“Good job back there, Wes. Now, where’s your sister?”
As if on cue, Emmeline’s voice rang above them followed by Elsworth’s. Wesley ran for the stairs, but stopped in his tracks at the ripple of magic through the air. The smell of carrion and the wretched stench of wet, matted hair filled his nose. His heart lurched and his wolf instinctively urged him to run. Swallowing against the knot in his throat, Wesley turned to find his father and Roulet’s gazes grimly locked on the upper balcony.
“He has another wearg!” Wesley yelled, snatching up his sword.
With a splintering of bone and a yowl of pain, his father and the colonel were wolves once more. Together they sprinted up the rest of the steps toward the gunpowder haze of magic and the sound of voices. Bounding through the halls, Wesley released another long howl.
They were coming, and he needed Emmeline to know they hadn’t abandoned her.
***
Emmeline leaned against the wall and caught her breath, wishing for the hundredth time she hadn’t tightened her stays or worn such uncomfortable shoes. Fashion would be the death of her if this was to be her new normal. Her lungs and calves protested against the strain of trotting up four flights of stairs, and sweat had collected in an itchy patch between her breasts. The words of a spell trailed nonsensically to her ears, yet she could feel its power amassing around them. The air felt think as if it was clotted with smoke while her skin crawled with the touch of invisible vermin. Nadir stood beside her, peering around the corner of the hall as far as he dared. Dim rays shown in through the domed room’s oculus, but the uppermost arcade remained shadowed in twilight darkness. For once, Nadir seemed unable to muster his usual bluster and panache as he returned to her side.
“You don’t have to do this, Em,” he whispered, holding her by the shoulders. “No matter what has happened between you and the Interceptors in the past, you don’t have to do this.”
She froze at the way he seemed to lock into a deeper part of her. He was seeing her, truly seeing her when so few did, and it stung in the same way seeing her mother did. Swallowing hard, she averted her gaze.
“Em, you are not the villain in any of this. You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone, especially not them. What they think doesn’t matter. We can still go back downstairs, find Wesley, and go home. We could get on a dirigible out of here if you wish.”
“Is that what you want to do?” she asked, her voice thin and far away.
“I want to do what you want. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Neither do I, but I have to do it. Elsworth can’t get away with what he’s done. My family’s safety is on the line, and whether I want to admit it or not, so is mine. At the house, he said he still needs me. He needs my power.” Drawing in a calming breath, Emmeline raised her face to Nadir’s. “I’m not being put in that position again.”
Nadir nodded and took a step back. “All right. What do you need me to do?”
“Stay out of the way. Stay alive,” she said with a bitter laugh. When he opened his mouth to protest, she held up a hand. “Please. I won’t be able to live with myself. Just wait for me.”
When she turned to leave, he caught her hand and brought it to his lips. “I know you worry about losing others, but remember how important your life is, too. If you think you’re going to lose, get out. Promise me.”
“I will.”
Releasing Nadir’s hand, Emmeline’s stomach churned at the way his comforting presence fell away as she crossed the hall. For a moment, her steps slowed as if something inside her still reached for him, but she had to keep moving. Straightening her spine and keeping her head high, Emmeline steadied the frantic thrum of her pulse. The noise below felt impossibly dim despite the battle with the wearg raging only a few floors below. Inching around the corner of the arcade, she spotted Elsworth. He swayed on his feet with his eyes closed, his mouth moving rhythmically with the words of spell she couldn’t understand. If she squinted, she thought she could see the outline of his energy. Each word caused the air to tremble around him, like a spider plucking at the warf and weft of the aether. At his feet, the carpet runner had been pulled aside to reveal a sigil marked in lead white or chalk. The lines spun away from the center only to reconnect and morph into impossible shapes. It hurt to look at, but as she raised her gaze to his hands, her body instinctually locked.
