“Klaus?” She called in an urgent whisper. Quickly, she stepped out from the overspilling party light and rounded the corner toward a gazebo. “Klaus? I’m here.” A calm quietness shifted over the garden. Elizabeth tucked her arms to her chest and leant across the gazebo railing as she waited. Come on, Klaus. Where are you?
“Oh, of course.” She spun around at a voice. From the thick of the shadows, Nikolas approached with his hands clasped behind his back. Elizabeth’s eyes widened. She clenched her jaw shut. “Yes, of course it is him. Poetry.”
Oh no! Elizabeth’s pulse raced. Oh no! Oh no!
Nikolas smiled, watching her face constrict with panic. “So, after all these decades he’s managed to track me down.” Elizabeth went to speak but couldn’t think of anything to convince Nikolas he had misheard her. She had screwed up, badly.
“Are you going to run?” she asked, instead.
“I don’t run. Only the guilty run.”
“That’s not what he says—”
“So fitting, he always did try to hide his weaknesses by pinning them on me. You two are made for each other.” Nikolas stepped closer, coming within reaching distance. Elizabeth didn’t move. She held her ground with her arms tightly crossed.
“How so?”
“I bet it would get lonely in that big house of yours. Makes sense he would bunker down with you. You must know all of his little secrets by now.” He stepped closer.
“I know your secret too. I know what you are.”
“And what is that?” He stared her down, challenging her courage.
“A murderer.” Her breath shuddered, trying to repress the temptation to smack him across the face. Nikolas held her gaze with greedy delight, making it impossible for her to wrench free.
“That’s not all of it. What else?” he pushed. Again, he stepped closer until his was close enough to breath down her neck.
“And a Time Collector. A corrupted one.”
He paused briefly before a small smile crept across his face. His eyes sparked with understanding and opportunity. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
He leaned down and whispered, “For being his downfall.” Swiftly, Nikolas turned away. Elizabeth stepped forward to chase him, but he was quick to disappear into the darkness. She grabbed the railing for support, catching herself before her knees could give out.
For being his downfall. She pushed off the railing and rushed back into the ballroom. She needed to find Klaus. Warn him. Do something. Dozens of eyes followed her across the room. She couldn’t take two steps without being stopped and congratulated.
“Your father would’ve been so happy.”
“Thank you. Yes, thank you.”
“Congratulations to the happy couple.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you thinking of a spring wedding?”
“I umm…I…” They spoke around her. She had to leave. She had to get out of there. A hand touched her back.
“Come with me.” Her ears warmed at the brush of his thick accent. Klaus. He steered her through the crowd effortlessly, walking up the stairs. They slipped into a private room on the other side of the hallway. Inside, the working staff turned around, surprised at their entrance. Klaus shooed them out. Now alone, Elizabeth sat on the arm of a chair.
“Klaus, he knows…” she informed him breathlessly. “He knows you’re onto him.”
Klaus froze with his back to her by the door. His grip tensed, squeezing his fingers white. Carefully, he kept his voice low and calm. “How?” Elizabeth bit her lip. The guilt crossing her face was clear enough. Klaus pivoted toward her, wary to keep his expression emotionless. “What did he say?”
Thank you for being his downfall. “Only that he knows you’re onto him.” Elizabeth cleared her throat.
“Is that so…” His lean body went rigid, revealing new level of alertness. “I have to go.”
“Wait? What? Go where?”
Klaus didn’t respond straight away. Instead, he looked around the room, perhaps searching for escape routes, perhaps calculating the possibility of Nikolas’ hidden attack. “I told you, he’s going to run.”
“But…” Elizabeth stumbled forward. “What about me?”
“What about you?”
“The plan, Klaus! Your plan to keep Sara safe. Me safe.”
“It doesn’t matter now.”
She choked on her breath. “Doesn’t matter?” His choice of words tore through her. Inhuman. She forgot about his nature and her error was about to cost her everything. “Klaus, this is my life. You’re a Time Collector. This is what you do. You make the impossible happen.”
