Casket of Souls

the door locked, then rounded on the man, who was already taking in the disorder.
    “How could you be so careless?” Atre hissed, shaking with anger. “If you needed to drink so badly, why didn’t you say something before we went to the theater?”
    Brader’s expression was eerily calm. “It wasn’t me.”
    Atre’s disbelief was fleeting, giving way to a cold jolt of fear.
    He clenched his fists in rage, fighting down the urge to scream. “
No one
has ever gotten close enough to find my cache before. No one! And some of the elixirs are gone!”
    “I told you we should have moved on sooner.”
    “And I told you to kill them!” Atre snarled, pulling a battered old pack from under the bed and dumping the contents of the jewel casket into it.
    “I’d have to have found them, wouldn’t I?” That chilling calm was giving way to anger. “Damn you, Atre, you’ve brought this down on us again. On my children, my wife!”
    “What? For providing for all of you? For taking a third-rate pack of country mummers and making them the toast of Rhíminee? Or is that your conscience pricking you again? Tired of eating the souls of children, Brader?” Atre sneered as he pulled on a fresh shirt and sat down to pull on a pair of old boots. “Your precious family will be safe once we’re gone.”
    “You don’t know that!”
    “Get dressed, for hell’s sake! We’ve got to go.” Atre took an old brown tunic from the back of the wardrobe and pulled it on.
    “No.”
    Atre looked up in disbelief. This was a first. “How long do you think you’ll last without me to sustain you? Don’t tell me you finally mean to give up?”
    “Better that than deserting them. I can’t do that. Not like this.”
    Atre resisted the urge to cry out
What’s so special about
this
family?
But he knew better. He’d feared this day since Merina’s first child was born, perhaps even before that, from the way Brader looked at her. The man had abandoned other children, other wives, but it had changed him a little, every time, until he’d come to loathe the very thing that kept him alive to enjoy his women and brats.
    He stood and went to Brader. “But you can do this to me, cousin?” he asked sadly. “After all these years, these centuries we’ve shared, you just leave me to die? You know howmuch I need you. You came with me willingly, remember, and you loved this life of ours. The times we’ve had, cousin!” His tone was pleading, but his eyes were hard when he added, “Please, don’t make me threaten them. I still have my
special
little collection, you know.”
    The taller man closed his eyes for a moment. “I’ll help you get out of the city.”
    “I suppose that’s all I can ask of you. Now hurry and get dressed. We have to get to Basket Street before the sun comes up.”
    Brader thought he’d left Merina sleeping, but when he returned to the bedchamber he found her trembling beside the bed, clutching a dagger to her breast. A real one, not a stage prop. Tears were streaming down her cheeks but she looked like fury itself.
    He tried to approach her, fearing she’d harm herself, but she shrank back from his touch and raised the knife. “You monsters!”
    Brader’s heart lurched in his chest. “Keep your voice down!”
    “I followed you, Brader. I listened through the door and heard what he said. Do you think I’m a fool? All these years together, and you looking the same as the day we married. And all the secrets! You and he slipping out when you thought I wasn’t looking, and all the times whispering behind locked doors with your ‘cousin.’ Or is that a lie, too?”
    “No. That much is the truth.”
    “I thought—Maker’s Mercy, I even hoped you were just lovers, but it’s worse than that. All the times children began to die when we stayed too long in a town. I tried not to think about it, told myself I was seeing something that wasn’t there, but it’s true, isn’t it? What
are
you?”
    “There’s no name for it, as far as I know.”
    “You—you eat children’s souls? It’s monstrous!”
    “Maker’s Mercy, keep your voice down!”
    “Why? Will you eat my soul, too?”
    “No, but he will. And the children’s.”
    Her eyes widened in horror. “And you’d let him!”
    “He’s had a hold on me, through you, all these years. But after tonight he’ll be gone. He’ll give me what I need to protect you, but only if I help him leave the city. I’ll be free of him, and we’ll all be