He laughed out loud, a horrid, skeletal sound that would echo forever in my soul. I can be anyone I choose. Just like you.
My heart shattered. Sorrow poured through me, in spite of the drug. Everything I thought I knew—everything I believed was the truth…
Yes, it was all a lie. It was me, the entire time.
I trusted you! I…loved you.
I know. I am proudest of that—I made you fall in love with the monster. You saw through me at first, but I won you over. Oh, the tears you shed for me, the compassion, the sweet way you kissed me. His laugh burned my soul. You were fooled so easily. It was all vastly entertaining.
Wallace was shouting at me again, and without meaning to, I climbed the railing. I slowly rose to my feet, teetering on the narrow ledge.
Jensen snarled like an animal. Don’t think death is an escape from me! He raised his hands, his black cloak billowing behind him. His rage bound me, fastening me to the rail. If you die now, I will torment you forever. You will beg for my release, but I will introduce you to horrors no human being has even imagined. For eternity.
Horrible, vivid pictures sprang to life in my mind. In less than a heartbeat, I lived what forever would be like as his prisoner. There would be no pain I would not experience, no brutality he would fail to inflict. My body, my sexuality, my mind, my emotions, my soul—he would possess and destroy them all.
And then repeat it for infinity.
He was no mortal. This was an evil creature, a demonic being. If I died, I would be in his power forever.
Terror turned my vision dark. I couldn’t feel the drug’s compulsion so much now.
But it hit me again, nearly knocking me from the railing.
The two evils battled for me, and I felt myself being torn into pieces by their strength. Indescribable agony overtook me. I flung my arms wide.
And screamed.
My feet slid from the railing. I seemed to hang in the air for an instant.
“Shift for me, Claire!” His voice thundered around me.
I was free-falling, into the eyes of a demon. The image of a hummingbird burst to life as I fell.
Shift for me, Claire. You could never fight against me. Never.
The rope whistled past me. Another second, it would snap taut around my neck.
A frantic, bird-like heartbeat hammered in my ears. I heard the whir of tiny wings.
You want me for eternity, Claire?
The stage plunged up toward me.
He couldn’t have me. Not yet.
The world exploded in fragments of color. Wings tore through my flesh. The heartbeat engulfed me.
I shot forward, soaring through the noose, now several times larger than me.
The rope snapped to its end, dangling in mid-air.
Empty.
People screamed.
A single peacock feather floated, sparkling through the spotlight, to the stage floor.
I zoomed up high above the proscenium and hovered safe and small next to the gilded carvings that were now, to my eyes, the size of monuments.
Wallace roared, his bloodied face twisted with rage. He pulled something from his coat pocket.
A gun.
He leaned against the catwalk railing, aimed it at Jensen, and fired. Jensen tumbled backward to the stage. He lay still under the light where we’d first kissed.
A heartbeat later, another shot sounded. Wallace’s body convulsed forward. He gripped his chest and looked down.
He tumbled over the railing. His body thudded to the stage, lifeless.
Claire, fly down to me. Now.
The demonic voice was weak, injured, but power still surged through it. Without Wallace controlling the effect of the drug, I was now vulnerable to Jensen’s unchallenged evil.
Dread burned like fire through my tiny body. But I couldn’t refuse. I hurtled toward his prone form center stage, drawn like a moth to my own destruction.
While I was still several feet in the air, I felt our mental connection break. The magic vanished, and so did my hummingbird form.
At once, I was in my own body. I plunged to the stage. My legs crumpled on impact, and sharp pain exploded through me. I tumbled and rolled, and finally skidded to a stop next to his still form.
My hand landed on his chest. It was wet with his warm blood.
The stage tilted on end and black mist rolled over me.
I welcomed the darkness as a friend.
Chapter Forty-One
Consciousness crept back to me in tiny details: the feel of coarse fabric against my toes, softness under my back. A warm weight on my chest.
