The Rose Master (29 page)

The pain forgotten, I broke into a run through the hallways I knew so well, my feet thumping to my heart’s rhythm.

“August!” My voice echoed against the walls, his name thrown back at me in cold mockery. I ran through the empty hallway, a shriek flying past me, lighting all the lamps that hung like insects from the wall. I gasped at the sudden brightness.

“Anne.” A shadow edged into my view—a tall, thin figure that moved without sound.

“August?” I whispered.

He stepped into the light and gave me a smile. “Why are you running?”

“I found blood in my room. You weren’t there, and I—”

He shrugged, his eyes never swerving from mine. “You thought you had to come to my rescue.” His smile widened. “How sweet.”

He stepped closer, his smile still glinting in the lights.

“I didn’t know—”

“Of course you didn’t. How could you? But see, there’s no need to worry. I’m just fine.”

He did seem fine, but I still felt on edge, my nerves stretching thin. “I’m glad you’re all right, but what happened?”

He shrugged again. “You know, I have no idea. I woke up in the main hall, sprawled on the floor, freezing and very stiff.”

“So did I, except in my bedchamber.”

His eyes were frozen on mine, his smile widening into an uncomfortable size. “Well, there’s little point in worrying over that now—I know the name. The wraith let it slip.”

I clutched my hands together. “That’s wonderful!”

“Yes, it is. I think we should get started on what we were planning, don’t you agree, Anne? We don’t have much time.”

Cocking my head, I shifted on my feet, willing the squirming in my stomach to subside. “Yes, of course, August. I’m ready.”

Would he say anything about what happened in my room, or would he ignore it? I supposed we had more important things to worry about, but it was still peculiar he hadn’t at least been sarcastic about it.

“Good,” he said. “Come on, then. I have to pick up a few supplies from my room. You can help me bring them down to the dining room.”

August turned around and moved down the corridor as I smiled and followed him. That man was so strange.

Half-way down the etched hall tiles, he paused, a shiver rippling through his body.

“August?” I stepped closer. I was about to lay a hand on his shoulder when I felt something that stilled my movement. The energy pulsing beneath my palm was not the usual flaming push, but one that needled my skin with ice. Under our feet, the symbols carved into the stones began to glow.

I shut me eyes and took in a breath.

“You’re not August.” My voice was calm, my thoughts gathering, pulling back toward my center like the receding tide. I opened my eyes to a profile that was morphing into a mask of hate.

“What gave it away?” the wraith asked.

“You can change your features, but not your energy.”

The now unrecognizable face smiled. “Clever girl.”

The wraith lunged at me, losing shape, becoming mist. It was made of slivers of glass, and I screamed as it swallowed me, blood blooming throughout my body.

My hand warmed in anger and I struck out with a strangled shriek. The creature retreated for a second, which was all I needed. I burst into a run, down the hall.

“August!” I screamed as I took the stairs two at a time, my bare feet sure on the steps. “August!” I threw open his door, taking in the scattered objects, the ripped books, the unhinged bedroom door. The bitter smell of smoke wafted through the air, obliterating any scent of the herbs that lay scattered on the floor. I didn’t see fire or its remnants anywhere, but its presence was unmistakable.

“That is a familiar smell, isn’t it, Anne?” A low voice, one I didn’t recognize, said from behind me. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake. We have a few things to discuss, the two of us.”

I turned and felt my stomach drop. It couldn’t be.

Lily Bellingham stood before me, a curling smile on her perfect, porcelain face. She looked just like she had in August’s memory, her beauty as overwhelming as the roses’ scent.

She nodded once. “I trust you know who I am?”

“But . . . you died! You killed yourself!”

“That is a yes, then.” She folded her gloved hands in front of her moss green gown. “No, pathetic girl, it is obvious that I did not die. It is not hard to feign one’s death at night in the middle of London, especially when there is no one left to identify one’s body. Which, thank to August’s murder, was exactly the case.” She chuckled, a dry, low sound. “Quite easy to accomplish, actually.”

I took a step forward, my eyes looking past the doorway through which she’d just appeared. She’d been waiting for me inside his bedchamber. “Where is he?”

“That is not your concern.” She moved a hand in a graceful sweep and the wraith’s freezing presence was suddenly in the room with us.

My eyes widened as the truth finally settled in my head. “It was you! You’re its master.”

“Of course I am, Anne. I’m a little hurt neither of you even considered it, although, perhaps I shouldn’t be, not with everything August did to me all those years ago. He obviously thought I was too stupid, too worthless, to be taken seriously.”

“What are you talking about? He loved you!”

Her laughter was a dark, harsh sound. “Love, Anne, doesn’t exist. That is one thing that August made sure to teach me.”

The smell of smoke was getting stronger by the second. I had to find him. “Where is he? Tell me!”

Lily Bellingham snapped her fingers, dragging my attention back to her. “You will listen, Anne, through your own free will, or my substantial one.”

Icy fingers pressed against my jaw, keeping my head turned toward her.

She smiled. “Good. Where was I? Oh, right. August never took my powers seriously. I can’t say I truly blame him, though, since my own father dismissed them, considering magic far above a woman’s reach. Quite a laugh, isn’t it, that I outlived him and all his precious Brothers? I’m the only magician left in London, now. And young Lord Grey was such an easy target. While the police scrambled about, trying to find who could have possibly killed all those men at the same time, I set the wraith on him, even ordering it to whisper its own conjuration in his ear so that the poor man would think it was the luck of the draw that brought it into the house.”