Klaus’ expression tightened. “I cannot do anything to help you. I can only grant wishes with contracts, and Elizabeth you are living on borrowed time.”
“You’re throwing out excuses! You can still help me if you wanted to.”
“I have my priorities!” As soon as he spoke, Klaus clenched his jaw and jerked his head down. “That’s not what I meant.”
Behind them, three quick knocks tapped against the door. “Miss Wicker? Are you in there? Is everything alright?”
Elizabeth inhaled a shaky breath. “Just a moment. I-I’m fine.” She then directed her tone at Klaus in a harsher whisper, “How much time will it cost?”
“You cannot afford it,” he replied bluntly.
“No not for my freedom, for Sara’s? How much time?”
Klaus’ eyebrow perked. “All of it. But—”
“Okay. Then take it.”
“Nein, wait a moment—”
“Stop!” Sara’s voice called forward. Crouched at the back of the room, she quickly stepped out and placed the utensils she had been cleaning onto the table. “You’re marrying Arthur…to protect me?”
The banging from the door continued with less patience, the doorknob now rattling. “Lady Wicker?”
“Sara, you were listening?” Elizabeth held her hand to her mouth as Sara made her way over. Klaus’ stare hardened to the point of glaring, yet Sara didn’t shift her attention away from him.
“You can help me escape?” she asked.
Tension ran up Klaus’ neck. “Yes.”
“How?”
“No!” Elizabeth urged over the top of him. “Sara, I will get you out of here.”
“Elizabeth, you can’t do this for me. You can’t marry Arthur. If this man can help me, then I will take it.” She turned back to Klaus with a begging voice. “I will do anything to get away from them.”
“Sara, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into—”
“I…I…” The words jumbled up on Klaus’ tongue. Pressure swelled, spiralling in his vision. Every new thought dismantled instantly. After all, his was a creature controlled by a code. “This does not concern you anymore, Elizabeth.” With his telekinetic abilities, Klaus unlocked the door and shoved Elizabeth out into the arms of the servant outside. She had only ever witnessed his power once, when he had slammed the east library door in her face from across the room. Elizabeth jumped up and threw herself against the door, both fists hammering.
Klaus returned to Sara, the darkness in the room thickening. Her trembling body fell back away from him.
“What? H-How did you do that?” she stuttered, gesturing back to the door. Klaus straightened his posture, his face void of emotion.
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is I can get you out of here.”
Her back hit the table, cowering from Klaus’ advancement. Ever so delicately, he reached across her and picked up an apple from the fruit bowl. He offered it out. “How badly do you want to leave?” She glanced at the apple, then back at Klaus. She couldn’t answer. Fear squeezed her voice box close. Klaus continued, “Do you want freedom?”
“Y-yes,” she stuttered.
“I can give you what you want, but, I need something in return.”
“Like what?”
“Your time.”
“How much of my time?”
&
nbsp; “Now, that depends on what you wish for.” He pierced the core of the apple with the blade, pumping the fruit with magic through the tip. “Make your wish, then bite this.”
#
Elizabeth’s hammering didn’t cease. Timothy, the Beaumont’s oldest son, weaved around the crowd toward her. The male servant glanced around in panic, unsure how to control Elizabeth’s erratic behaviour.
“What’s all this fuss about?” Timothy held Elizabeth’s arm back from swinging. Immediately, her attention moved onto the red, flaky rash covering half his face. Looking past his black gums and thinning hair, Timothy could’ve passed as an exact cope of Arthur. The moment he grabbed her a loud thump came from inside the room. Following it was a distinct crash before the ping of the latch unlocking.
They all rushed in and stopped at the sight of a collapsed body. Sara’s eyes remained open, unblinking, and her body limp in her death. Color that shouldn’t have been washed away until hours after her passing had already drained out of her. Timothy knelt beside her and checked her pulse. The drop of his head confirmed Elizabeth’s worst fears. Cradled in Sara’s loose clutch, was a large apple with a bitesized piece missing.
