These Vengeful Souls

by Tarun Shanker

  “I don’t believe that’s expected of you,” Sebastian said.

  “How can you know that?” I asked. “Dr. Beck treated the powers like a new scientific breakthrough, mainly to justify his experiments. Captain Goode makes them sound like some destiny in service of the Empire to justify the Society of Aberrations. All I can see is that no one has any idea what the point of these powers is and they are simply making something up.”

  “Right,” Sebastian said, his brow furrowed. “Then I will simply say that I don’t expect you to heal the world.”

  “What do you expect?” A strange sense of comfort filled me as I realized I would trust his judgment over any grand explanation.

  “The same of anyone with power,” he said. “To do what they can to protect the ones without it. It doesn’t matter how many, as long as you keep doing it.”

  “Says the man counting the lives he needs to save.”

  “You’ve made me lose count.”

  Something loosened in my own body, some tenseness I hadn’t known I was holding in until it began to melt away. “Then you don’t think we have roles to fill?”

  He turned to me then, his jaw set, his eyes snapping. “If we were making assumptions like that, then I would be responsible for killing the entire world.”

  A scoff escaped my mouth at that thought. “And we would have to be mortal enemies instead of…”

  I trailed off, cursing myself for adding those two words to the end. Not quite friends. Not quite … whatever it was that was more than friends but also not. Possible-beyond-friends-if-it-weren’t-for-the-Mae-shaped-guilt-in-our-hearts. That didn’t quite roll off the tongue.

  “Halves,” Sebastian finished for me.

  “Yes, that is the word.” I slid forward to the edge of his range, ten feet from his bed.

  His eyes flickered away and of course he blushed, because he was Sebastian and he always blushed.

  The attic was silent around us, but I could hear my blood responding, burning my ears, rushing to my cheeks, prickling in my palms. Sebastian ducked his head, his eyes closed, his hands clasped, elbows loosely planted on his knees. He was back to training his power.

  “Miss Chen couldn’t raise hers back up,” I told him. “It’s no use against Captain Goode.”

  “It will be useful after him,” Sebastian said.

  We sat in the musty attic until long after the sun rose, streaming in through the slanted window, slowly inching closer and closer to each other.

  And I felt no pain.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “UNDERNEATH THAT RIDICULOUS description is yet another drawing of what one assumes is Mr. Braddock, but it really does not do him justice.” Mr. Kent tossed a fourth newspaper in the fire. “So, to sum up, Mr. Braddock killed the India Secretary, attempted Captain Goode’s assassination, and has committed two other murders in three days.”

  “I killed the India Secretary,” Miss Rao grumbled next to me.

  “You may need to leave a note next time,” I said, squeezing the arm I was already holding.

  I was squished between her and Miss Chen on the parlor couch so I could heal them with my very slowly returning powers.

  The rest of our group was spread around the room; Mr. Adeoti pored over Captain Goode’s glove and recorded every detail at the writing desk; Rose and Catherine reviewed his notes and the newspapers near the window; Mr. Kent paced in front of the fireplace while Emily and Laura practiced their needlepoint, telekinetically and manually. Sebastian had finally deemed it safe enough to leave the attic as long as he stayed far away from the rest of us, which landed him in a very feminine, frilly armchair in the farthest corner of the room, where he peered at one of Mrs. Tuffins’s novels with skepticism.

  “We must be taking much more drastic actions now,” Catherine quoted Captain Goode from one of the few papers Mr. Kent had not managed to burn. “The longer Sebastian Braddock and his accomplices are free, the more and more people are going to die.” She balled up the paper, and it followed its friends into the fire.

  “More scaring the populace,” I said feebly.

  Catherine shook her head. “I think he’s threatening us. He’s going to keep killing more and more. Unless we turn ourselves in.”

  The words settled thickly over the room, souring the air.

  Suddenly, glass shattered.

  My heart leaped as I turned to Miss Chen, hoping she had regained control of her power.

  But she only groaned. “Sorry,” she announced. “I just threw a glass figurine at the wall. Everything is still miserable. Carry on.”

