The Madman's Daughter (Madman's Daughter - Trilogy)

by Megan Shepherd

  WE STUMBLED OUT OF the barn into the moonlight.

  “Balthazar’s loading the wagon outside,” Montgomery said in a rush. “I just need to hitch Duke.” He started for the wooden gate, but I grabbed his arm. Duchess, the little mare Father had taken to find Montgomery, stood in the courtyard. She was loosely tied to the veranda rail, her eyes white and wild in the chaos.

  I froze. “Father’s back,” I said.

  Montgomery paused. Shadows darted in the edges of the courtyard, stealing my attention. “I know. He came back half an hour ago,” he said slowly. “The beasts were after him. He closed himself in his laboratory in a panic.” He ran a hand over the back of his hair, reluctantly. “He expects us to join him there. He said it’s the only place that’s safe.”

  “No place is safe.”

  He swallowed. “I told him we would gather some supplies and come join him. I didn’t know what else to say. I couldn’t tell him.…”

  I took a deep breath, feeling the weight of the blood-red building beside us. I pictured my father on the other side of that metal door, listening to the snarls outside as his precious creations tried to find a way to kill him. Waiting for Montgomery and me, who would never come. We’d never see him again, I realized. The laboratory was a fortress. He could survive in there for days, even weeks maybe—if it weren’t for the fire. Smoke was already pouring out of the barn. The laboratory walls were tin, so they wouldn’t burn. He might escape. And then what? Would he start experimenting again?

  Something crashed in the salon, and Montgomery grabbed my hand. “Hurry.” We untied Duchess and rushed out of the main gate to where Balthazar was stacking jars in the back of the wagon. He’d filled the few specimen jars I hadn’t destroyed with water for our voyage. They rattled against one another like the glass vials in my wooden box. The treatment was safely stashed in my old carpetbag, which Montgomery had already loaded into the wagon. I did a quick calculation—it would be enough for several weeks. I had everything I needed.

  And yet an invisible hand pulled at me from the direction of the compound. It beckoned me back into the flames, to the tin building with burning red paint that bubbled like blood.

  “I forgot my medicine,” I said suddenly. The lie made my mouth dry. “I have to get it.”

  Montgomery glanced at the billow of smoke rising to the heavens, then turned his attention back to hitching the last few buckles to Duke. “Hurry,” he said from behind sweat-soaked hair.

  I darted back inside the compound. The lie gnawed at my heart, but the invisible hand was too strong. The courtyard all was quiet save the roar of flames—the fire had scared off the beasts. The raging blaze reflected in the salon’s glass windows. Inside I could see the piano, the dining table, the photograph of Mother. The fire would burn every last scrap of memory. And all evidence of my father’s terrible work.

  But it was the only way. Such science wasn’t meant to exist. We weren’t meant to rival God. And yet a small part of me wailed to see it destroyed. That part of me—the darkness—would live in me forever, I realized. As long as Moreau blood flowed in my veins. It had driven Father mad. It wanted to do the same to me—and I didn’t know if I was strong enough to stop it.

  I hurried to my room and grabbed a plain wooden box so that Montgomery wouldn’t be suspicious if I came back empty-handed. I didn’t let my thoughts linger on the meager belongings I was leaving behind. By morning all evidence of my existence on the island would be gone, too.

  I faced the red walls of the laboratory. The invisible hand tightened. The Blood House. Was father inside right now, holed up with some Elk Hill brandy and a good book? Waiting for the rest of us to join him, never suspecting we’d flee and leave him behind?

  This was what the hand had been pulling me to—Father. To say good-bye or to claw his face or just to stand outside the door and make my peace while he burned in flames. Some kind of closure.

  Beyond the main gate, Montgomery and Balthazar waited for me. I only had to cross the threshold and never look back. Forget peace. Forget closure. We’d sail to London and never spare another thought for the island.

  But my feet took me to the laboratory door. The heat from the nearby barn made me sweat. Paint bubbled on the tin, and I let my fingers hover a breath above it. Was he standing just on the other side, waiting for us?

