13
Anger, as white-hot as the searing pain he’d felt moments earlier, surged through Mercury. The Forever Flame had somehow taken Baby Blue away. In so doing, he’d made an enemy in Mercury.
“Find Zizzy,” Mercury said to Tacey. “Keep her with you and gather with the other ghosts in the tunnels where you’ll be safe. I’ll meet you there.”
“You should be going directly there. If the Forever Flame is at Aventine, then you’re in danger.”
“I’ve been in danger my entire life.” Danger had been dogging his heels longer than he could even remember. “I promised Baby Blue that we would be together and that I would keep him safe. I am not going to break that promise.”
“You’ll be careful?” Tacey pressed.
“The Forever Flame has taken Baby,” Mercury said. “The only thing I am right now is angry.”
“Mercury.”
He looked over at her. “I won’t take any unnecessary risks. Getting myself captured won’t get Baby Blue back.”
Tacey didn’t look entirely convinced, but she didn’t argue further. She hurried from the room. He stepped out as well, determined despite the crushing grief of his missing connection to Baby Blue. He was aware of it with every breath, every step, every beat of his heart.
How was this even possible? Ghosts could be swapped; they couldn’t be taken.
A person always had to maintain the same number of attachments.
That couldn’t change. So how did he have one fewer than he’d always had?
And how could one of his ghosts be taken without his agreement or the ghost’s?
It was an unbreakable rule of brokering.
A place of rending. A place where things are broken.
As Mercury turned a corner, moving with swift and determined steps toward the guest wing, a curtain in one window rustled despite there being no draft and no breeze. It “pointed” in the same way Tacey’s nightdress had the night the Reluctant Recluse had led her into Mercury’s room.
He changed paths, moving instead in the direction the curtain indicated.
The same pattern repeated a few more times, eventually leading Mercury to the library.
The gap at the bottom of the closed door revealed an amber light flickering inside in precisely the way that he’d seen in an upper-story window in London the night he had rescued Tacey from the Forever Flame’s tavern.
He’d seen it then, and it was here now. And so was the Forever Flame.
He knew what that meant.
That dangerous, universally feared ghost had been watching him that night. So he knew what Mercury looked like. He would have recognized him in the corridor earlier that night, hiding the discovery behind his pretended innocent wonder. It had all been a ruse.
Mercury flung the door open and stormed inside. “What have you done to Baby Blue?”
The diminutive ghost hovered in the middle of the room. His look of awe and wonderment had been replaced by one of haughtiness. “I thought that might bring you around.”
“Ghosts cannot be forcibly detached from someone,” Mercury said.
“It’s a useful ability.” The Forever Flame’s white hair turned a searing amber, glowing and flickering like a flame. “It gets people to do what I need them to. And it’s terrifying, which is helpful as well.”
This ghost had the ability to cleave inseverable attachments. Ghosts weren’t supposed to be able to be punished. But the Forever Flame knew how to do precisely that.
“Give him back to me.” Anger rendered Mercury’s voice tense.
“I don’t think I will.” The smallest of sinister smiles tugged at the Forever Flame’s impish face.
Mercury hadn’t expected him to agree. He’d asked the question in order to discover if the Forever Flame had possession of Baby Blue somehow. And it seemed that he did.
The Forever Flame’s eyes darted to a space just to Mercury’s side. Mrs. Brand stood there. Her husband was a bit behind her, more in the shadows.
Mrs. Brand’s innocent pleading of earlier was gone. This was a woman who was calculating. Like Mrs. Vann, but far colder.
Behind her, Mr. Brand turned slowly and stepped closer. “That’s him. Though he’s not a child any longer, I recognize him.” He stepped into the glow of light emanating from the Forever Flame.
Mercury knew him in an instant: the governor of Moor Cross Home for Orphans. That was all Mercury had ever known him as. The Governor. No other name.
“You’ve made quite a life for yourself, Sidney.”
Mercury pushed aside the remembered pain the man had inflicted on him for so long. “My name is not Sidney,” he said calmly.
