These Ruthless Deeds

by Tarun Shanker

My mouth could barely form words as the dust around them settled. Miss Rao had disappeared into the retreating fog. I ran forward to see Mr. Braddock rising to his feet, dusty and unharmed. On the other side lay Mr. Kent’s crumpled body, unmoving, smoke rising from his smoldering jacket.

  I was by his side in an instant, seizing the closest part of his body and then as much of him as I could grasp as Mr. Braddock stumbled away, letting me use my healing. I could feel Mr. Kent’s tattered clothing, his bubbling skin on his back, but most of all, his heart, beating no less tenaciously than I’d expect from him. His eyes, however, remained closed and I could feel no breath leaving his nose and mouth.

  “Go,” I heard Mr. Redburn say behind me as he and the others disappeared into another portal to find Miss Rao.

  “Wait—” Mr. Braddock was saying, his voice desperate, but the portal closed. The sky above rumbled again and the wind around us seemed to surge stronger, whistling across the silent street.

  “Come on then, you stupid man, you’re all right. Get up,” I said brusquely, angry at the tears that were forming. Surely it was not too late. It was simply an injury. A terrible injury. But what if he did not wake? No. No, that was an unthinkable thought.

  “Ah…” Mr. Kent stirred in my arms, rasping and coughing. “This is just how I imagined heaven might be.”

  “Stop, Mr. Kent,” I said, laughing in relief. “Need I remind you that you were just struck by lightning? Is this any time to be flirting?”

  His warm eyes fluttered open. “Any time is the time to flirt with you,” he murmured. A slow smile. “To be honest, I’m feeling better than when I started the day. That enhanced power of yours is … impressive.”

  It was hard to argue that. I stood up to survey him. His worst burns had become barely visible discolorations and the skin on his back was smooth. I felt pure joy rush through me as the enormity of the moment finally dawned on me. He was not dead.

  He shook a lock of hair from his face as he climbed to his knees and looked up at me solemnly, his face truly handsome in this surreal moment. “Miss Wyndham, I feel this is an opportune moment to remind you that what I said as we rushed off to Dr. Beck’s house still stands.” The wind grew stronger around us, blowing dust all over the street. More lightning struck nearby and thunder roared, but not as loud as the thump of blood beating fast in my ears.

  He slowly raised himself to standing, looking every bit the elegant young buck, and still somehow every inch a man to be reckoned with. “I know I should not take such liberties with an unmarried woman.…”

  “Especially when you’ve alluded to your indecent past.”

  Mr. Kent nodded soberly. “I have. Before I met you, I went to brothels, gambling halls, scandalous music halls, all sorts of indecent places.”

  “And let me guess, ever since you met me, you’ve changed?”

  He shook his head. “No, I just want to do these indecent things with you.”

  With that, he leaned forward slowly, giving me time to back away if I wished to. But I didn’t.

  When his lips touched mine they were soft and cool and I hesitantly pressed mine back. I could feel him smile at my response as he reached one hand to my cheek, shivers running down my spine as his fingers continued to move, grazing the fine hair at the nape of my neck. His mouth was no longer smiling as he pulled me tighter, urgent, and I felt his tongue tease between my lips, along with a little shock of electric charge.

  At that I pulled back suddenly, breath coming all in a rush. I was trembling, flushed with confusion, wanting to turn away and never think of this again, another part of me wanting to see if there was any more to be learned between us. I swayed slightly, his arm still warm against my waist.

  “Evelyn,” he said throatily, his brown eyes drowsy and warm, chest rising quickly. “I have been wanting to do that for ages.” I was suddenly aware of details I had never noticed before, like a freckle directly in the center of his dimple when he flashed his half smile, and the tiny pinpricks of stubble that had stroked my cheek.

  “Mr. Kent.”

  I whirled around to see Mr. Braddock, covered in dirt and blood. His eyes were dark and angry, voice a raw growl. My heart dropped and suddenly I felt overwhelmed with the flood of emotions I had felt in the last hour.

  “Mr. Braddock.” Mr. Kent nodded at him curtly.

