“What is your middle name?” he murmured against my jaw.
I was so turned on I could hardly remember my name. “Gianna.” I tilted my head. “Why?”
“Because,” he whispered, “That’s what I’m going to call you when I kiss you…Gia.”
A furnace roared to life inside me.
He gripped my shoulders, and I could feel his own inner fire through his touch. “Gia,” he whispered again, against my lips.
And then, it was as if the furnace exploded. He kissed me fiercely, deeply, and I held nothing back. I wound my arms around his neck, and he lifted me almost off the ground. He said my new name over and over, tasting it the way he tasted me.
And in the moonlight, everything was beautiful.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The last thing I wanted to do the next morning was go down for breakfast. I was too exhausted, and frankly, my lips were chapped from kissing Dietrich. He had picked me up and carried me off the stage, the second time in hours that some steamy chap had swept me off my feet to give me a lift. And it made me think—
—a girl could really get used to this.
But there were no steamy chaps waiting for me in the morning. There was only Thea, and she was disinclined to carry me anywhere. My head hurt from lack of sleep, my face was puffy from crying, and my throat was sore from the screaming I’d done in the lift. My body felt like I’d been flattened by a steam-powered carriage and then trampled by an arachnicab.
Even worse, as my mind was waking from the fog of the last few days, it occurred to me that I had landed myself in a mess stinkier than kraken poo. Not only was I going to have to do the right thing to stop the gossip I’d started about Delphine, but I was certain everyone had heard about my self-combustion in the lift the night before. I dreaded facing Delphine.
I dreaded facing them all.
And then—there was something even worse than that. Yes, even worse than kracken shit.
Somehow, I’d managed to go from total fear of boys to kissing two of them in two days. Dietrich knew I’d kissed Raymond, but Raymond didn’t know I’d kissed Dietrich. Thea didn’t know I’d kissed either of them. And God forbid anyone ask me how I felt about either boy because I didn’t have a rusted clue.
What were they expecting from me now? I had no experience with romance—I’d strictly avoided it until now. Did a kiss mean we were a couple? How much of a cog did a girl have to be to accidentally end up with two boyfriends?
By the time we reached the dining room, I was convinced—I was completely screwn.
I stopped outside the dining room doors, unwilling to take another step. Thea gave me an affectionate shove.
“Come on, it won’t be so bad.” She linked arms with me. “I doubt anyone will even mention what happened yesterday.”
“Sure, and wereducks make great pets, too.”
She groaned, trying not to smile. “Let’s just get it over with.”
When we walked into the room, it grew silent. I scanned quickly for Delphine, but didn’t see her. Raymond was waiting for us, though, toward the back at the end of a table.
Everyone was watching us. Watching me, rather. I’d just have to brave it out. I started toward the buffet table, when some boy broke the silence by calling my name.
“Let me out, let me out,” he mimicked in a high, girly voice, “I’ll be good, I promise!”
My heart seemed to drop to my feet. There were a few muffled snickers, but they were quickly hushed. A hot burst of anger flared in me. Thea inhaled sharply, and I knew she was about to respond. I grabbed her arm.
“I’ll handle it,” I murmured.
With a surprised, but admiring, look, she nodded and took a step back.
I took a deep breath, looking out across my fellow apprentices. It wasn’t the time to show anger. I tried to stay calm. “Yes,” I said, pitching my voice to fill the dining room, “I begged to be let out of the lift yesterday. I cried like a baby. I’m terrified of small places.” I stared hard at Bennet Mason, who I suspected had been the boy mocking me. “When I was gone those three years, I wasn’t on holiday in Malta or something. I was held prisoner in a cage—” My voice wobbled a bit. Thea grabbed my hand. Her support gave me the strength to continue. “—a cage my captor could crank down smaller and smaller if I made him angry.”
All across the room, I heard gasps. There were horrified murmurs, and then the sounds of people hushing each other so they could hear me. I didn’t want to share any of this with them, but it was the only way I could think of to make things right with Delphine.
