The monster, Jaguar had said.
The wagon bumped again, and the canvas fell away from the face. It was an islander woman, or had been. The jaw had been ripped away, leaving only long jagged incisors poised in a permanent scream. Gashes streaked her cheeks and forehead, already covered with a voracious swarm of flies. A scream hurled up my throat, but I never heard it. I’d slipped into a welcoming darkness.
Twenty-five
I AWOKE IN MY bed at the compound. My memories were hazy, sunken into the moss-laden swamps of my mind, where I was content to leave them. I remembered only hints. Peeling skin on the dead woman’s face. Bloodstains on the canvas tarpaulin. Flies buzzing like thunderclouds. There was a lingering stench of blood in my mouth and the smell of lavender in the air.
A soft humming filled the corners of the room like sunlight. I imagined for a moment that I was back home on Belgrave Square, with Mother humming while she made me tea. But it was a poor fantasy. London had never been so stiflingly humid.
I opened my eyes. The humming was nothing more than an insect’s steady drone, but the lavender was real. Alice stood over a steaming copper pot on the dresser, her back to me, rolling the flower between her palms to release the fragrance. Tiny purple blooms tumbled into the pot, filling the room with their calming scent. Montgomery leaned beside her, painting a clear gummy substance onto the mirror with a thick brush. Half the glass was shattered into fine cracks like a spider’s web. I didn’t recall how it had broken.
Alice brought her fingers to her face, breathing in the soft, earthy scent. She held her cupped hands to Montgomery. He inhaled deeply, giving her an easy smile I hadn’t seen since we were children—and even then only rarely. My heart wrenched a little. They were in my room, but I felt like the intruder.
“Alice,” I said. Her name caught in my rusty throat. She and Montgomery turned in surprise. Her hand instinctively flew to cover her harelip. I cleared my throat. Seeing them so playful should have cheered me, but it only twisted something inside me.
Montgomery crossed his arms at the foot of the bed, the lightness gone from his face. “You’re awake. Are you feeling well?”
“There was a body. Someone died.”
His hands clutched the footboard. “A woman from the village.”
“Another accident?”
He didn’t reply.
I caught my reflection in the mirror. The gossamer cracks split my face into a hundred little pieces. “What happened to the mirror?”
He gave it a glance, showing a thousand frowns. “Don’t you remember? You threw your silver brush. It shattered.”
I sat up, studying the fractured wall of eyes. “Why would I do that?”
“You were aiming for me.”
My reflection smirked. “I must have been more clearheaded than I thought.”
Alice’s wide eyes focused on the towel she dried her hands with. Montgomery’s lips fell open and I thought he might say more, but then he shook his head. “I’ll tell the doctor you’re awake.”
My reflection caught in the mirror, just a glimmer of a passing expression. Some part of me was sorry to see him leave. I still cared about him, and that made me angriest of all. Angry because he knew that what he was doing was wrong, yet he was still loyal to my father. It surely hadn’t been the mirror I wanted to shatter, but Father’s spell on him.
Alice dipped the towel into the copper pot. She dabbed my brow, gently. “He’s a good man, miss. He means well.” Her eyes were alight.
I knew that look. She was in love with him.
The trickle of water ran down my face and tickled my ears. It made sense, I supposed. He was the only young man without a hoof or claw on the island. And he was handsome. Oh, was he handsome. I felt my face getting warm and blamed it on the steam from the copper pot.
“Your getting lost gave the doctor quite a scare,” Alice said softly, dabbing at my neck. She was a gentle, pretty thing. Had I been ignoring something obvious? An odd feeling crept over me, that maybe her feelings toward Montgomery might be returned. I suddenly felt like an idiot. I’d thought he felt something for me. He’d practically told me as much; he almost kissed me. . . . Had I been exaggerating his affection in my mind, when it was really someone else who had his heart?
“His creatures gave me a scare,” I muttered, my thoughts elsewhere. The lavender mingled with my breath, infusing my body. It was meant to calm me, but I found it choking. “Did you know about them?”
Alice ran the towel down the sides of my neck, over the bridge of my nose, the curve of my chin. “Yes, miss. We all know.”
“It’s madness. Humans made from animals.”
“It’s the way of the island.”
“Aren’t you scared?”
The towel paused on my neckline. Her lip twitched. “Most things scare me, miss.”
She began cleaning under my fingernails with a metal file. The caked dirt didn’t bother me, but she went after it with a vengeance.
“He thinks he’s God,” I said. She didn’t stop scrubbing. The file pressed at the sensitive skin under my nails, making them tingle. “But he’s insane.”
Her hand jerked, and the file dug into my skin. Blood appeared in the hollow under the nail. I can’t say why, but I started laughing. The more the blood flowed, the more I laughed, until I felt like a madwoman. Alice squeezed the towel around it, her eyes wide.
“You should rest, miss. You still aren’t well.”
The laughter died on my lips. I pulled my hand back, licked away the blood the towel didn’t get. It tasted rich, like iron. “Where are the others? Where’s my father?”