Balanced in his left hand was an orb of quartz cradled in a thick swath of black cambric. Inside the crystalline glass, shapes moved. Images of devils and figures pulsed, leaving plumes of color dissipating in their wake. Emmeline jumped when one pressed its face to the glass to get a better look at her before dissolving into green dust. In his other hand was the talisman Verdun had mentioned. It looked like well-worn leather. Impossibly old, creased, and tattooed with symbols whose meaning had been long forgotten. She wondered if he could hear her or even sense her so far into a trance. Perhaps she could snatch it from his hand and make a run for it.
Any hope of a quick escape disappeared as she took a step forward and his eyes opened while his lips curled into a knowing grin. Finishing the last line of his incantation, Elsworth rolled his shoulders and readjusted his grip on his talismans. The air hummed all around her, and for a moment, Emmeline feared he would try to choke her again. In an instant, the magic dissipated, and they stood waiting for the other to begin. Setting the crystal globe on the thick, stone ledge, Elsworth smiled and walked towards her. Her mind urged her to step back, but Emmeline stood firm and coolly met his gaze.
“The fact that you’re alive right now speaks to your strength, Miss Jardine.”
Her stomach lurched at the unexpected words, but she kept her countenance smooth.
“When I first heard about the little girl whose mother had been the toast of English witchery who had been kidnapped, held captive, and escaped on her own, I had thought it was a myth. Then, you managed to kill Lord Rose, and no matter how close you came to falling, you managed to foil Lady Rose’s ritual and not be prosecuted.” He chuckled and shook his head. “I threw weargs at you and trapped you, and yet here you stand.”
“You aren’t nearly as scary or clever as Lord and Lady Rose.”
“I never said I was, but at some point, our luck always runs out. The question is when will yours.”
Fighting to keep her breathing level, Emmeline trailed her magic along the wall for the hidden piping beneath. “It only has to last longer than yours.”
Elsworth stepped so close to her that she could feel his breath against her forehead as he stared into her features. “It doesn’t have to be this way, Miss Jardine. I know we have had our differences in the past, but I’m offering you one more chance to join us. The tides are turning and the world is changing whether we like it or not. If something isn’t done, we will lose our grip on power. Do you want to be banished to the shadows? I read your file. If only you knew the punishments some of my esteemed colleagues had thought befitting for you. And for what? For exploring your gifts? For inheriting a powerful book capable of far more than most of them could ever achieve? Those are strengths that should be nurtured, not punished.”
The purr of his words wrapped around her. Emmeline swallowed hard at the knot twisting in her gut. “Yes.”
“You have so much potential, Miss Jardine. And they would squander it in favor of simpering idiots like Immanuel Winter. Is that what you want? With weak men like that ascending through our ranks, we will lose all of our hard-earned gains.”
Anger lanced through her, breaking the sleek chain of his words. Yes, sometimes she thought she hated Immanuel Winter, but she didn’t. She hated how he could be happy despite all that had happened to them—to him—while she stewed in her sadness no matter how many books she read or parties she attended. He didn’t deserve hatred when he had always been kind to her even when she was anything but.
“And is that why Mr. Talbot had to go?” she asked, her voice frigid.
“Talbot didn’t deserve to breathe our ai
r. The Interceptors sent him to spy on us and treated him like an equal when he should have been at heel. He knows who his betters are, and so do you. You have been keeping the wrong company for far too long, Miss Jardine. Perhaps you have forgotten who truly matters.”
“I quite like the company I keep.”
Emmeline dove for the quartz globe, but as Elsworth tried to grab her, her foot caught in the rumbled rug and they tumbled to the floor in a heap. Scrambling to her feet, she slammed her heel into his groin and stumbled out of reach. The creatures inside the ball stirred into swirling mist with terrible faces and grabbing claws. The fabric nearly gave way under its weight as she hefted the ball by the corners of the cambric. She spun at the sound of footsteps and chanting behind her. Elsworth rose to his knees, his lips working a spell as Nadir skidded to a halt a few yards behind them. Elsworth tripped over the words, but began with a renewed vigor as he locked onto Nadir Talbot.