  I felt my jaw tighten and wished that it was rage that fueled our powers, because I had an endless supply after almost three days of waiting. No matter how much we tried, Miss Chen’s training techniques did nothing to speed up the process. Captain Goode’s effects couldn’t be reversed.

  “Dammit, we need to do something,” I said.

  “Even when you two get your powers fully back,” Mr. Kent said, “I wouldn’t think it’s a good idea to investigate like we were before. It will almost certainly lead us into another trap of Captain Goode’s. He knows how we’d investigate and track another murder.”

  “So what do you suggest?” I asked. “We run?”

  “Of course,” Mr. Kent said. “That’s what I’m always suggesting. Running away is my favorite solution. I like it even more than hiding, believe it or not.”

  “And do you think he’s going to get bored without us here and stop?” I asked.

  “Maybe we need to fake our deaths,” Mr. Kent muttered. He turned to Miss Chen. “Perhaps that illusionist friend of yours can stage our dramatic fall from a cliff.”

  “He’s her illusionist suitor,” I corrected.

  “Regardless of what he is,” Miss Chen said, “I’d rather push him off the cliff first.”

  “Fine, then we’ll have to die in a horrific fire that renders us near unrecognizable,” Mr. Kent declared. “Captain Goode is killing these people because he knows it’s bothering us. But if we simply act like we don’t care, he won’t have any other recourse.”

  “We do care,” Sebastian said from his chair.

  “And it doesn’t matter if we don’t care. He cares,” I put in. “You saw how much he believed in the Society when he first recruited us. He believes in it even more now that he’s in charge. It’s not just us he’s concerned with. It’s anyone whom he sees as a threat.”

  “Besides, he doesn’t want us dead. He wants us captured,” Miss Chen joined in. “And I know none of you are thrilled with Miss Wyndham and me at the moment, but I still think we could cause some damage.”

  “What do you mean?” Mr. Kent asked.

  She looked steadily ahead. “We destroy everything of Captain Goode’s. We keep reminding him we’re here. Every building he comes from, we destroy the moment he leaves. The Tower of London. The Society of Aberrations. His homes. His carriages even. We can do it from a distance without ever being depowered again.”

  “It’s a good idea, but that’s only going to escalate things,” I said. “He’s going to kill more people and we’re going to destroy more buildings … until?”

  “I don’t see an end to it, either,” Sebastian said.

  Miss Chen sighed and picked up another little figurine from the table, eyeing the window. I took the little fox from her, turning it over and over, the ceramic cool beneath my hands.

  “I think we need to fight him a different way,” Catherine finally declared. “There’s a good reason Captain Goode went public with the powers and the Society of Aberrations. He knew he’d have more power with the public’s support. But if we can turn the public against him, he’d be more vulnerable.”

  “Yes, that worked splendidly when these three visited that newspaper,” Miss Chen countered.

  “But the public loves a good story, especially a true one,” Catherine said. “What if we found a way to publish it elsewhere? Or distribute it in pamphlets?”

  “We could drop
them out of a balloon over the city,” Mr. Kent said, an eager glint in his eyes.

  “It doesn’t matter as long as the illusionist keeps framing Sebastian as the villain,” I said.

  “And none of this is going to stop Captain Goode from hurting people,” Sebastian said. “That should be our main priority.”

  “Of course,” Mr. Kent said. “But we are definitely not doing your idea.”

  Sebastian frowned and crossed his arms. “I haven’t said my idea.”

  “I barely know you, but I’m sure you want to turn yourself in to Captain Goode,” Miss Chen said.

  “And we all think that’s a brave, noble, terrible idea,” Mr. Kent added.

  Sebastian looked between them, at a loss for words.

  “Was that your idea?” I asked.

  “Yes.…” he mumbled.

  “Someone else must have an idea,” Mr. Kent said to the room. “Miss Rosamund, you wanted to leave before. Perhaps you still wish to.…”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “What do you think has happened to Mr. Jarsdel?”