  He’d left me behind without a single letter, so why shouldn’t I do the same to him? The newspapers had called him a brilliant criminal, but they’d never mentioned the little girl he’d abandoned. As far as the world was concerned, Dr. Henri Moreau was a collection of research papers and a grisly story. Was he more than that to me? Was he a father? He’d thought of me as nothing more than another experiment, a chance to see what happened when humans and creatures bred.

  Anger curled inside me. I pressed the tips of my fingers to the burning door, letting the pain sear and stir my anger. Something caught my attention from the corner of my eye—a shadow slinking along the portico. It didn’t run. Didn’t attack. It came forward stealthily, its eyes glowing in the moonlight.

  “Jaguar,” I muttered.

  Maybe I should have been afraid, but I wasn’t. It wasn’t me he was after.

  He stopped just paces away. This was the creature Montgomery had once called a brother. And were we really so different? We were all animals, in a sense. Even a sixteen-year-old girl needed to eat and drink and survive—and might kill to do so.

  A rustling within the laboratory drew Jaguar’s attention. He glided past me, his tail flicking against my feet as he slunk toward the door. His thick paw slashed at the door latch with claws as long as my fingers. He tried a few times, cutting grooves in the door but unable to grip the latch. A growl rumbled in his throat, low and angry. His golden eyes looked back at me.

  I knew what he wanted.

  But twisting that latch didn’t just mean opening a door. It meant murder. Jaguar wouldn’t hesitate to slice my father into little chunks of flesh. It was exactly what he wanted—what all of them wanted. Revenge. If Jaguar could speak, he’d tell me it had to be this way. Father was brilliant. He’d escape from the burning laboratory. He’d start over. There’d be another island. Another Jaguar. Another Edward. Or worse.

  My fingers dropped to the latch.

  Jaguar’s hind legs tensed, ready to spring. But how could I open that door, knowing what lay on the other side? No good-bye. No reconciliation. Only a bitter, ragged end.

  The barn roof cracked and splintered. A shower of sparks rained down. In another minute the whole structure would collapse. Edward would be killed, burned alive or crushed under falling beams. Even though logic told me Edward couldn’t be allowed to live, my heart said he didn’t deserve to die either. It wasn’t his fault. It was that of his maker, who hid in a locked room while his children burned alive.

  Edward had said I could make things right.

  Maybe I could.

  My fingers felt for the latch. The flames leapt to the bunkhouse. It would catch quickly, then the salon, then my room. Beside me, Jaguar’s claws dug into the portico ground, ready to spring.

  I squeezed the latch.

  The door came open in my hand, almost too easily. Father’s fail-safe had accounted for the beasts’ limited dexterity, but not for deceit. He’d been too arrogant to think one of us would betray him.

  I opened the door an inch—that was all it took, just an inch.

  I fell back, my face burning from the heat. Jaguar slunk inside.

  The barn roof collapsed with a roar. The heat singed my cheeks as I clutched the wooden box to my chest and stumbled back toward the main gate. Montgomery was there in the entryway, calling for me. Whether he’d seen me open the door I didn’t know. His hand latched onto mine, and he pulled me from the flaming compound into the cool evening air, where Duke pawed at the ground, ready to bolt. Balthazar took up the reins as we clambered into the wagon and vanished into the jungle, leaving the smoldering wreckage behind us.

  FORTY-FIVE
>
  FROM THE STRIP OF sand at the ocean’s edge, we could still hear the fire’s roar. The beasts had started howling as the fire intensified, filling the night with wild screams. Montgomery held me close in the back of the wagon, hands pressed over my ears. But nothing could keep the sounds away. They’d haunted me since childhood. They would haunt me forever.

  At the dock Balthazar stopped the wagon. Our blue-and-white boat waited, tethered to the pile, ready to take us to sea. Only when Balthazar climbed down from the driver’s seat and offered me his massive hand did I remember my promise. You can come with us, I’d told him. But I’d never had any intention of bringing him. Someone would find out what he was and try to replicate him. Someone would take it too far, just like my father.