“I was denied food, and I was beaten and abused in ways I couldn’t begin to describe to you. So yes, when Delphine locked me in the lift, I went a little crazy.” My jaw tensed, but I stood tall. “You want to make fun of that? Go right ahead. After what I survived, a little teasing means nothing to me.”
In pockets around the room, people squirmed and shifted, looking down so they wouldn’t meet my gaze. I could feel their shame. But it was only because I knew how they felt.
I took another big breath. “The thing is, Delphine didn’t know any of that either. She figured out that I was scared of small spaces, but she had no idea why. She was mad at me because I—” Damn, this part was almost harder than explaining my phobia. “—I started that rumor about her.”
Oddly, this confession got almost no show of surprise. Was my feud with Delphine that much public knowledge?
I hurried on. “And for the record, none of it’s true. None. I made it all up. So you all can stop gossiping about it.” I glanced around again to see if Delphine had slipped into the room. I wondered what she’d think about my sort-of lie to try to fix things for her. But I still didn’t see her. However, I did see several of the Guild members listening in from the doorway between their dining room and ours. Dietrich was there, but I didn’t let myself think about him. I would be too distracted. I saw Master Fenrey and caught his eyes instead. “Delphine was angry at me for good reason. She shouldn’t be harshly punished or kicked out of the program. I know what she did to me was pretty rotten, but what I did to her was rotten, too. She thought she was playing a prank. She didn’t know how badly it would affect me. But this whole thing made me see we both have to stop. It’s a wretched, awful world out there, and we all have to stick together—even when we don’t like each other. I’m learning that’s what theater people do, because we’re a team. And I am sorry I wasn’t a good team member. It won’t happen again.”
All right, so not the most inspiring ending to a speech, but I was done. An awkward silence followed. No sudden applause, no hugs. Just…silence. So I decided I’d get something to eat. Thea followed me to the buffet table, and I grabbed a plate and started dishing up eggs. Finally, a few murmurs and whispers pierced the quiet.
By the time we had our food and were heading toward the seats Raymond had saved for us, the noise level of the dining room was almost back to normal. I sat beside Raymond, and he covered my hand with his.
“You were terrific,” he said, bending his head near mine. “Excellent job.”
I snorted. But his praise warmed me. “Thanks.”
I looked over my shoulder, toward the door to the Guild member dining room. The only person still watching from there was Dietrich. He leaned against the doorway, caught my eye, and gave me a small nod and a smile.
Relief flooded me. I’d done the right thing, and I hadn’t died of embarrassment. I didn’t know what the other apprentices thought—they were studiously pretending I wasn’t there. And I still didn’t know where Delphine was or how she would react when she heard about my speech. But my friends were proud of me. That mattered most.
Delphine wasn’t in any of her classes that morning. I suspected Master Fenrey had confined her to her room while he debated what to do with her. He didn’t speak to me about the incident in the lift. There was no need—I’d laid out my side of the story for everyone to hear. He would have spoken to Dietrich, of course, but ultimately, De
lphine’s fate would rest with him. I hoped my pleading on her behalf in the dining room that morning would sway him to be merciful. She was a diva bitch, but ultimately, she was one of us—an apprentice—and I hated to think of what would happen to her and her family if she were turned out on the streets.
In my classes, my fellow apprentices either ignored me or went out of their way to treat me with a sort of wide-eyed pity and guilt-induced kindness that made me want to vomit. Finally, in our “Magic, Mechanisms, and Special Effects” class, I used my technomancy to make our smoke machine belch like a dragon with indigestion until my project partners, Nicholas Clasby and Charity Trant, promised to stop treating me like I was made out of sugar glass. They actually liked the belching smoke machine, so we turned it into a robotic dragon after all. By noon, I was starting to feel normal again.