  “He’s probably in Captain Goode’s prison,” I said. “And if he’s still under your spell, I doubt he’ll be released anytime soon. Not that he knows how to find us. Miss Chen had him blindfolded.”

  Rose looked a bit relieved at that. Until my next words.

  “We could try it again,” I said. “We have Mr. Adeoti’s list of powers. If we find the most effective ones, track those people, and sway them to our side…”

  Catherine didn’t leap to Rose’s defense again, but from my angle, I could see her hand take Rose’s under the table.

  “I don’t want to start another Society of Aberrations,” Rose said, moving her hand to pour herself a cup of tea. A flash of hurt crossed Catherine’s eyes. She rose to her feet to take a turn about the room. There was … something, at least, between them. I hoped it was more than Rose’s power.

  “We’ll capture a couple of people,” I said. “Murderers that we will only use to stop Captain Goode. He is forcing children to fight for him. Kids Oliver’s age, who are scared out of their wits.”

  “Then why not help the children?” Rose asked.

  “Because Captain Goode will figure out what we’re doing after the first one or two,” I said. “We’d need to get the most effective powers on our side.”

  “Mr. Adeoti, what’s this?” Catherine asked, peeking over his shoulder. She shook him harder, breaking him out of his trance, and pointed to his notes. “Mr. Adeoti.”

  He glanced at her finger and his eyes widened. “Oh, it’s … it’s nothing.”

  She looked at it closer. “Miss Fahlstrom’s power doesn’t sound like nothing.”

  “It’s just that I’m not finished,” Mr. Adeoti said. “I’m only halfway through the last week on the glove. I was hoping to find a solution first. I didn’t want to start another argument after you’ve all welcomed me here—”

  Their conversation had caught the attention of the rest of the room.

  “An argument over what?” Catherine asked.

  His glance darted to me for a moment, and I didn’t like where this was going.

  “What is it? I thought her power was electricity.” But as I said it, I knew that was wrong. The cannibalistic girl had used that power and there couldn’t be two.

  “That may have been an illusion,” Mr. Adeoti said.

  “Miss Fahlstrom’s power is the ability to foresee a powered person’s death,” Catherine read. “How is that possible?”

  “I don’t know. It’s a power I haven’t seen before,” Mr. Adeoti said. “It seems all she has to do is look at someone, and she’ll have a vivid vision of their death. That’s what she did for Captain Goode the days before Miss Wyndham’s attack.”

  The pieces started to shift into place. “What did she see in her vision of Captain Goode?”

  “She saw Mr. Jarsdel blinding him on the street, Miss Chen shooting him, and you stabbing him in the heart.”

  The room sat silent, everyone’s gazes shifting to me. Even Soot seemed aware of the revelation.

  So that was how he knew the exact location, the exact time, and the exact plan of our attack. He wasn’t that clever or cautious or even lucky. He cheated.

  “Then what you’re saying is…” I said, trying to wrap my head around the phrasing. “My plan failed because it would have succeeded wildly.”

  Mr. Adeoti nodded. “In a sense, yes.”

  “I knew it was a good plan,” Miss Chen said.

  “No, it wasn’t,” Catherine insisted. “Your plan failed because you didn’t take Miss Fahlstrom’s power into account. And come to think of it, you’re lucky Mr. Braddock diverted your shot at the Queen’s address. Otherwise, Captain Goode would have been prepared for you there, too.”

  Sebastian gave me a sheepish look at that.

  “But now we know,” I said, excitement pushing aside the guilt. “Mr. Adeoti, what does Miss Fahlstrom see after a death is averted?”

  Mr. Adeoti flipped through his notes. “Once Goode seems to be on a path where he’s no longer in danger, she warns him of his next death.”

  “That sounds like a fun way to live,” Mr. Kent put in.

  “And she knows of nothing in between?” I asked.

  “No, that’s all,” Mr. Adeoti said.

  “So if our intentions are solely to capture him,” I said, “our plan won’t be predicted.”

  “Theoretically, yes,” Mr. Adeoti said. “Assuming there were no accidents.”