  The two men stared at each other like asinine stallions.

  “Thank you for saving my life,” Mr. Braddock said stonily, his eyes unbearably sad. “I will not forget it.”

  “And I will send you daily reminders to make sure,” Mr. Kent replied.

  “Too bad, I had my money on Mr. Braddock,” Miss Chen said, her arms crossed lazily. She shook her head at me ruefully. “Last time I bet on anyone’s romantic prospects.”

  Next to her, Mr. Redburn stepped out of a portal, dusting off his jacket.

  “What happened? Did she get away?” I asked, ignoring Miss Chen’s commentary.

  “No, we caught her,” he said, looking all too pleased with himself. “Pulled her into a portal when she was distracted. She’ll be fine.”

  “And what happens next?” I asked. “Will she remain locked away against her wishes?”

  He rolled his eyes. “My brother’ll speak to her—make sure she does the right thing. He has a way with people.”

  I could feel the same unease from before curling through my body. “And what is that way?”

  Mr. Redburn shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, feeding her a great deal of candy.”

  Mr. Kent’s hand was on my back, failing to be soothing. In fact, it was rather irritating. “She will be all right, Miss Wyndham.”

  “Do you think this is really helping people?” I asked Miss Chen.

  She opened her eyes, looking as cool as always. But I felt sure that she was actually deeply uncomfortable. “Depends if you’re asking an Englishman or an Indian.”

  A portal back to London crackled open and Mr. Redburn sighed. “Are we done here?” he asked.

  “No, we’re not done,” I told him. “Where did she go?”

  “That’s none of your concern.”

  “I’m making it my concern,” I said, and turned to Mr. Kent. “Can you ask him?”

  “Kent, don’t you speak a word,” Mr. Redburn warned him with a growl.

  Mr. Kent looked at Mr. Redburn. And looked at me. And back at Mr. Redburn. “Where did you—”

  Mr. Redburn threw a portal below Mr. Kent and he disappeared before he could finish the question. Then he did the same with Mr. Braddock and Miss Chen, leaving the two of us alone. “Before you start whining about them, too, I sent them all home. Now let’s get something settled, Miss Wyndham.”

  He fussily smoothed his queue as he stepped forward, making me stumble back. “You ask too many questions. Your job? To do as we tell you to do.” His hand snaked out to grab my wrist and keep me close. We were on a deserted street and my friends were gone. I could sense myself beginning to panic but I forced myself to concentrate on Mr. Redburn, staying slack in his grasp.

  “In return, you keep your pretty new house and we make sure your family is safe. If you get too mouthy? Well. I don’t think you will like the consequences. So next time, you do what I say. You don’t sic one of your little lapdog boys on me or begin to challenge me. Is that clear?”

  He sneered as I stared back at him, trying to comprehend the threat. Before I could say anything, a hole opened below me and I fell back into my garden.

  The comforting scent of wet earth rose around me. I took a deep breath as I clambered to my feet, trying to calm the fury and powerlessness roiling through my body.

  I didn’t know whether it was Mr. Redburn who was the dangerous one, or if it was Miss Rao, or if it was the whole blasted Society. But nothing about that mission felt right.

  Chapter 10

  WELL. I COULDN’T shiver in the garden all day. At least my mother did not know I was here and would think I was still out with Lady Atherton. I shuffled a
round the side of the house, ducking beneath the many windows. As soon as I made it around the corner I rushed to the street to call a hack.

  I needed to know who Miss Rao was.

  I needed to know why we had to capture her.

  I needed to know where this information was coming from.

  I needed answers.

  The Society of Aberrations’ footman had none. When he let me in, he did not know of any new arrivals, of anyone named Radhika Rao, or of any sudden changes in the weather. I told him I could find the library myself, but instead went up to the living quarters, putting my ear up to various doors. None of the maids I passed had any notion of a young Indian woman arriving.

  I couldn’t barge into every room, but I did have a friend who could help.

  Oliver was in the gardens, training hard with the flying girl, dodging a flurry of attacking vines from the boy who could control plants. When he saw me hovering by the entrance, he let the vines pass through him and headed over, leaving the other two to train on their own.

