For Heaven's Eyes Only Read Online Free PDF Page B

happened to him?” I said.
    “Someone killed him. An old enemy, or an old friend. Possibly both. It’s like that in the Nightside. So I’m told.”
    “He still shouldn’t have been there with you, Eddie,” said Molly. “Not if you were in a semblance of Drood Hall. He’s never been here.”
    Roger Morningstar sniffed loudly. “You don’t understand Limbo any more than I do, Molly. It’s neither Heaven nor Hell, not a place for the living or the dead: more of a spiritual waiting room . . . a place between places. Who knows who has access to it? If the living can enter, why not the dead? It could be that everyone you saw there, Eddie, was exactly who they seemed to be.”
    “You do so love to stir it, don’t you?” said Molly. “Trust you to play Devil’s advocate.”
    “And trust you, Eddie, to have a near-death experience that’s completely unlike everyone else’s,” said Harry.
    “Back to life for only a few minutes, and already you’re annoying the crap out of me, Harry,” I said. “Now button your lip while the grown-ups talk, or I’ll supply you with a near-death experience of your own. Ethel? Are you there?”
    “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie!” said the disembodied voice of our very own other-dimensional entity. “Where did you go? I couldn’t see you anywhere, and I can see into dimensions you people don’t even know exist!”
    “The Hall was very different without you,” I said. “So cold . . . I called, but you couldn’t hear me.”
    “How terrible for you,” said Ethel, completely sincerely.
    “Yes,” I said. “It was.”
    I started to shake again. Molly quickly slipped an arm through mine and squeezed it against her. The Sarjeant-at-Arms stepped forward and glared at both of us.
    “I demand an explanation as to what exactly happened! Why aren’t you dead, Eddie?”
    “Try not to sound so disappointed, Cedric,” I murmured. “Though I think I could use an explanation myself. Molly?”
    “You were stabbed through the heart,” said Molly. “But you were never completely dead. Try not to be too mad at me, Eddie. I did it for your own good.”
    “Did what?” I said. “Tell me.”
    “Like every other witch,” Molly said carefully, “at the start of my career I worked a very special magic to store my heart somewhere else, technically separate from my body, but still connected. And then I hid my heart somewhere very safe and secure and secret, so my enemies could never find it. And as long as my heart remains separate, I am very hard to kill. I can recover from every wound, every attack, no matter how apparently deadly. That’s how I survived that assault by the Drood mob stirred up by the Immortals.” She glared at the Sarjeant there, and he had the grace to look a little guilty. He’s supposed to prevent things like that from happening. Molly took a deep breath. “I performed the same magic on you, Eddie, some time ago.”
    “What? Without even telling me?” I said, rather loudly.
    “Yes!” said Molly, meeting my fierce gaze with her own. “I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d react like this! I knew you wouldn’t agree if I suggested the idea to you, even though it was obviously the sensible thing to do . . . and I wasn’t prepared to risk losing you. So I did it while you were asleep. Because I needed you to be safe.”
    “When, exactly, did you do this?” I said. “How long ago?”
    “I’m not going to tell you,” said Molly, folding her arms firmly below her breasts. “Not until you’ve calmed down a little. Or perhaps even a lot.”
    “I can’t approve of this,” the Sarjeant said flatly. “A Drood’s heart in the hands of an outsider? Completely unacceptable! As long as the witch knows where your heart is hidden and you don’t, she’ll always have power over you.”
    “He does have a point,” said the Armourer. “What if the two of you had a big row? Or even split up?”
    I looked at Molly. “The things we do for love . . . My heart