A dull ache in my head.
I struggled to open my eyes. Groaned.
The weight lifted.
I opened my eyes, and Nadine’s gentle, weary face filled my vision. She must have been resting her head on my chest.
“Claire,” she breathed, her eyes shining. She kissed my forehead. “Thank God.”
“My head…” I murmured.
A second woman joined Nadine. It took me a moment to recall her. “Hello, Auntie Lu.”
She smiled at me. “Head ache?”
“Awful,” I rasped.
“Effect of the drug, I expect, and a nasty concussion,” she said. “Allow me.”
Nadine pushed her chair back from the bed I was lying on to make room for Lucy.
“What…drug?” It seemed I should know what she was talking about, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. My eyes drifted shut again. Too much work to keep them open.
“Don’t worry about that right now, my dear,” Lucy said, putting her warm hands on either side of my head. “Just relax.”
A pleasant tingle of magic flowed into my scalp, seeping deeper into the center of the pain. The ache intensified for a moment, then melted away.
“Thank you,” I said when she was finished.
Nadine offered me a glass of water, and I savored its coolness on my parched throat.
I tried to look around, but my vision was a little blurry. “Where are we?”
“At my house,” Lucy said.
“Do I want to know why?”
She gave me a tiny smile as she headed for the door of the room. I heard her speak to someone outside. She returned—followed by Thea and Raymond.
A fierce joy bloomed in me when I saw them. Nadine gave up her chair, and Raymond took it. Thea sat on the edge of the bed.
She threw herself down on me, gripping my shoulders. I felt her shaking, and heard the muffled sound of her crying.
I wrapped my arms around her, my thoughts still unfocused and fuzzy.
Raymond looked like he hadn’t slept in days. But he smiled down at me and smoothed my hair back from my face in gentle, slow movements.
“You had us a little worried,” he said.
I blinked some more, trying to clear my vision.
Standing in the doorway was Dietrich. My heart leapt at his darkly beautiful face. But when I smiled at him, he looked away from me, his expression troubled.
I had to concentrate. Had to remember.
At first, my memories were nothing but a gray haze. Gradually, bits and pieces flashed in snatches of vivid color.
The play.
Backstage.
The lift.
The catwalk.
“Wallace Shelby!” I gasped. “He was the Peacock.”
“Yes.” Thea nodded, looking relieved. “You remember.”
More images flooded back now. “I fought him. And…Creston Diggory.”
“Anything more?” prodded Lucy.
I remembered the noose.
The poison.
The feather.
The way the catwalk had lowered…
And who had lowered it.
His face shaped itself in my mind.
Dietrich met my eyes.
His voice echoed in my memory. If you die now, I will torment you forever. You will beg for my release, but I will introduce you to horrors no human being has even imagined
. For eternity.
I bit back a scream. I stared at him, willing him to reassure me that his transformation into a Jensen Cornelius demon had been all a drug-induced hallucination. Or a product of my own fear, just like when I’d been locked in the lift. It couldn’t have been real. No matter how life-like it felt.
Any moment now, he’d say it had all been my imagination.
But instead, his gaze slid away and he left the room.
“What’s wrong with Dietrich?” I asked Lucy.
She and the others exchanged worried glances.
Thea gripped my hands. “I think he’s waiting to talk with you in a little while.”
“Why won’t he come in?”
“He will,” Lucy reassured me. “He’s just waiting until you are a little stronger. Everything is all right.”
I hated being soothed like that. Everything was not all right—I knew that better than any of them. But Auntie Lu was right—I wasn’t strong enough yet to argue with them. I needed another ten minutes or so for my debate skills to revive themselves.
Fine. If we weren’t going to talk about Dietrich, at least they could tell me what happened after I lost consciousness. “Who shot Wallace? What about Agnes and Creston? What happened after I crashed onstage?”
Raymond resumed stroking my hair. “Wallace was shot by the one remaining rozzer.”