  “Miss.” He nodded at me.

  “Hello, Oliver, are you well?” He gave me a shrug that conveyed nothing.

  “Bit bored—wish I could be on missions.” He crossed his arms and raised a brow.

  A dart of fear hurtled through me. “There will be plenty of time for that … later…,” I said vaguely.

  He rolled his eyes. “That’s what everyone says.”

  “Actually, you might be very helpful to me,” I said, hoping to flatter him into assisting me. “This morning we found a new recruit. An Indian woman, Miss Radhika Rao. Have you seen her?”

  Oliver frowned and shook his head. “No one new today. There was a woman who could sing you to sleep that they brought yesterday. And I spied on Captain Goode’s tour the day before.”

  “You—never mind. She should have come an hour ago, but none of the house staff have seen her.”

  “Maybe they took her to the recovery room. If anyone gets sick or hurt that is where they would be sent. And then you’d probably be sent for, actually.”

  “Where is it?”

  “I’ll show you.”

  He waved good-bye to his training partners and led me upstairs to a room that looked like a small ward in a hospital. There were ten beds lined up against the walls. All of them were unoccupied.

  “I suppose I should just speak with Captain Goode,” I sighed, feeling more nervous than I probably needed to.

  “He isn’t here,” Oliver said. “He raised our powers and told us to train just before he left.”

  Wonderful. More hindrances.

  “But his office is there,” Oliver suggested with a smirk, leading the way.

  Captain Goode’s office. Tempting. Oliver was halfway down the hall and I followed, not sure if I should be encouraging this behavior.

  “Oliver, I don’t want to make you do something that might lead to trouble.”

  He shrugged. “I already did.”

  “You what?”

  “I snuck into his office the second day I was here. I don’t like not knowing everything. Didn’t trust ’em.”

  “Then why did you join them?”

  “Easier to sneak around from the inside.” He looked at me calmly, as though it were all very obvious.

  I stared at him. Oliver was even more skeptical than I had thought. “Did you find anything suspicious?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Not the first time, but I didn’t get to look at everything. But I was planning on checking again.”

  “Do you do this a lot?” I asked, suspicion beginning to build in my mind.

  “Yes,” he said plainly. “Don’t tend to trust people.”

  I stopped cold. “Does that mean you went through my things? And Miss Grey’s?”

  “Yup,” he said easily. “Did you give those letters to Mr. Braddock? You had a lot of unfinished ones—”

  “All right, no more of that,” I said hastily, herding him in front of me.

  Soon we found ourselves in a hallway of offices for the higher-ranking Society members, Captain Goode’s at the very end. Oliver poked his head inside the locked room to check if it was empty, while I peeked around the corner to make certain no one would surprise us. The area clear, Oliver took my hand and I clenched it tightly.

  The rational part of me knew that he was capable of pulling another person with him. But the irrational part of me conjured up a distinct image of our bodies stuck halfway through the wall for Captain Goode to find.

  Thankfully, with a small shudder, we were through. The office was rather efficient and boring. The walls were covered with a mundane, peeling yellow wallpaper with simple, ugly landscapes. A small shelf of books with ordinary subjects—politics, history, religion. A glass cabinet displayed some of Captain Goode’s awards for service in the army, along with a family photograph where Mr. Redburn smiled like he actually found something entertaining.

  Captain Goode’s desk was another matter entirely. Some drawers were locked, but Oliver was able to overcome that tight security with ease, sliding his hand in and pulling out stacks of files. He went to the office entrance and poked his head out to keep watch, while I sorted through the papers and folders. Many of them were intricate details of Society members and some were names I recognized from my healing rounds with Lady Atherton. Those files listed all their business ventures, investments, offices held—essentially everything the Society would need to know when it came to calling in their favors.