“What are you doing here?” she said at the same time Nadir shouted, “There’s someone behind you!”
Nadir gagged, his hands flying to his throat and his eyes bulging in their sockets. Elsworth’s hand had tightened into a claw as he yanked at the air around Nadir’s body. Time seemed to stop as the massive head of a wearg appeared through the door at the end of the hall. Its yellow eyes locked onto her, and she couldn’t look away knowing she was the prey.
“Please, let him go,” she said, her voice strangled.
“The time for negotiation is over, Miss Jardine. You have made your choice, and I’ve made mine.”
In an instant, he would crush Nadir’s windpipe and it would all be over. Everything Emmeline had tried to do would be for naught again, and she would lose her best friend. Heat prickled behind her eyes, raw and angry. Beneath it, her magic loomed. It slithered through the aether, winding its way through the invisible cracks and seams until Emmeline stood in the center of a web and all she had to do was pull. The moment the wearg closed in on her and David Elsworth’s power swelled to attack, Emmeline swung the ball. It crashed into the side of Elsworth’s head, knocking him sideways. He reached for his face, and Emmeline reached for the wearg. Her magic sung within in, filling her bones and setting her blood racing with the ecstasy of chaos as a wolf howled somewhere outside her.
She caught the wearg’s energy and pulled. It unraveled, spooling around her as her magic reached for the pipes behind the plaster. All it took was Nadir’s shuddering gag to set it loose. The entirety of the wearg’s energy, all that Elsworth had imbued into it came coursing through her. She smelled the coppery tang of blood and tasted the forbidden flavor of human flesh as it flashed into fire. Bursting from her palms, an in human scream rose somewhere outside of her. For a moment, Emmeline thought it was her. The power hurt. Her bones ached and her skin burned. No longer could she see the realm of men but what existed beyond it. Somewhere in the void, the monster of her nightmares stared back.
The energy flowed out of her only to be replaced with a world devoid of life and sensation. Emmeline scrabbled for purchase, but her body failed her and she hit the floor with a bone-jarring thud. It had been too much. She should have seen that if she ever took the time to think ahead. Hands soothed her skin and smoothed her hair. Someone was calling her name, but she couldn’t speak or see.
Then, she saw her mother.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Past, Present, Future
The days following the battle at the Inner Temple Gardens were some of the weirdest of Emmeline Jardine’s life, and that was saying something. She had lain in bed with what turned out to be a four day long migraine, but now, all that remained was a dull ache in her forehead. When she awoke to find a fae-featured man shoving smelling salts under her nose, she wasn’t certain she would ever be able to think straight again. Her hands stung from the blisters that had formed on her palms and her body ached in muscles she didn’t know existed. By far the headaches were the worst. No matter what she did, they didn’t ease, and at their worst, she couldn’t string together a coherent sentence without immense effort.
Emmeline turned over the letter she had received the day after she had—apparently—nearly died at the hands of her own magic. She ran her finger along the ridges of the wax chimera and frowned. Though it still hurt to read, she unfolded the letter again and ran her eyes along the lines of writing so neat it looked as if it had been typed.
Dear Miss Jardine,
Your heroism and selfless disregard for personal safety saved many of my practioners, and we are in your debt. Despite the reservations of our colleagues, we would like to offer you a place among the Interceptors as an agent. Your skill and magical prowess are without question and should be stoked further. As a member of Her Majesty’s Interceptors, we could help you grow to your full potential with training, and you will have others of your kind to guide you. We know our history with you has been complicated, but we hope you will put that behind you for the benefit of yourself and the nation.