“What happened to the others? They were drugged with the brugmansia, right?”
He nodded. “Two were drugged by Miss Lampeter and Mr. Diggory and ordered to kill the other two. One succeeded. But the fourth rozzer fought and survived, and he was the one that shot Wallace.”
“Did they catch Agnes and Creston?”
He nodded. “The fourth rozzer caught Creston up in the fly gallery. He had to call in back-up to help track down Agnes Lampeter, but they got her in the end. Both have been in custody the last three days for questioning.”
I twisted from his touch, craning my neck to look up at him. “Wait—three days?”
Thea touched my cheek. “You were unconscious the whole time. Miss Kerrick at the theater healed you and Dietrich, but when you didn’t regain consciousness, Dame Fairchild had you brought here.”
“How badly was I injured?” I remembered the pain exploding through my body.
Lucy gave me a wry smile. “Two broken ankles, left knee dislocated. Shattered left wrist. Nasty concussion. Combined with the brugmansia, that’s why you were out for three days.”
I winced. “Ouch. So everything is all right now?”
“I wouldn’t go hiking through sewer tunnels for awhile if I were you,” Lucy said, “but otherwise, you’re good as new.”
Several things still didn’t make sense to me. “If Wallace was the Peacock, how did he carry out the other murders when he was working for us the whole time?”
“That’s the bizarre thing,” Thea said. “There is no Peacock. Never was.”
“Really?” I tried to sit up, but a swirl of dizziness forced me to lie still. “But the murders—”
“—were committed by a secret murder cult called Ira Deorum.” Raymond’s eyes sparked at the chance to tell the story. “They worship a deity they call the Sacred Master. And they think that the theater is a corrupting, addictive scourge on society. The murders were done as a sacrifice to their god, and to send a message to the Empress to purify the land.”
I shivered. “That’s creepy.”
He nodded. “But it gets creepier. They recruit Guild members into the cult specifically so that they can infiltrate theaters in groups of two or three. The teams get hired on, and they earn everyone’s trust, and then months later, commit the murder. And no one ever suspected that the danger was coming from within the theater itself.”
“So we could have more of these teams among us?”
He shrugged. “Probably not at the Alchemy, anyway. But yes, there could be other teams in place in other theaters all over Aldwych. The police and the Guild have shut down all performances for the next month and are investigating all Guild members. Of course, their job is a little easier since they convinced Agnes and Creston to rat out the others.”
“How did they do that?”
He looked grim. “How do you suppose?”
I shuddered. The Empress’s methods probably would make Jensen Cornelius seem like the Virgin Mary. “Well, I’m glad that they were caught. Hopefully, this will put an end to it.”
“They might never have broken the case if it weren’t for you,” Thea said.
Nadine joined the other three beside the bed, looking fierce. “Yes, you and your stunt of impersonating me. Not to mention kidnapping me! If it weren’t for the fact that you’ve been unconscious for three days, I think I’d scold you for the next couple of hours.”
“Couple?” Thea said. “She railed at us for at least five—spread out over the last three days. And I’m not sure she’s finished yet.”
Oh dear. I bit my lip and glanced up hesitantly at my usually good-natured maybe-mother. “Are you really angry at me?”
She glared at me. “Of course I am. I was insane with worry.” Her expression softened. “But I’m incredibly proud of you. And so very, very relieved that—” She choked up and couldn’t continue. Her eyes shone with tears.
I knew what she was trying to say. I relaxed against the mattress again, heaving a sigh. She wouldn’t stay angry—she’d just been scared.
No one spoke for a moment. There was nothing more any of them could tell me. My remaining questions were ones only Dietrich could answer.
It was time to talk with him. But I didn’t want to do it wearing a three-day-old night gown and lying in a clinic bed like an invalid. For the discussion I had to have with him, I needed to be in a position of strength.
“I’d like to get up and dressed, please,” I told Lucy.