I planned to work in the tech studio all afternoon, finishing the last of my prototype designs for Delphine. It was the small round disk that could sense hormones and pheromones, and it was supposed to beep if someone with bad intentions was nearby. I had finally dubbed it an “honorometer.” I wasn’t even sure it would work. I’d been at it for about two hours when the door burst open. I jumped, sending a cup full of springs flying across the table. I swore and made a lunge for them, but they skittered to the floor.
Raymond and Thea tumbled into the room. Thea was breathing hard, a hand pressed against the stiff front of her corset. “We just…came from the library,” she said, panting. “Had to tell you.”
From the look on their faces, it had to be bad. Very bad. I thudded back to the bench. “Tell me what?”
Raymond cupped his hand under her elbow and guided her to sit next to me. His eyes had that hollowed-out dry look, as if he really wanted to cry but was too stunned to manage it. “We were coming back from the reference room, and the newsies were all selling papers—shouting the same headline.”
“And…?”
Thea handed me a crumpled newspaper. “There’s been another Peacock murder.”
I grabbed the paper and scanned the headlines, barely able to make sense of the words. “But Delphine said—” I clamped my mouth shut, glancing at Raymond. He didn’t know about Lottie’s prediction.
“I know,” Thea said. “But look—” She pointed to the headline. “Peacock Strikes Again—Sub Rosa Theater Target Of New Murder.”
I skimmed the opening sentences. The room seemed to grow dim, and my stomach lurched. “The Coggled Noggin,” I read out loud. “Oh my god.”
The next words burned like fire in my heart. “…victim appears to have been the lead actress of the illegal company, but police have not released a name.”
The lead actress was…Delphine.
“No,” I whispered.
“There was a performance last night.” Thea took my hands in hers. “When the murder happened, the police raided the theater. They arrested a lot of people.”
I hoped Mr. Pierce and Mr. Corker hadn’t been among them. But their fate didn’t concern me as much as the words on the page. “It says—lead actress.” My voice sounded like a child’s.
Raymond crouched next to me, his face dark and gentle. “She was supposed to be talking to Master Fenrey. She was in big trouble last night. She wouldn’t have sneaked out.”
My throat tightened, and I blinked back burning tears. “Yes, she would have. She was desperate. There’s no way she wouldn’t have gone.”
I covered my mouth with my hand, muffling a sudden sob. Our rivalry was so stupid, so petty. It couldn’t be true that I’d never have a chance to make it right. The Peacock murdered celebrities, not poverty-stricken apprentices. There had to be a mistake.
My gaze fell on the almost-finished honorometer on the table. One of the gadgets that was supposed to have protected Delphine from the Peacock. How ironic that he’d gotten to her before I could even get it working.
A bleak rage exploded in me. “I was supposed to protect her!” I grabbed the honorometer. Pulled back my arm to fling it against the wall.
“Wait!” The voice was commanding, sharp.
I lowered my arm and turned to see Dietrich in the doorway. “The Peacock. He—he—” I couldn’t say it. I scrambled over the bench and ran to him. I didn’t care if Thea and Raymond saw. I just wanted his arms around me.
He held me hard, shushing me and saying something that didn’t even register in my mind. I heard his heart beating steady and strong, and his body was warm and alive. I wanted to be surrounded by that living energy.
After a moment, he tugged me away. “Minx, did you hear me?”
I blinked, shaking my head.
“It wasn’t her. It wasn’t Delphine.”
The floor tilted sharply and I fell against him again.
“Whoa, careful. Here, sit down.” He tried to lead me back to the bench.
I clung to him tighter. “It said ‘lead actress.’ That’s Delphine.”
“I know. But I just spoke with Master Fenrey and Dame Fairchild. They contacted Inspector Whitley as soon as they heard, and he said the actress that was murdered was not Delphine.”
I didn’t know it was possible to feel so relieved, so suddenly light. I think I started sobbing again, but I choked it off as quickly as I could. I took a step back, determined to keep a crumb of dignity. “Then who was it?”
His mouth drooped and his brows furrowed. “It was Lottie.”
Thea stiffened. “The bartender we spoke with?”