Disbelief silenced her. Elizabeth didn’t move. Didn’t speak. She grabbed her heart, feeling it break. Shock gripped her throat, silencing the scream climbing up from the broken parts of her soul. Dead. Sara was dead. It spiralled her vision inward, blurring out the details of the room.
“Someone has poisoned the food.” Timothy’s voice sounded distant. People moved around her. She felt someone grab her shoulders and steer her out into the hallway. But it didn’t make sense. Dead? Sara couldn’t be dead!
Her legs wobbled as she turned and walked away. Noise rose from the party down the stairs. Laughter. Music. The clink of wine glasses. A pool of golden warmth sat at the bottom of the twenty-step decline. The marble steps were steep, creating a waterfall of white. Elizabeth approached the stairs and numbly gripped the railing. With the slightest tilt, she fell.
Chapter Twenty-Three:
White fluttered above. Pain spurred, orientating from her ribs and forehead. Among the clicking of an overhead fan, the sound of distant coughs echoed down the hallway. Elizabeth’s eyes opened further. White roof. Blue curtain, pulled closed around her. A figure in a dark suit stepped up to her side. Most of the details were still blurred, but she was sure in his hands was a folder of papers. His expression remained hidden behind the haze, but he moved quickly, as though flustered. Elizabeth touched around herself and picked the familiar sensation of cotton beneath her fingers. A bed, more accurately, a hospital bed. The man walked over, checked her temperature and spoke. She couldn’t understand anything and eventually he called out to someone down the hall.
Elizabeth tilted her head backward in an attempt to clear her eyes, but a wave of pain pulsated from the back of her skull. She slammed her eyes closed to stop the room from spinning.
“She’s awake. You can come in now.”
“Thank you, Doctor.” Harry’s withered voice entered the room. His hands gently touched her own, and relieved, Elizabeth opened her eyes again. “Thank the heavens you’re all right.”
“Harry?” Her raspy voice broke. “What happened?”
“You fell down a flight of stairs. You’ll be sore, but thank the heavens, it’s nothing beyond bruising and maybe a concussion. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had lost you as well.”
“I did?” Elizabeth raked her memory for the moment she fell.
“I packed you a change of clothes for when you woke up.” Harry turned around and fetched out an overnight bag. He carefully passed it over.
“Thank you. What time is it?”
“Late, but the doctor was kind enough to let me stay. You’ll have to stay here overnight for observation, but you can come home tomorrow.”
A sharp knock on the door turned them around. Lady Claudia walked in, her mood anything less than relieved or worried. “Good, you’re awake.”
Harry turned around and quickly stood. “Lady Beaumont?”
“I would like to have a word with my future daughter-in-law in private.”
“Daughter-in-law?” He glanced down at Elizabeth.
Lady Claudia’s voice spat with venom, “Yes, and while you’re here, your services with the Wicker household will no longer be required. You can leave now.” Elizabeth struggled to sit up to defy Claudia’s authority, but Harry held his hand out to stop her. He puffed his chest out and left. Lady Claudia’s attention shifted back onto Elizabeth. “If I had known you wanted to kill yourself, I would’ve helped.”
“Get away from me.”
“Once you’ve married Arthur, you can throw yourself down staircases all week long for all I care.”
“Somebody just died—”
“A maid has died. No one of any importance,” she scoffed. Elizabeth sucked her breath in, her body physically shaking with rage.
“Lady Beaumont? May I please have a word?” The doctor called by the door, signalling her over. Lady Claudia joined him out in the hallway and continued to speak privately. Elizabeth’s hand unfurled from around the sheets. What was she going to do? The memory of falling down the stairs was washed with springs of pain and dizziness. The only reminder of the evening was the sharp jabs every time she took a breath.
“Many people brag about making an entrance,” a voice suddenly spoke, stepping out from behind the drawn curtain. “I see you’re more of an exit type of drama queen.”
Elizabeth jolted and grabbed at her chest. “Klaus!”