  “We’d have to find the right trap,” Catherine said, pacing by the writing desk.

  “I will see if I can make a list of places he regularly visits,” Mr. Adeoti said.

  It felt like floodgates had been opened in my mind, ideas pouring in faster than I could manage them. There was a new energy crackling through the room. We could finally get Captain Goode.

  “We can do it safely, carefully,” I said. “If we keep our distance with Emily, Miss Chen, and Miss Rao—”

  “No.” Miss Rao smoothly stood up from the couch and removed the sling around her arm, her injuries finally healed.

  “I—Miss Rao, is something wrong?” I asked. She did not turn as she headed to the door. “If you were to help us, we might both get what we wish.”

  “No.” Miss Rao’s voice cut like a knife. “Not with you.”

  “What do you mean?” Mr. Kent asked, which was good, as I was feeling extremely offended and might have been ruder.

  “The healer only cares about what affects her.” She turned to me. “You don’t care about what happens to anyone else.”

  “I’m trying to help everyone.”

  “No, you’re using that as an excuse when all you still want is to kill the power remover. You align your goals with others and pretend to be fighting for everyone, for change, but when the time comes to make a decision, you will choose what you want. You will choose your revenge.”

  “I want to stop him without killing if we must. We all have the same goal.”

  “No, we don’t. Because you don’t care about the people under his power. You don’t care about preventing another Society, preventing your country from repeating the same evils. Everything has to change or nothing will. It doesn’t matter what you’re saying now about capturing him alive for the sake of the plan. It’s entirely about what you’d do in that moment he’s at your mercy. And you’ve already proven what you care about. Your friends should not trust you to resist killing him. They cannot trust any plan you are involved in to remain a secret to him. If you truly want to help, you would leave, too.” And with that damning, truthful statement, she slid out the door.

  The room sat in shocked silence except for a lone voice of protest in the corner. I turned, the world a little off-kilter, my thoughts moving too quickly, or was it too slowly?

  It was true.

  She was right.

  “No!” Laura yelled. “You can’t leave, Evelyn. We have an idea, too.” Emily floated the bot
h of them across the room.

  Mr. Kent looked at his sister with indulgence. “What is it, Kit?”

  “You find a person with the power to bring back people from the dead. This way Captain Goode will have his brother back, we’ll have Miss Grey and Oliver and Mama and Papa, and there will be no need to keep fighting over all of this.” She looked at Mr. Adeoti. “If someone can see deaths, someone has to have the power to bring them back. It must exist.”

  “The plant boy can grow a magical fruit,” Emily suggested.

  Mr. Adeoti looked at them with pity and then to Catherine for help.

  She didn’t have any to offer. “We haven’t found anything like that.”

  “Then maybe it’s part of Evelyn’s powers,” Laura said, grasping for anything. “If her powers got raised all the way—”

  “I tried, Laura,” I said. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t enough. I … I think Miss Rao’s right.”

  I knew she was right.

  “No, that doesn’t mean that you have to leave,” she pleaded.

  “Everyone should stop leaving!” Emily added.

  “But I can’t be involved,” I said. “I can’t trust myself to make the hard decision when it’s in front of me. I was selfish at the Belgrave Ball. I chose Rose over everyone else.”

  Rose was shaking her head. “Evelyn, no, you didn’t.”

  “What do you mean?” Miss Chen asked.

  “When Captain Goode entered the ball, he had already hurt Rose. And after he raised all of your powers and you were shot out of the room, he gave me a choice. He turned up Sebastian’s power and said if I let go of Rose, let her die first, he’d let everyone else live. But I couldn’t. Even … even when Rose was begging me to, I still refused to give her up. And I let everyone else in the room die for it.”

  “Because of my power!” Rose argued to the rest of the group.

  “Your power was off,” I said. “He turned it off the moment he found you.”

  “And the effects lingered,” she said.

  “And I made the same choice I would have made anyway,” I said. “In that moment, I didn’t think about anyone else in that room. I didn’t think about protecting you, Rose. Mr. Kent, ask me what I was thinking about.”