She shooed the others out of the room and gave me some clothing Thea had brought for me. When I first sat up, the room dipped and swirled around me. But soon, I was able to put my feet on the floor and stand. I took a deep breath—it felt good to be out of bed.
After donning the fresh clothing, I washed my face and brushed my hair. Lucy helped me wind it into a simple bun at the nape of my neck.
I was as ready as I could be. “Will you send him in, please?”
She squeezed my shoulder on her way out.
I pulled a couple of the chairs away from the bed. I didn’t want to be near it when we spoke.
Just as I had settled into one of the chairs, the door opened and Dietrich slipped into the room. I motioned to the second chair next to me, but he crossed the room to stand by the supply cabinet on the wall farthest from where I sat. His expression held no welcome. He barely looked at me.
Why was he so withdrawn? I pictured how he’d looked, lying on the stage, blood pooling on his chest. Was he remembering, too?
“How is your shoulder?”
“What? Oh,” he said, shrugging, “just fine.”
“I’m glad.”
We had to talk about it. But I couldn’t find the words.
He grew restless, agitated. Bouncing a bit on his toes, unbuttoning his frock coat and fastening it again. But never looking at me.
“What is it, Dietrich?” I forced myself to remain seated. “What’s wrong?”
His eyes snapped to me, wide and incredulous. “You don’t remember?”
“Of course I do.”
The silky voice rang again in my memory: I made you fall in love with the monster…You were fooled so easily.
“You didn’t mean any of it. I know that. You told me yourself you can be very convincing when you have to be.”
His laugh was dry like kindling. “Oh, I meant it. Every word. I’ve never meant anything more than I did in that moment.”
Frost crackled over me. “But…it was only because you were trying to save me.”
His face darkened. “That was my intention. Your fear of Cornelius Jensen was the only thing that had a chance of being stronger th
an the influence of the drug. I knew I could channel that fear. I told you I would do anything I had to in order to keep you alive.”
“And you did. You mustn’t feel badly about the rest of it. I understand.”
Here was his chance to agree with me—to reassure me that this was indeed what had happened. That the way he’d burned with evil on the stage had only been an illusion.
“You understand? You?” A rage flamed in his eyes. “Then by all means, explain to me what happened that night. Tell me why the last few days—” He broke off, pivoting away, his fists gripping his hair. Anguish twisted his face.
I rushed from the chair and crossed the room toward him. “What is it?”
He held up a hand. “Stay away from me, Miss Mellor.”
The cold words smacked me. I slammed to a halt. “Why are you angry at me?” I felt small and young and inexperienced. “What did I do wrong?”
He turned to me, his face softening. “Oh god. Nothing. You did nothing wrong. I’m not angry at you.”
I took a step closer. “Then come sit and tell me what’s upsetting you.”
He backed away along the wall. “I’m leaving.”
My insides dropped away. “You can’t do that.”
“For a few weeks. Fenrey gave me a leave of absence.”
“Where are you going?”
“Caerdydd. And maybe…home.”
None of this made any sense to me. “That will be good. You need to rest. You’ll feel better. And when you return, we’ll talk. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”
“We will do no such thing.”
“I don’t understand.”
He stood tall, edging toward the door. His eyes were haunted, but resolute. “You and I. It’s over. It never should have started. You know that as well as I do.”
“But—”
“You should be with Carrew. When I return, you will keep your distance. I’m assuming you’ll be transferring to an acting apprenticeship. Somehow, I’ll arrange for us not to work together. You will be the finest actress of our generation, but not under my direction.”
I struggled for breath. Tears pricked my eyes. “Tell me what happened that night! You wouldn’t be treating me like this if something hadn’t gone horribly wrong.” I had to believe that was true. He was like a stranger to me now, harsh and distant.
Chains of Silver: a YA Theater Steampunk Novel (Alchemy Empire Book 1) Page 38