“Glad to see you’re finally awake. Are you aware that you snore?” Elizabeth glared him down, unable to form the right string of insults to properly translate how furious she was with him. Klaus perked an eyebrow, genuinely confused. “You’re angry?”
“What do you think?”
“It’s hard to tell anymore, you don’t seem to have a whole range of facial expressions.” Her glared hardened. Klaus awkwardly laughed. “I’m sorry, I’m trying to lighten the mood.”
“Is Sara really dead?”
“Well, this is an awkward topic.”
“How could you?”
“Shss!” Klaus rounded her bedside, “Keep your voice down. I don’t want them knowing I’m here.”
She jerked away. “Why are you here?” His eyes flicked up, holding hers. His expression said it all. What she first thought was a look of concern tightened in disappointment. Disapproval. Elizabeth shuffled back. “You think I did this on purpose?”
“You tell me,” Klaus said. Elizabeth clenched her jaw, refusing to speak. Impatiently, Klaus glanced over his shoulder. “Fine, you don’t have to trust me, but at least listen. We are not safe here. Look around you. Think of where you are and who has looked at you. What do you think is about to happen?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Possible cracked ribs, internal bleeding, spinal injury…where do you think they will look?”
Realization dawned on her. “Oh my God! Of course.”
“And there’s only one explanation.”
“A miracle.”
Klaus reached over and helped ease her out of bed. “More like wishful thinking. They will ask questions, questions you cannot reveal to them. Your only option is to leave this place.”
“Leave forever?”
Klaus didn’t answer, but promptly placed his finger to his lips as they neared the door before gently easing the door back. Elizabeth slowly edged her head out. The tight bark of Lady Claudia’s voice carried down the hallway.
“Yes, Doctor, what is so important now?”
Doctor Boreman flipped through the pages on his clipboard, his motorized goggles churning to adjust his lenses. “As Miss Wicker’s closest family, I wanted to check in with a few details that I don’t understand.”
“What makes you think I know anything?”
“Well, there’s something strange I’ve noticed. Doctor Wicker, did he ever perform any surgeries
on her?”
“How would I know that?” she asked, irritated.
“There’s something very strange about her—” He turned to reveal his diagnosis, but Lady Claudia pushed the clipboard away.
“As long as she’s still breathing, I don’t care.” She turned to leave but the doctor sidestepped to block her.
“That’s the thing. Transplants aren’t an uncommon practice, even with alternative organics or mechanics it’s still possible, but this, this is a nothing short of a phenomenon. Impossible even. I need to know some more information about her condition.”
Lady Claudia lowered her voice, “Condition, what condition?”
“She doesn’t have a heart.” Elizabeth’s fingers clenched into the woodwork. Lady Claudia slowed before twisting back around. “We’ve done some tests. She still has a pulse, but the presence of an actual heartbeat isn’t there. When placing her down on the ultrasound, the shape wasn’t natural. It almost sounds like…well, it’s just so unbelievable. Inhuman.”
Lady Claudia licked her lips. “Like what?”
“Well, an ordinary clock. A pocket watch or a locket.” Doctor Boreman’s voice felt distant against the ringing in Elizabeth’s ears. Klaus started moving. He indicated with a sharp jerk of his head for Elizabeth to follow.
“Incredible, but I agree doctor…” Lady Claudia turned her hardening gaze back down the hall toward Elizabeth’s room, watching the door swing shut. “Not humanly possible.”
Chapter Twenty-Four:
Night crawled overhead. The streets emptied, drawing attention to the rowdy bars and drunken partying. Among the spurs of the nightlife, loud pops cackled. Movement of red and orange surfaced above the gates, spitting out ambers. Pillows of smoke caressed the sky. Not an hour after finding out the Wicker’s secret, did the Wicker estate go up in flames.
Lady Claudia stepped out of the carriage on the opposite side of town, beneath the clear and smoke-free breeze. She held her arm across her chest, hugging the warmth and keeping her fur pelt scarf from dropping. Nikolas waited for her by the pond. He pushed off from the tree he rested against, his face doused in soft moonlight.
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