  Balthazar cocked his head at my hesitation. I took his hand and climbed out of the wagon. Montgomery was already carrying an armful of jars down the dock. His steps were purposeful and determined, as if he was as ready to get off the island as I was, even if it meant abandoning the place he’d called home for six years.

  Would he be the one to tell Balthazar or would I? We’d never spoken of it, but I knew Montgomery felt the same way. This island was my father’s prison, his tomb, and all evidence of his work had to be buried with him. Even Balthazar.

  Balthazar picked up two water jars, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, and followed Montgomery down the dock. My heart wrenched. Was I a monster for leaving him behind? Balthazar was the only innocent one of us. He hadn’t killed. I didn’t think he was capable of it.

  I cradled a glass jar in the crook of my arm, watching the two of them in the moonlight. There should have been so many more of us. Alice. Edward. Their ashes tied their souls to this horrid island.

  Montgomery came back to fetch a small trunk that contained an expensive china set. He glanced at me. I sensed that his resolve had hardened, as if he was steeling himself for the awful task of leaving Balthazar behind.

  “We don’t have a choice,” I whispered. I shifted the weight of the glass jar to my other arm. “They were cursed as soon as they were created.”

  He didn’t answer but hoisted the trunk onto one shoulder and started down the dock. Balthazar took a load and followed Montgomery like a shadow. I brushed the hair out of my eyes and looked back toward the burning compound. I couldn’t see the flames, but the column of smoke said enough.

  I hugged the jar and hurried down the dock. Montgomery was already carrying another load. There was an urgency to his every move. I dreaded the moment when we would push off in the launch. I was afraid of what we would tell Balthazar, left on the dock, the last innocent being on the island.

  “One more trip should do it,” Montgomery muttered. We took the last of the cargo, and Montgomery unhitched Duke and pushed against his shoulder.

  “Get on, you old boy,” he chided, but his voice caught. Duke took a few steps back but didn’t leave. His ears were alert, watching his master, ready to follow him to the ends of the earth. Montgomery picked up the last of the water jars and didn’t look back at the horse.

  Every step down that dock was one less I’d ever take on the island. One more toward England. Montgomery and I would make a life there with each other. Comfortable. Quiet. We’d never mention the past. If he’d seen my role in Father’s murder, he’d never say anything, just as I’d never ask if he missed Balthazar. We’d forget about Edward—no, that was impossible.

  I’d never forget Edward.

  One more step. And another. And then I was at the launch.

  “We don’t have a choice,” I said, my vocal cords trembling. Montgomery’s eyes reflected my own tangled emotions. For a moment I studied his face in the moonlight, wondering if the tie between us would be different in London. For now, it felt as though he and I would always be bound together.

  I reached for the line holding the launch, but Montgomery touched my shoulder softly. He turned me back to face him again. His features were knotted and tense, but then his lips parted. “Juliet—”

  He pulled me into a deep kiss. My surprise melted and I kissed him back. My hand found the hard silhouette of his chest and pulled with trembling fingers at his shirt. I wanted to hold on to him forever. Believing in nothing except the truth of Montgomery, who for all his faults was as steady as the sea, as honest as the sun. My eyes watered with unexpected tears, and I kissed him harder, desperately. It wasn’t a happy ending. He and I would return to the real world, but there was only anguish left for Balthazar and the others.

  Montgomery broke off the kiss, reluctantly. Swallowed hard. He was as afraid of the future as I was. For a moment it was only he and I and the sea and the unknown.

  “All right,” he said, taking a deep breath. “It’s time.” He climbed into the boat and steadied himself. He motioned for Balthazar and me to hand him the cargo. We worked efficiently, not exchanging words. He settled the cargo carefully to prevent the boat tipping if we came across a storm. And then he climbed out and wiped his hand through his sea-blown hair.

  An awful sickness roiled in my abdomen as though I’d missed an injection. But I hadn’t. It was the shame of what I had to do, knotting my insides. I couldn’t find the words to tell Balthazar we were leaving him behind.

  At last Montgomery cleared his throat. “Right, then. You first, Juliet.”

  I looked up in surprise. Were we just going to climb in and push off, leaving Balthazar puzzled and heartbroken as we drifted away? I searched Montgomery’s face, but it was like stone. He held out his hand, and I took it hesitantly and climbed down into the rocking boat. I settled between two trunks at the far end, trying to force back my tears.