We look forward to having you with us,
The Hierophant
Not even an apology, Emmeline had mused when Nadir first read it to her. He had quit the Interceptors already and had offered to go back if that was what she wanted. She hadn’t known what she wanted then. She was tired and her nerves raw. Her magic felt far, far away. So far that even the spirits didn’t bother with her, and she didn’t like it. Closing her eyes, Emmeline reached for her magic and felt it quietly answer her call. It twined up her fingers and smoldered against the parchment. Flames ate through the paper until it fell onto the coverlet as ash.
That was her answer.
Ignoring the sharp pang in her head, Emmeline stood up when Price came in to dress her. Her ribs groaned in protest as her maid tugged at her corset, but Emmeline focused on the vase of flowers on the vanity. Her eyes slid over the bright feathery cardinal flowers before dipping to the smiling yellow of the mulleins and the sprig of purple sage that matched her dress. Apparently, Nadir wanted her to get well. She had chuckled when she finally had the sense to parse out its meaning. Every day he had been there with flowers or cake or new chapters of his novel to read to her. It had everything she liked in his work: a kingdom in crisis, magic, a romance between an exiled princess and a foreign prince indebted to the king. Whenever Nadir sat beside her in the parlor and read in his smooth, sonorous voice, she felt like the story belonged only to them. Part of her wished he wouldn’t publish it, that it could remain between them always unfolding, but that would be selfish.
As she descended the stairs, her eyes fell upon the pile of mail on the hall table. At the top was an envelope from Lady Dorset. Her hands trembled as she turned it over to tear it open, but before she could, the doorbell rang. Stuffing it into her bag, Emmeline opened the door to find a bouquet of flowers level with her nose. A smile crept across her lips as she took them from Nadir’s hands and backed away to let him inside. Red peonies and tulips interspersed with circaea.
“You may be single-handedly keeping your florist afloat this winter. Are you sure you can afford spoiling me with flowers now that you aren’t reporting back?”
“Of course I can, besides spring’s coming soon, and they’ll be growing naturally again.”
“You’ll have to make sure your messages are in season.” Lingering on the red tulip, Emmeline stood on tiptoe and kissed Nadir’s softly. “Thank you. You’ve made this past week much easier.”
“How are your hands?” he asked, eyeing her gloves.
“Sensitive, but I’m not peeling like a snake anymore. Let me give these to Price, so we can get going.”
***
Perkins parked the steamer outside the Victoria Landing Fields a few miles beyond the city. No matter how many dirigibles Emmeline had been on, she still marveled at how unreal they looked from the ground. Her mind rebelled at the notion that no matter the day or the size of their cargo, they somehow managed to stay airborne. As Nadir helped her out, she scanned the crowd lingering outside the doors for her fath
er or Wesley. Sure enough she found them chatting animatedly, oblivious to the cold. Wesley rolled his eyes at something their father said but followed it with a laugh and a shake of his head. They all looked slightly worse for wear despite the week of healing and answering the Interceptors’ questions.
Twelve people had died, over thirty had been wounded, but the Interceptors would rebuild. For better or worse. Silas’s face brightened as he spotted Emmeline and Nadir walking toward him. When Emmeline reached his side, he instinctively opened his arms as if to embrace her only to catch himself and start to lower his arms. Before he could, Emmeline slipped in and pressed her face to the front of his waistcoat. A surprisingly ragged sigh escaped her lips as he hugged her tightly. If this was the man her mother loved and trusted enough to produce her, she could love and trust him, too. Drawing in a deep breath, she closed her eyes and tried to memorize the feel of a parent’s love. She may have been a bastard, but she had been wanted and never forgotten. That was far more than many children had.
“Hey, hey, none of that. I know what that hug feels like,” Silas said, slowly easing Emmeline back and tipping her face up to study it better. “That hug feels like goodbye, and I’ll have none of it. We will see each other again. You and your paramour will come visit me someday soon, so you can meet Theo and Eudora. And I’m certain I will be back here to deal with this werewolf business before long. Don’t look so sad, sha.”
The Wolf Witch Page 27