Dietrich nodded. Raymond just looked confused.
I shook my head. “But she was just a bartender.”
“No, apparently she was an actress, too,” Dietrich said. “She was Delphine’s understudy.”
“The poor girl,” I murmured. “I don’t understand, though. Was the Peacock targeting her? Or was he after Delphine?” Something about all this nipped at me, like a flea biting my ankles. But I couldn’t quite figure out what it was.
Dietrich shrugged. “We don’t know.”
“That makes no sense,” Thea said, her eyes brimming with tears. “It’s not the Peacock’s usual pattern. She wasn’t a famous actress, the Empress wasn’t there. Are they sure it was the Peacock? Maybe it was a copycat.”
“It’s possible.” Dietrich’s face was lined with weariness. “But Investigator Whitley said they believe it was the Peacock. They have no idea why his pattern was broken, but the crime was committed in the same way.”
Another tiny sting—like there was something I should pay attention to.
Raymond studied the three of us. “Obviously, this is connected to your secret project. Was the Peacock after Delphine?”
Dietrich picked up the newspaper. “No, not that we know of. But he did have some connection to Lottie. It’s possible he found out she was talking when she shouldn’t have.”
“Then it was our fault for questioning her?” Thea’s face went pale.
“No,” Dietrich reassured her quickly. “Remember? We didn’t question her directly. The Peacock would have had no way of knowing you were peeking into her mind. It’s more likely that he found out she was dropping hints of who his next target would be. It doesn’t mean it has anything to do with Delphine at all.”
His next target. My throat went dry. “Does that mean he knows we know—about Nadine?” My eyes flicked to Raymond, but I decided there was no point in trying to hide it from him now.
“Not necessarily. How would he? Inspector Whitley and Sir Black certainly wouldn’t have said anything. There were only the six of us other than that who knew.” He grimaced at Raymond. “Well, seven now, I suppose.”
Raymond didn’t say anything, but I saw the comprehension flood his face. He exhaled slowly. “If I may ask—how does Delphine fit into all this?”
That’s when the fleabite turned into a knife stab. “Oh my god.” I sank onto the bench again, trembling.
The others stared at me.
“Lottie was Delphine’s understudy,” I said. “Her understudy.”
Dietric
h’s eyes widened. He inhaled. Thea gasped. Raymond was only a second behind them, and he grimaced at the implication. Understudies only performed when the principal actress was absent. If Lottie had performed, it meant Delphine had never shown up.
“Delphine. Where is she?” I searched Dietrich’s face for some sign of reassurance. “Did Master Fenrey confine her to her room?”
I saw dread creeping across his face. “No. He told me he was going to speak with you first, but then after this morning, he didn’t see the need to. He planned to call her to his study this afternoon, but then all this happened and he didn’t get to it.”
I raced to the door. “We need to know if she’s in the building.”
Dietrich was right behind me. “She probably didn’t leave last night. She was a mess. There was no way she could have performed. She’s hiding somewhere.”
I could tell he didn’t believe his rush of words. None of us did. As I’d told Raymond earlier, Delphine was too desperate to let anything keep her from performing. Thirty minutes later, after a frantic search through the theater, our fears were confirmed. Delphine may not have been the Peacock’s latest victim—
—but she was definitely missing.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Dietrich, you and I should search the tunnels.” I was already heading toward the apprentice wing, plans unfurling in my mind. I needed my leather underbust harness, my pepper-spray, goddess torch…maybe even the claw cuff prototype.
The other three trotted to keep up with me. Dietrich strode beside me, as if he already understood where I was going. “Do you know the route well enough to keep us from getting lost?”
“I think so.”
“We’ll go with you,” Thea offered.
“No, you and Raymond need to check hospitals—and…morgues.” I winced at that word, trying to block out what it implied. “You’ll probably need a Guild member to go with you and order a carriage. Ask Nadine.”
Chains of Silver: a YA Theater Steampunk Novel (Alchemy Empire Book 1) Page 24