“But nightmares are meant to be tamed, just as those who cling to the old ways must be tamed.”
He could feel Evelyn’s fear even from where he stood, and that along with the singing of the morphine in his blood only emboldened him.
“Tonight you have seen the wonders of the alchemist’s discovery, sirens, and witches, but now I present a true siren. A witch who would try to destroy the Order.”
At his words Evelyn seemed to sense the danger she was in. She tried to sit up, but the moment she began to move, the incubus caged her with its arms and pressed her back to the couch. Even as she screamed, he could feel the heat of her magic brushing at him, trying to tempt him and sway him from his path, but it didn’t touch him. She couldn’t touch him. He’d learned too much since that girl in Greece. He’d learned too much from the Book.
“Evelyn DeMure pretends to be a simple actress. Perhaps you’ve seen her at Wallack’s Theatre?” From the rustling among the men, Jack assumed that some had more than seen her. “But she, like so many of their kind, is not what she pretends to be. She intended to fell us all. She was there the night that Khafre Hall burned. She thought she could enrapture me with her evil ways, but as you can see, her power is weak compared to the secrets of enlightened study.”
He was close—so close—he thought as he lifted his hand, and the clay figure did the same. He brought his fingers together in a fist, and the creature mirrored his action over the tender skin of Evelyn’s throat.
By now people were starting to come to their feet. Some were calling for him to stop, but Jack was calm. Allowing the golem to do his bidding, he turned back to the crowd. “But Miss DeMure, as charming as she pretended to be, isn’t the only snake in our midst tonight. There is another, one who pretended to be an ally but in truth was doing the bidding of the very people we are trying to protect ourselves from.”
He found Paul Kelly in the audience, the low-life bit of Bowery trash who had pretended to befriend him. Kelly had not only allowed Jack’s enemy to live but had also aligned himself with one of the people responsible for Jack’s greatest embarrassment.
“You all might have noticed that Mr. Kelly is here with us tonight. I’m sure you wondered why someone of his ilk had been invited to besmirch our event,” Jack said, watching Kelly’s eyes narrow at him. But he dismissed the threat.
This was his room, his moment.
“Officers,” Jack called. “If you would be so kind, please escort Mr. Kelly and his colleagues to a more appropriate venue, where they can be dealt with.”
A scream went up in the crowd, and Jack turned to see that some of the waitstaff had dropped their trays and were pulling pistols from their dark dinner jackets and taking hostages. Kelly’s men. No. They can’t— They are ruining everything, he thought with a burst of rage.
The Book felt warm against his chest as Jack watched victory slip through his fingers. Kelly simply smirked and darted into the crowd, which had broken down into complete madness.
THE FLASH OF A KNIFE
1902—New York
The room around Jianyu had churned into chaos at the sight of the Five Pointers in their midst. It did not take magic, it seemed, to drive fear into the Order’s hearts. A few snub-nosed pistols did the trick just as well. The crowds of the ballroom were trying to shove through a single, narrow exit in an attempt to flee, but Jianyu had his sights set on one thing: the ring.
It was still on Evelyn’s finger, but Evelyn was being guarded by the strange beast. From his own vantage point, the cold magic that surrounded the creature was telling. It was not natural, but that was no surprise coming from Jack Grew and the Order.
With light opened around him, Jianyu ignored the noise and the confusion and crept steadily closer to the beast sitting on top of Evelyn. She no longer seemed to be breathing, but the beast still had its clawed fingers gripped around her throat, her sightless eyes staring off into the room beyond.
He was nearly there when he saw Cela moving through the crowd with a single-minded determination. While everyone else was trying to flee, she looked like a koi struggling upstream as she worked her way toward the stage and Evelyn. With his affinity, she had not realized that he was already there.
Before he could warn her, he noticed a flash of dark hair and plum silk and saw Viola coming in the same direction. From the look of fury in her eyes, Viola had seen Cela too.
He had not taken the time to explain earlier, when he could have, he realized with a sick sense of dread. Viola would not know who Cela was. She would only see a stranger after the treasure she had told Jianyu not to take.
It felt as though the moment was suspended in amber and he was viewing everything from outside of it. The flash of Viola’s knife coming from the folds of her skirt, the fury in her expression as she screamed at Cela to get away from Evelyn—to leave the ring.
Cela glanced over her shoulder, but she ignored the warning.
Because she did not understand who Viola was. Because she could not have known what would happen.
But Jianyu did—he could see it playing out before it occurred. Viola would launch her knife through the air. She would aim for Cela, and she would not miss.
Letting go of the light, Jianyu did the only thing he could do. Without considering the consequences to himself, he leaped in front of Cela, just as the knife slipped from Viola’s fingertips.
The room narrowed to that moment, but even knowing he had been hit, Jianyu did not feel any pain when the knife cut through his tunic and pierced his skin, tearing past sinew and bone to lodge in his shoulder. He felt nothing at all but relief when he landed hard on the floor at Cela’s feet.
She was there, standing over him with an expression that told him just how bad it was. Her hands were on his face and her mouth was moving, but he could not hear the words she spoke. When he looked up at Viola, he saw only horror in her eyes. They were rimmed in red as though she had already been crying for him.
Pulling himself up, he took the handle of the knife and pulled it from his arm.
Finally, he felt the pain, the sharp stinging of the blade as it slid from the place it made through his skin. Even with Cela holding a part of her skirt to his wound, trying to stop the blood, he knew that he had to reach Viola . . . had to make her understand.
“We have to get out of here,” Cela told him, trying to get him to his feet, but he had to speak to Viola. He had to tell her one, essential thing.
“Come with us,” he said, offering her the knife, which was still coated with his blood. His voice sounded far away, even to himself, but he repeated the offer again. “We need you.”
But Viola was shaking her head and backing away.
And then Abel was there, hoisting him up to carry him out.
Jianyu didn’t know where the ring was, or who had it, but in that moment he knew that it didn’t matter as much as making Viola understand. “Come with us,” he repeated, knowing that nothing would be possible as long as they were divided.
A MONSTROUS CHAOS
1904—St. Louis
Julien ran from the Festival Hall without looking back. Outside, the crowd that had once been milling about the rotunda was gathered, the women holding one another and the men blustering like fat capons. The Prophet was there, as were others from the Society, all standing and watching as the lights flashed within the Festival Hall and the eerie smoke began to creep from beneath the doors.