half his face, the shrine’s gloom sharpening every edge of danger.
Startled, Sadie pressed her back against the door. “How can you move so quietly?”
Madison’s gaze cut across the delicate veins at her throat, cold as a blade.
Why rush off before we’ve finished interpreting your fortune, Sadie?” he asked.
The card says drifting clouds hide the moon and the road ahead is dim. Yet, it also promises that a noble oul will sweep those clouds away and let you bask in moonlight once more.”
Sadie was silent for a moment before asking, “Let me guess. You’re volunteering to be that noble soul?”
Madison lifted the card and set its edge against the curve of her jaw.
His gaze clung to her features with a reverence that felt obscene.
If you can afford my fee,” he said, “I’ll make the entire Francis brood pay?”
She steadied her breath. “And what, Madison, is this fee you’re so fond of?”
The card, thin as a leaf, skimmed her cheek like a jeweler tenderly testing the world’s rarest jade.
Madison leaned in until his breath warmed her ear. “Your face,” he whispered. “That, of course, is the price.”
Such a beautiful face. If I could peel it off and keep it, then admire it whenever boredom crept in. Would that not be the very height of pleasure?
A shiver raced over Sadie’s skin as every fine hair stood on end.
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Chapter 48 Moon Behind Clouds
At last, she understood why Daisy had always looked terrified whenever Madison’s name arose.
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She remembered one night when her sister burst home in tears, begging their father and brothers to fetch a miracle doctor.
Madison had stitched a scrap of black dog hide to her skin, and she could not tear it free.
The shrine’s candles sputtered; several went out, and darkness oozed from every corner. Chill seeped up through the stone floor, wrapping around Sadie’s ankles like ropes determined to keep her there.
She swallowed hard, the sound loud in the sudden hush.
Sliding sideways, she tried to put space between them.
“Your price is far too steep,” she said, voice unsteady. “I can’t possibly pay it.”
Madison started to protest, “But—”
“No!” she cut him off. “No buts!”
She backed toward the lattice window, grateful to find the latch unfastened. Thrusting it open, she hitched up her skirts and climbed through without a second thought.
Left alone, Madison lingered in the shrine. Spring night air poured through the gaping window, stirring his layered white robe.
The green mask and the untouched half of his fair face formed a chilling contrast, the cinnabar at his brow glowing like fresh blood.
He bent, smiling, to pick up the fish–shaped lantern Sadie had dropped.
Sadie had already slipped into the bustle of the festival crowd.
She cast a wary glance back at the shrine and touched her own face as though to reassure herself it was still there.
Aside from Alexander, not a single Gates son could be called normal.
When Sadie remembered the fish–shaped lantern she had misplaced, she sighed and set about buying Alexander a new one.
“Sadie, lend me that beautiful face of yours, will you?” a lilting voice chimed from directly behind her.
She spun around. Beneath the lantern glow stood a snow–robed youth wearing half a snarling mask- Madison in the flesh.
Her heart slammed against her ribs. She forgot the stall, turned, and ran, yet no matter where she darted, Madison drifted after her like a shadow that refused to loosen its grip. Each time she dared draw breath, he reappeared beneath a swaying lantern, murmuring, “Sadie, I still want your face.”
The night grew darker, and Flora Park only grew louder. Torches and lanterns rolled overhead in bright waves, drowning the streets in restless color.
The Night Parade of a Hundred Spirits had begun. Actors from every corner of Aurelia Province paraded past in strange garb, painted wooden masks grinning over their faces while bells, banners, axes, and flags clanged together. Children skipped alongside them, shrieking with delight.
13:39 Thu, 14 Aug 00
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Chapter 48 Moon Behind Clouds
With nowhere left to run, Sadie bought a mask of her own and melted into the ghostly procession.
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