  “I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” I said, hunching into myself. I knew he would understand what I meant. Not just leaving Balthazar, but leaving all of them—Father, Edward, the bones of all those who had died so unfairly. This island—the things that happened here—should never have existed.

  “So do I,” Montgomery said, his whispered voice so low the wind might have carried it off. But he kept his gaze on me, which was odd. I kept looking at Balthazar, feeling crushed by guilt, and guiltier still that Montgomery had to be the one to tell him.

  “I’m afraid this is it,” he said.

  I nodded, squeezing my knees in tighter. I wouldn’t look at Balthazar’s face. It might be cowardly, but I couldn’t live with the image of his heartbreak in my head forever.

  “I’m so sorry, Juliet.” Montgomery suddenly crouched down to the pile, unraveling the line faster than my brain could think. Sorry? Why wasn’t he getting into the boat?

  It hit me like a tidal wave. He wasn’t coming with me.

  He wasn’t coming with me.

  The weight of it crushed me to the bottom of the launch. I stared at him, and then at Balthazar, who was trying his best not to look at me. Balthazar had known all along. This wasn’t a farewell to Balthazar.

  It was a farewell to me.

  I jerked forward, crawling as the boat pitched. “Montgomery, no. Wait.…”

  But he’d already pushed his weight against the bow and set me adrift. All that linked us now was a thin bit of line that he held so lightly, so loosely, poised to let go at any moment.

  “Don’t you dare!” I screamed, crawling to the bow. “Don’t let go of that line!” My knee connected with the sharp edge of a trunk and my eyes filled with water, not just from the pain. “Don’t you dare leave me, Montgomery James!”

  But as I scrambled to reach the edge of the launch, the frayed end of the line came away from his hand. Seconds. Just seconds ago Montgomery had been holding it, and now I was totally adrift. Alone. I looked at him, stunned.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, his face broken. “I can’t leave. I’ve been their only family. I have a responsibility to them.”

  “What about me?” I choked as the launch drifted seaward. I reached out, grappling for a hand I knew would never come. “You have a responsibility to me!”

  “You’re better off without me.
You can forget all of this. I would only have tied you to this place.” His voice broke. “I don’t belong there. I’m a criminal. An aberration.”

  “You’re Montgomery,” I called. “We belong together.”

  He shook his head. His face was wet with sweat. “No. I belong with the island.”

  The betrayal ripped me apart more than any of Father’s surgeries could have done. Montgomery looked away, just as I’d planned on looking away from Balthazar’s heartbroken face. A wave caught the launch and I glided farther toward open sea, gripping the edge of the boat as though clinging to life. “No!” I screamed, one more time. Sobs choked in my throat. Hadn’t I always known Montgomery was as wild as the creatures he’d created, unable to leave them? The smell of smoke lingered in the air, and it felt so wrong, like more than the compound was burning.

  Maybe he said something else. I couldn’t be sure. The dock drew farther away with each wave, until Montgomery and Balthazar were nothing more than a trick my eyes were playing on me. As I was swept out to sea, among the expensive baubles meant to buy me passage and the food that Edward had so carefully packed away, the island took form on the horizon. I saw the blaze that was once the compound. Two columns of smoke rose into the stars—one from the volcano, one from the compound. And then I saw nothing, as the waves spun me around in their dips and swells and the island disappeared into night, except the glowing blaze where fire destroyed the red walls of my father’s laboratory.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I AM SO FORTUNATE to have worked with a wonderful team to turn this book into a finished product. I owe a big thanks to my incredible editor, Kristin Daly Rens, and the rest of the Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins team, including assistant editor Sara Sargent, designers Alison Klapthor and Alison Donalty for the beautiful design, Renée Cafiero for an amazing copyedit, Emilie Polster and Stephanie Hoffman in marketing, and Caroline Sun, Olivia DeLeon, and Alison Lisnow in publicity. Any author would be thrilled to have you all on her team, and I am glad I get to be one of the lucky ones.