  Mr. Braddock’s name caught my eye next. Just underneath were files on Mr. Kent, Miss Grey, Oliver, Emily, and me. With a chill running down my spine, I opened mine to find a handwritten record of my activities. I flipped through the pages, my eyes moving too rapidly to fully process each sentence. There was a list of all my friends and family, information about my father’s financial situation, a report on my sister’s death, a log of my activities and the people I’ve healed since joining the Society, observations of my powers, and unnecessary notes that I was stubborn and argumentative.

  I felt sick. While it wasn’t surprising to see all these notes, it was dreadfully uncomfortable to hold them and feel the weight of all the information they had on me. But I forced myself to close the file and stay on task. I needed to find out what they had done with Miss Rao. I set aside the named files and searched through the ones labeled by month and year.

  The February 1883 file was filled with a number of short, handwritten letters. Orders, I realized as I skimmed through them. Orders from the anonymous head of the Society to Captain Goode. I sifted through lists of the families I had visited with Lady Atherton. Names of politicians and the questions Mr. Kent was to ask them. The address of a building Miss Chen was to destroy. Similarly destructive and sometimes constructive orders for a number of names I didn’t recognize—other powered people under the Society’s employ.

  Then I found the recruitment orders. For Miss Grey, Oliver, and myself. For Miss Tolman, who could sing you to sleep. For Miss Lewis, the girl who could fly. They all gave brief instructions for how to persuade us—from appealing to our desire to control our powers to gifts of wealth.

  My hand trembled as I read the note on Mr. Braddock’s recruitment. The head called Mr. Braddock dangerous, claimed he had killed many people in the past, and questioned whether he had completely reformed. He ordered Captain Goode to turn off his power and tell Mr. Braddock to return to the Society a day after it came back. Mr. Braddock’s reaction would help them determine whether he could be trusted with the power. And if he truly wished to control it, then his need for the Society would only be strengthened.

  So I had been right to suspect them. The head blatantly lied to Captain Goode so he would lie to us. All part of a manipulative plan to make Mr. Braddock feel more dependent on the Society.

  My blood was boiling as I got to Miss Rao’s and read the words: A danger to the British realm. Antagonizes and murders innocents. Recruit or capture at all costs.

  Suddenly, Oliver’s hand grab
bed my arm. “He’s coming!”

  In a panic, I threw the files back together and Oliver slipped them back into drawers. By the time we finished, we heard a key rattle in the door. As the lock clicked, Oliver seized my hand and pulled me straight down through the floor.

  We landed hard on an assortment of wooden chips and shavings in one of the training rooms. The strange flooring was quickly explained as I looked around to see an assortment of split and shattered logs—and Miss Chen.

  “Dammit!” She cried out. A loud crack and crash sent another log to bits, and I coughed as wood dust hit my mouth. Oliver was already on his feet and helped me, too.

  She was at the other end of the room, curled over, her face against her legs, breath coming in harshly drawn gasps.

  “I … Sorry to interrupt, Miss Chen,” I said, feeling the urge to babble and wondering if my cheeks were as red as they felt. “We did not mean to startle you. Oliver was just showing me what he’d learned with his power and it worked rather too well.”

  She ignored me as her breath slowed and just when I thought we should leave her in peace, she finally spoke. “By all means, interrupt me when my power is at its highest.” Her voice was shaking a little, but she still managed to be sarcastic. “Do you also run into burning buildings for fun—you probably do, actually. Never mind.”

  “We surprised you,” I said quickly. “I am sorry.”

  “You don’t understand.” Slowly she pulled herself upright, running her hands over the pieces of hair that had fallen from her braid. “I was practicing raising and lowering my power. It was extremely high when you came in. I could very easily have killed you.” She still wouldn’t look at us.

  But I wasn’t able to contain myself. “You can truly do that?” I asked.

  “Kill you?” she muttered, then relented, tossing her gaze to the ceiling. “I’m getting better. Still mostly terrible.”

  “But to have any control…” My thoughts were racing to Mr. Braddock, already imagining the alternatives to depending on the Society.

  “It is not easy. But when you have a power like this one, I promise you’d want to turn if off sometimes too. Raising it higher is part of the practice.” She risked a quick look at me and I nodded, thinking about how constantly she had to divert her attentions so things did not fall apart.