Chapter 33
Thirty-Three
By the time the guards’ shouting quieted, the damp night air had seeped into Emmy’s bones. Shivers coursed through her as
she crept from tree to tree, slowly making her way from Clarity Hall. Her muscles ached, especially in her chest, which felt
as if it’d been cleaved in two.
The body cannot distinguish between physical and emotional hurts.
Grace had fooled Emmy. Again. Emmy was so full of self-loathing, she wanted to claw out her own heart, but she could not cry,
could not scream, could not do a goddamn thing until she was certain the guards had given up their search. As she hurried
through the dark with the invisibility ring, she stumbled often, the thicket slapping her in the face as if punishing her
for her stupidity. Thorns and twigs lodged themselves in her skirts just like the night she and Jack had run from the Society’s
headquarters. Like Rose’s drawing.
I think I might be . . . a little bit in love with you?
Clarity Hall was far behind her before she removed the invisibility ring. The woods rustled with life, but Emmy was too furious
to be afraid of whatever animals lurked in the impenetrable dark. Bile burned the back of her throat but she swallowed it
down, alongside the blood-curdling scream she longed to let out.
It was all her fault. Once again, she had been a trusting, blundering fool.
And Grace was right; Emmy had underestimated her conjury.
She must have found a way to modulate Oliver’s gift so that it activated when she triggered it.
Like when she’d been able to lie to them at Mistfield while she’d held that truth bracelet.
While she’d revisited the horrors of the debutante ball, saying exactly what Emmy longed to hear.
You were the best one of us, by far. You deserved the patronage.
And perhaps she’d even used Oliver’s gift to prevent Caleb from reading her mind. Unless Caleb had betrayed them, too.
With a strangled noise, Emmy slumped against a tree trunk, burying her head in her hands. Jack was either headed to Grimsbane
or dead. Would they lock Jimmy there, too, even though he had no magic? Or had they shot him like they did Papa?
And Mary was Grace. Mary had always been Grace.
Betrayal had a venomous bite, more lethal each time it struck. Even though Emmy had promised herself she would not let her
guard down, she’d done it. Again and again. Even though she’d known, right from the start, that the only way to avoid another
bullet through her heart was to never let anyone within shooting distance.
If she survived this mess, she’d never trust another soul to so much as speak to her. No, she’d get Rose’s relic back, right
her wrongs by freeing the others, then leave New York. Leave civilization entirely.
But first, she needed a plan.
The Hudson churned quietly in the darkness, and Emmy followed it downstream, slipping the invisibility ring on her finger
to pass through the smaller estates that peppered the woods between Clarity Hall and Mistfield. Cutting right through the
backyards of those hunting her, her only protection a jagged rock clutched in her fist. She had not made the conscious decision
to return to Mistfield, but before she knew it, the woods grew more familiar.
Mistfield was a start. Caleb was inside—unless the guards had come for him, too. She could not even think about them dragging
him from his bed. But she still had Grace’s jewelry arsenal hidden in her room. With it, she’d have a dozen conjuries at her
disposal.
The golden sun rose slowly, chasing away the last remnants of the cursed night. Birds sang. Deer pranced. And Emmy dragged
her blistered, aching feet to Mistfield.
After an eternity, the manor appeared through the trees. Wrapped in the solemn gray haze of its signature morning mist, Mistfield was almost too much to bear, especially while it was infested by guards. They were ransacking it, dragging its contents onto the front lawn.
“Emmy?”
She whirled, rock raised, as someone stepped between the trees. Caleb.
Relief struck her like a punch to the gut. Never had she seen him so disheveled, with deep circles under his eyes and blood
staining his nightshirt. He looked ready to collapse, and Emmy ran to him before quickly drawing back. Hadn’t she learned?
Caleb had assured her, time and time again, that Mary was on their side. How could a mind reader be wrong?
“What the hell happened?” He glanced at Mistfield. “The guards are tearing the house apart. I had to sneak out the servants’
stairwell.”
Caleb, as badly wounded as he was, had managed to slip past the guards. She tightened her grip on the rock.
But he was so shaken, he hardly noticed. “The guards were thinking about how they’d captured Jack Fontaine and his Chinese
friend. They’re going to execute them.”
His words took the wind out of her, and she staggered to the ground and leaned against one of the towering oaks. “When?”
“Not sure.” He grimaced. “They took them to Society headquarters.”
Emmy tried to let the words quell her crushing panic. Headquarters was closer, and much easier to breach, than Grimsbane.