I blinked, trying to make sense of the violent woman in front of me, one who looked nothing like the kind, bright person in August’s memories. “So this is all revenge, then?”

“Of course.”

“But it was an accident! Your father tried to kill August!” I tried to shake myself loose from the freezing magical fingers, but they just dug into my flesh, keeping my head where it was. If I could only concentrate, I’d be able summon my own energy to battle hers, but I couldn’t get my mind to remain still enough.

Lily’s crystalline eyes seemed to glow as she watched me. “I would like to show you something, Anne. The truth August has so carefully tucked away from you. Since you won’t outlive this night, probably not even this hour, this will be the only chance I have to show you what kind of man he really is.”

She lifted her arms, her gown’s fabric shining in the candlelight, and clapped her hands together. When she separated them, an orb so bright it seemed to burn my eyes hovered above her palms.

“Look,” she said.

I tried to look away, anywhere but the orb, but it was impossible. The light called to me, and I obeyed.

Everything around me was disappearing, just as it had when I’d looked into August’s mirror.

How long I fell was impossible for me to know, but I finally crashed into the ground, my hands braced to keep my head from hitting the hard floor.

I groaned.

Dark, velvet-thick laughter surrounded me as I tried to stand. I was in Rosewood’s sitting room, or at least, I thought I was, because the walls twisted, darkening and brightening, the furniture changing position each time I looked away. Was this what it was like in Lily Bellingham’s head?

“August, what is the matter?” Her voice came from somewhere in the room around me, though it kept moving as much as the furniture. I narrowed my eyes against the pulsing darkness and was finally able to make out two figures sitting on a sofa. Even if she hadn’t spoken his name, I could have recognized that thin silhouette anywhere.

Using a side table that I hoped wouldn’t decide to scurry away, I pulled myself to my feet. My hand brushed something soft and I looked down. It was the sleeping gown, the one August had given me to wear, carefully folded in an opened box that wavered in and out of focus, as if her mind couldn’t quite remember what it had looked like.

“August, please,” Lily said.

“There’s nothing more to say, Lily. I cannot offer you anything, certainly not what you assumed I meant when I asked you to come to Rosewood for the summer. I cannot marry you. I don’t even love you.”

My eyes widened.

The room’s walls turned a dark red, as if they had been painted with blood, and the air became even colder than it had been. A whimper stained the stillness.

This couldn’t be normal. Lily’s head was wrong, her memories twisted by anger, perhaps even by madness.

“But I thought you did, August. I thought we were meant to be together. All that time we spent speaking of magic, of our futures here in Rosewood.”

“I am sorry if I misled you. I enjoyed our conversations, but they did not mean as much to me as you thought they did. We are friends, nothing more.”

There was a growl from somewhere nearby.

“You used me,” Lily said. Her voice held no expression.

“I did not mean to.”

“You befriended me to remain in good standing with my father. To move up the ranks of magicians.”

“I admit it may have started that way, but that’s no longer the case. I consider you a friend.”

“Liar.”

August sighed and said again, “I am sorry if I’ve misled you.”

She shook her head, and though I couldn’t see her face, I knew, by the room’s sudden shaking, that she was laughing.

“Oh, August,” she said. “You are not sorry. But you will be. I promise you.”

Icy hands gripped my hair and pulled me through the dark room, flinging me back into the present, where Lily waited.

“Do you see now, Anne? Do you comprehend why I had to do what I did? He deserves it.” She smiled. “You should be glad. He’s used you, as well, keeping you close to him to fight the wraith, but what would happen if, by some miracle, you were successful? Do you think he’d remain by your side when he no longer needed you?”

Her words bit into me. The same doubt I’d felt just this morning rose up in me, a living, squirming thing that I wished I could smother. “It is not the same.”

Lily laughed and nodded. “You’re right, it is not. It is worse for you, dear, for you are just a servant.”

“I know August.”

“Do you, now? Why did I have to show you that particular memory, then? You should have known all about it. After all, that little scene was why he felt he had to leave the Brothers. He was too much of a coward to remain in my society after his confession.”

It was true. He hadn’t told me why he’d decided to leave The Order, what had been the catalyst that had started this whole horror. He should have said something.

“That’s right, Anne. He betrayed you as much as he betrayed me.”

The wraith, which had remained by her side until then, slithered toward me, its harsh chuckle making me shiver as much as the cold. “Anne, Anne, Anne,” it hissed.

I took a step backward. “Stop it.”

“Face the truth, dear.”

I couldn’t have been that blind, that infatuated. He couldn’t have tricked me that easily.

August’s face flashed through my mind: the smiles he’d given me, rare, but brilliant; his worry at my well-being; the feel of his arms around me; the trust he’d placed in me.

I pushed aside everything Lily had said and rifled through my own memories as I tried to beat back the rising panic. One moment glowed, its unmarred light making it stand out. It was the moment in the kitchen, when we’d hit our heads trying to grasp the fallen knife. The carefree way he’d allowed himself to laugh and the warmth I’d felt while I watched him. Despite everything that had been happening around us, we’d found a spot of peace, a moment of happiness.