But they weren’t paying attention to my babble. Their eyes were only on Sebastian. One of them was pulling a club out cautiously.
“You’re the one, aren’t you?” he spoke up, taking a brave step toward us. “Killed a lot of people, we hear.”
“Just come quiet,” the other said. “Don’t want your lady to g—”
I didn’t wait for him to finish. I seized Sebastian’s hand, yanked him in the other direction, and felt myself anchored. One of them had grabbed Sebastian, and the other one was striking from behind with his club.
Sebastian winced and struggled against their hold, but he refused to fight back, to hurt anyone else. I held on to his hand as long as I could, our fingers turning white with strain, but one of the policemen struck his arm, and Sebastian lost hold. They pulled him away and shackled his hands behind his back. He looked helplessly at me, confusion and panic flitting across his features, the first emotions I’d seen from him in days. His power would overwhelm these men, and he knew it.
“Stop it! He’s terribly dangerous!” I shouted.
Sebastian was moaning, wriggling hard to free himself as they dragged him away and the distance between us widened. My mind scrambled to think of what to do. Unfortunately, violence was at the forefront of my thoughts. I flung myself at one of the policemen, slapping him solidly across the face. My palm went numb for a second, then prickles of pain bloomed across it.
“We’re both terribly dangerous. Arrest me, too,” I yelled in the shocked silence.
The policeman pushed me away, and I immediately latched on to Sebastian. The man looked at his companion, a sneer on his face as they both began to laugh. “She says she’s dangerous!”
“The little lady!”
Which was ridiculous. I wasn’t little at all.
And less and less a lady.
I threw myself at them again, this time with dagger fan in hand. The blade sliced deep into an arm, and the smaller man recoiled back in surprise. “She stabbed me!”
“It … it was a stab to help you!” I argued back.
Ignoring my poor reasoning, the other policeman pulled out his club to strike me, but Sebastian slammed his shoulder into the man’s gut, throwing them both off balance.
My hand found Sebastian’s jacket, and I pulled him to me. “Run.”
And run we did, a whole five steps.
“Stop there!” A huge policeman stepped out from an alleyway, triumphantly blocking our path. He held up a policeman’s club, but it was his sheer bulk and his eager crouch that bothered me more. Sebastian and I were both dazed and weary from the fight, little sleep, and less food, while the policeman looked ready to pounce. I doubted we could slip by him. I doubted even more that Sebastian wanted to risk hurting him.
“Harrison!” The other two officers were back on their feet, trapping us from the other side.
“See, I told you it works. Wait off to the side and then catch them off guard!” Harrison smiled proudly at the other two. “They never suspect a third.”
A gun cocked loudly behind the big policeman. “By God, you’re right; they never do.”
A man appeared behind Harrison and pressed the muzzle into his head. He wore the most hideous hat I’d ever seen, a bushy mustache, and pince-nez. He didn’t look familiar, but that voice, equal parts silky and cutting, I’d recognize anywhere.
“Mr.… Kent,” I managed to gasp out.
“Mr. Lent,” he corrected with a pointed look. He pulled the policeman back into the alleyway. “Now, all of you come in here and join your friend.”
Once we followed him in, he nudged his hostage forward with his gun. Harrison slipped past us and stood in front of his partners. They whispered something to one another.
“I didn’t hear that,” Mr. Kent said. “What did you say?”
“I said we could charge you at once because you can’t shoot all three of us,” Harrison admitted.
“Oh Lord, why’d you tell him?” the mustached officer groaned.
“I don’t know.”
“Officers, let me tell you what you will do. One of you is going to come over here and gently uncuff this man, then you’ll let us be on our way, while you return to your station and tell your superior that a Captain Simon Goode is truly responsible for the Belgrave Ball.”
“I liked my suggestion better,” Harrison replied.
“But my suggestion doesn’t involve the three of you having your darkest secrets revealed to the public,” Mr. Kent said, waggling his eyebrows. They didn’t look convinced. Mr. Kent gestured to the stout officer. “You, what is your darkest secret?”
“My father couldn’t afford to keep his bakery because he owed too much money, so I told him to purchase insurance for the shop, and then one night I got a barrel of kerosene by robbing a local factory owner who was—”
“You committed arson and fraud, yes?” Mr. Kent interrupted.
“Yes.”
“All right, that’s plenty, thank you. Now come over here slowly and remove this man’s handcuffs.” Mr. Kent kept his gun on the officer as he meekly stepped forward and unlocked Sebastian’s restraints. Mr. Kent looked to the mustached officer. “And what is the abridged version of your darkest secret?”
“I have been unfaithful to my wife,” he said, looking shocked and ashamed.
“Fitz!” Harrison exclaimed. “How could you do that to Mary?”
“I … It was a foolish mistake,” Fitz said remorsefully.
“It certainly was,” Mr. Kent said. “I’ll do my best to make sure poor Mary doesn’t find out. Now you, tall one, what is your darkest secret?”
“I once lied to a man and said his hat looked very good when in fact it did not.”
“Oh Lord, you’re one of those,” Mr. Kent said, rolling his eyes. “Fine, what question would be the most damaging one to ask you?”
“Which of my friends I like more,” the officer answered, his eyes nervously flitting to the other two officers.
Mr. Kent let out a faint snort. “Good. Handcuff yourselves to one another and start walking toward the northwest corner of the park, and I won’t tear apart your friendship. Though, dammit, now I can’t help but be a little curious. I like that Fitz’s mustache but—”
“Mr. Lent,” I said, backing away to our escape.
“Fine, fine,” Mr. Kent said. He eyed the policemen threateningly. “But remember: Do what I said. Or Lent … will give you up.”
He allowed a moment for the threat to sink in, then slipped the gun into his coat and turned on his heel to lead the way out.
“Thank you, Mr. Kent,” I said.
“I’ve been saving that one for you two,” he replied.
“Truly,” I said. I wanted to tell him my thank-you was not for the horrible quip but for the rescue and for … well, being alive. I didn’t quite know how to say that.
He seemed to figure it out anyway and gave me a sad sort of smile. The bravado fell from his face, and I could see the grief and exhaustion the last few days had wrought on him. “Of course.” He eyed us both for a long moment, lingering on Sebastian, then cutting to me. I nodded at his unasked questions: Yes, Sebastian was in a very bad way. No, I did not know how to snap him out of this.
Except by murdering Captain Goode in thirty-six ways.
“Come.” Mr. Kent clapped his hands together bracingly. He led us out of the alley to an idling carriage and opened the door for us.
I shook my head. “No, we still have to wait for—”
Rose.
Chapter Two
FOR A SECOND all I could make out were the essentials. Tired but clear blue eyes. A constellation of small freckles on the right cheek. A faint crease between the eyes. All the tiny little things that made up Rose.
We stared at each other for a long moment, and mixed with pure relief was a hot flush of guilt. I closed my eyes and threw my arms around my sister, but I still saw everyone who had died so I could have her here with me. She returned the hug, but it somehow seemed a little less full, as though an essential bulk of her was missing, gone when we watched our parents die.