There came a shuffling sound on the other side of the door and then Juliette, clearing her throat.
“You know what?” she called. “I think I might go take a walk.”
Her heels clicked off, fading into the distance. Benedikt felt like a hole had been punctured in his lungs as he leaned up against the table, all that fury and anger he had been carrying inside him finding nowhere to go and opting to deflate and deflate and deflate instead. He had expected to explode outward, to at last rid the darkness in his chest by seeking revenge and directing a very sharp object at Juliette. Instead, the darkness had turned to light, and now he was an overwrought light bulb, close to implosion when the vacuum space inside shattered.
“She didn’t have to save me,” Marshall said softly, when it looked like Benedikt was at a loss. Benedikt remained staring at the table, both his hands pressed to the flat surface. Slowly, Marshall crept nearer until he was right beside Benedikt. He opted to lean against the table, the two of them facing different directions. “She could have killed me and secured complete power, but she didn’t.”
“She has been hiding you?” Benedikt asked, his head lurching up. “Here? All this time?”
Marshall nodded. “If Tyler Cai finds out, it is not merely a fight that will result. It is Juliette’s entire position. She will be ousted.”
“She could have avoided pretending to kill you in the first place,” Benedikt muttered.
“And have us all die at the Scarlets’ hand in that hospital?” Marshall asked. “Come on, Ben. I already had a bullet in my stomach. If she hadn’t sent them running in those few minutes, I would have bled out.”
Benedikt scrubbed at his face. Try as he might to be resentful, he had no alternative to offer.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “Perhaps Juliette Cai knew what she was doing.”
Marshall reached out and punched Benedikt’s shoulder. It was something he had done thousands of times before. Benedikt’s pulse picked up regardless, like the weight of his newfound knowledge added to the weight of the hit.
“I owed it to her to lie low,” Marshall said, not noticing the turmoil unraveling right beside him. “Well, when people on the streets weren’t trying any funny business, at least. Otherwise I was lying low.”
“Funny business?” Benedikt echoed.
Marshall picked up a cloth on the table and mimed tying it to his face. In a flash, Benedikt saw that dark figure on the rooftop again, the one who had shot all those Scarlets when he had been badly outnumbered.
“That was you.”
“Of course it was,” Marshall replied, his dimples deepening. “Who else would keep such a close eye on you?”
Benedikt’s breath left him in a whoosh. The air in the room grew still, or maybe that was just him, his lungs reaching critical deflation. I love you, he thought. Do you know? Have you always known? Have I always known?
A notch in Marshall’s brow formed, accompanying his hesitant smile. Marshall was confused. Benedikt was staring, and he could not stop, all the terror and devastation that had wrecked him these past few months lodged right in his throat like a physical block.
You could reach for him. Ask if he loves you back.
“Ben?” Marshall asked. “Are you okay?”
If he loved me too, wouldn’t he have told me? Wouldn’t he have come to me, come hell or high water?
Benedikt reached over suddenly, but only to hug his friend close, only to do as he had always done in all these years they had known each other. Marshall jolted but was quick to return the embrace, laughing as Benedikt pressed his chin hard into Marshall’s shoulder, like the physical sensation was enough to confirm that this was real; this was all real.
“Don’t ever do that to me again,” he muttered. “Don’t ever do something like that again.”
Marshall’s arms tightened. “Once is plenty, Ben.”
He’s alive, Benedikt thought, pulling back with a thin smile. That’s all that matters.
Roma awoke with a deep cough, rolling onto his side and wheezing for breath. By the time he came to, the moon was directly above him, shining into his bleary eyes. His neck was in pain. His back was in pain. Even his ankles were in pain.
But the vaccine still lay beside him, the bag untouched. So too did the papers, tucked inside.
“What the hell?” Over his head, the birds perched on the electric lines flew off at once, startled by Roma’s shout. He hadn’t seen who had knocked him out. Juliette was gone too, but there was no sign of a struggle, no blood in the alley or even a sequin fallen from her dress.
Roma got to his feet. He could only assume that it had been a Scarlet, and Juliette had either dealt with the situation or was off elsewhere leading them away. There was nothing he could do now except take the vaccine to Lourens as he had planned.
Roma trudged off.
In that alley, the birds did not come back in his absence. They knew to flee as something else stirred in Chenghuangmiao, lumbering in on two upright feet. If the people in the market had paid attention, they might have known to go too. Instead, not a soul in Chenghuangmiao thought to move until the screaming started and they looked up, finding five monstrous creatures tearing a path into the clearing.
Juliette came in through the front door of her house, shrugging her coat off when one of the maids gestured to take it. There was still activity in the kitchen, some aunt making a late-night snack, the warm glow of light crossing into the otherwise dark living room.
“Go to bed,” Juliette told the maid after she hung up the coat. “It’s late.”
“I’ll fetch you some slippers first,” the maid said. She was on the older side, likely a mother by the way she was frowning disapprovingly as Juliette rolled off her sharp and impractical heels.
Juliette sighed and collapsed sideways into the couch. “Xiè xiè!”
“Āiyā,” the maid chided, already marching out of the living room. “Bù yào shǎ.”
The maid disappeared into the hallway. If only the people of the vast and expansive Scarlet empire could see Juliette now. She looked like a paper doll more than she looked an heiress with blades for teeth.
Then the front door burst open, and Juliette jolted to her bare feet immediately, braced for war. A gust of cold came blowing in, then Tyler, dragging someone behind him. When Tyler came closer, he pulled his hostage forward too, and it was Kathleen who came into the light, stumbling to a stop in front of Juliette.
“What is the meaning of this?” Juliette demanded. She reached for Kathleen’s shoulders, giving her a cursory pat. “Are you hurt?”
“No. I’m fine,” Kathleen said, shooting Tyler a deathly glare. She rubbed her arm harshly. “Your cousin just has barnacles for brains.”
“I know you did it, Juliette,” Tyler spat. “I could smell your perfume everywhere. What was in it for you? Power? Money?”
Juliette exchanged a glance with Kathleen, who shrugged, seeming flabbergasted as well.
“What are you talking about?” Juliette asked.
Tyler’s expression turned livid. “Why are you feigning ignorance?”
“I am ignorant—what are you accusing me of?”
“The monsters, Juliette! Monsters stormed the lab and took every bit of the vaccine.”