The Governor was not the least impacted by that declaration. “I would be willing to skip a criminal trial, if you’ll go before the debtors’ court and agree to give over the assets you owe me and the rights to your ghosts. This could be resolved very quickly and easily.”
Mercury stood firm. “I have one fewer ghost than I did before. The Forever Flame has seen to that.”
The Governor didn’t seem concerned about that. It was further evidence that Baby Blue was somehow being held by them, and not lost entirely. It was the only thing keeping Mercury the least bit calm.
“Can we not just take all of his ghosts now?” the Governor asked the Forever Flame.
“Not now.” The sinister smile on the ghost’s face grew. His glow burned hotter. “But in good time.”
Whether the Forever Flame was toying with Mercury or was not able to take more than one ghost, Mercury didn’t know. There had to be limits to this ability. Mercury needed to discover what they were. But first, he needed to find a way to regain some distance.
“No point inching toward the door,” Mrs. Brand said. “If you think we’re foolish enough to have arrived unarmed, then you are not the clever criminal I was led to believe you are.”
“I will tell you one more time,” Mercury said, slowly, calmly. “Give Baby Blue back.”
“Or what?” The Forever Flame floated the tiniest bit closer. Heat emanated from him.
Mercury didn’t flinch or look away. “I’ve been told that I ought to be afraid of you.”
“You have been told correctly.”
“You will soon enough wish someone had told you that ‘afraid’ doesn’t begin to describe how anyone who harms my ghosts should feel about me.”
The Forever Flame laughed, the sound unnerving. Still, Mercury didn’t back away. He had no escape plan, but he wasn’t afraid. And he wouldn’t be threatened into submission.
To Mercury’s surprise, the room filled with specters, rushing in through the floor, the walls, and the ceiling.
They swirled and spun, the display every bit as coordinated as the dance they had always undertaken when clients arrived at Aventine.
It was a mass of movement that rendered their translucence somehow nearly opaque.
Mercury hadn’t summoned them or asked them to come to his defense. How had they known he needed them?
In the midst of the ghostly chaos, Tacey snatched hold of his hand and yanked him toward the door. He couldn’t see the Forever Flame. Couldn’t see the Brands. He could barely see the door. His ghosts were providing him and Tacey enough cover to escape.
He held fast to her hand. They didn’t slow down or look back, but rushed down the corridor.
“You were meant to be staying safe in the tunnels,” Mercury said.
“I told you before that I won’t leave you. Neither will any of your ghosts.”
They turned the corner and hurried down the stairs.
“Are we going to the tunnels now?” she asked.
He shook his head. “We need to go where no one can possibly find us.”
Mercury led her through a maze of corridors, aiming for the well-hidden entrance to the Scholar’s tower. They wouldn’t be discovered there. The rest of his ghosts didn’t know how to enter it.
He led Tacey inside the cleverly hidden entrance to the tower and closed it firmly behind them.
“Do you know what happened to—?” Tacey’s question broke with a shaky breath. “To Baby Blue?”
“The Forever Flame has him,” Mercury whispered. “In some way. I don’t know what or how. Yet.”
They climbed the winding stairs in nearly complete darkness. Her grip on his hand was firm, yet it didn’t feel strong enough. A connection he’d had his entire life had been ripped away from him that night. Everything was suddenly fragile.
They reached the Scholar’s room at the top of the tower. The ghost sat, as always, behind his desk, among his stacks of books.
He looked up as Mercury and Tacey stepped inside, eyeing them through his spectacles. He skipped his usual greeting. “Has something happened?”
“The Forever Flame is here,” Mercury said. “And—” He pushed out a breath. “And Baby is gone.”
Tacey wrapped her arms around him. “We’ll get him back, Mercury. Somehow, we’ll get him back.”
The Scholar rose, his gaze holding Mercury’s. “This is still a place of rending. It is still breaking unbreakable things. Still shattering what shouldn’t be brittle.”
Mercury set his arms around Tacey. Holding her, he felt grounded and focused. “I’ve fixed broken things before. I’ll do it again.”