But without the relic, Emmy’s transformations were far too slow to be of much use.
No, she needed the relic. And to get the relic, she needed to beat Grace, once and for all.
“Where are you going?” Caleb whisper-shouted as she rose to her feet.
“To get Grace’s jewelry box.” And then, to Clarity Hall, to strangle her with her bare hands.
Finish this, Jack had said, but she could hardly stand to remember how he’d whispered those last words, how he’d kissed her—
“It’s gone, Emmy.” Caleb looked pained. “Grace and Mrs. Stratton came with the first round of guards. They had the jewelry
box with them when they left.”
The need to scream nearly toppled Emmy. Was she destined to always be one step behind Grace? Or was Caleb lying to her, because
he’d been working with Grace all along? “I need to search for it myself.”
He limped in front of her, wincing in pain. “We don’t have time for your cynicism. Any minute now, they’re going to kill our
friends. We need to free them now.”
But she could not free anyone. Not without Rose’s relic. And she could not trust anyone, either. Especially when Caleb had
urged her to trust Mary, over and over.
She studied him carefully. “How often did you read Mary’s mind?”
“Mary’s?” He shot her a strange look. “I don’t make a habit of spying on my friends.”
“You claimed you read it when I hired her.”
His eyes narrowed. “Of course I did. And I heard how much she hated Grace. Why, did they arrest her, too?”
That conversation had been Emmy’s only one with the real Mary. Rather convenient.
“Will you tell me what the hell is going on?”
“Grace was Mary. For as long as Mary worked here.”
“Horseshit,” he snapped.
“She was pretending to be Mary all along. That’s why Grace was missing so often this summer. Why she was late to so many events.
Why ‘Mary’ requested a part-time schedule.”
“That’s impossible! I would have known if she were Grace.”
“An excellent point.”
Caleb glared at her. “I talked with her. Laughed with her. Hell, I liked her.”
“You liked Grace.”
He shook his head, his gaze unfocused. “Horseshit,” he muttered again.
A mind reader who’d failed to notice the imposter living among them. Who’d encouraged Emmy to bring Mary into the fold. Not
Mary; Grace.
“I don’t understand how you didn’t hear one revealing thought of hers.” Emmy did not take her eyes off Caleb, not even for
a second. “She couldn’t have been suppressing your conjury the whole time.”
You’re so arrogant, Grace had said, you truly believe you know conjury better than me.
“I use my gift only when it’s absolutely necessary.” He scrubbed at his face, growing paler by the minute. “Come to think
of it, I don’t remember ever hearing her thoughts by accident. If I was listening to someone else’s thoughts, hers never interfered.”
It was torturous, not knowing truth from lie. Grace might have had some way to block Caleb’s conjury, like she’d blocked Tobias’s.
If it was something she had on her, Caleb would not have felt its coldness.
Or, a simpler explanation: Caleb was a goddamn liar. “Did Grace help Rose make the relic?”
Caleb froze. She didn’t need him to say a word; his guilt was plain on his face.
It hurt more than she’d expected, which was her own fault, really. But it made it far easier to walk away from Caleb. If the
guards were still here, she could slip past them with the invisibility ring. Then, if she found Grace’s jewelry, she’d do
whatever it took to retrieve the relic from her.
“It was Rose’s secret, okay?” Caleb whispered as he followed her. “She needed a tiny bit of bridging conjury to complete the relic, but she knew how much Jack despised Grace for what she’d done to you. But she didn’t make Grace an amplifier; I swear it.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Emmy hated uttering the words aloud. “Because I gave her Rose’s.”
“You what?”
“I handed it to her,” Emmy snapped. “I handed her unfathomable power like a goddamn fool. Without a moment’s hesitation. Because
you said I could trust her.”
With a groan, Caleb leaned against a tree. His distress seemed genuine, but it no longer mattered if he’d betrayed her or
not. That was the benefit of working alone: she did not have to torture herself trying to separate friend from foe, when so
often they were one and the same.
He grabbed her arm as she turned away. “It’s over, Emmy. Grace won. But if we hurry, we still have a chance to save our friends.”
The thought of Jack or Jimmy suffering made Emmy want to tear out her own heart. And if they died—no, she would not let herself imagine such things. Especially when she was powerless to help them.
Grace’s haughty smile was burned into Emmy’s retinas. It would hang over her for the rest of her life—a life in hiding, thanks
to Grace. The injustice was maddening, but Emmy welcomed its burn. Because when she was on fire, she was not a naive little