His yellow eyes flashed like I’d slapped him.
“Disease?” he whispered. “Yes, it’s true. Perhaps I am born of disease, but what are you born of, Juliet? My perverse nature may be physical, whereas yours is psychological—but no less potent. At least my identity is based in the flesh. Yours is nothing more than ideas your father put in your mind.” He cocked his head. “Has Montgomery told you the secret he’s been keeping from you all these years?”
I clenched my jaw, trying to withhold my fury.
“Ah, he hasn’t. I didn’t think you’d be standing here if he had.”
“If you know it, just tell me,” I snapped. “Stop toying with me.”
“But that’s what I do, my love. Cat and mouse. Predator and prey.” He straightened, the rifle still in one hand. “Unfortunately, I’m growing tired of games. They are childish things, and we are both adults, are we not?” He leaned in, his lips only a breath away from my jaw, and fear knifed in my stomach.
“I saw Montgomery in your father’s laboratory,” he whispered in my ear. “He didn’t know I was watching. He burned an entire file along with a letter. I only saw the first line. To my daughter, it said. It’s time for you to know the truth.”
I drew in a sharp breath. Montgomery had burned a letter that my father had written to me? What had it said, and what was in those files? I’d never felt so confused.
“You’re lying,” I said. “Just like you always are. Tell me where Lucy and Elizabeth are.”
“I could take you to them, but I’m not sure you would like it. Did you know there’s a cellar here filled with corpses? Makes me wonder what exactly the mistress has been getting up to—she might be a woman after my own heart. In any case, there was plenty of room for more bodies.”
For a moment, the world seemed to stop. I blinked, replaying his words back through my head, refusing to believe them. Had he killed them?
“No!” I hurled myself at him, clawing his face, but he caught my wrists and laughed low in his throat.
“Don’t act so surprised.” He fought me off easily, then took my hands in his, pulling me into a waltz around the room. “Remember when we kissed beneath the mistletoe at the ball in London? How badly I wanted to dance with you then. Now we can forever. This house can be ours, our private escape from the world.”
“You’re mad!” I yelled. “I’ll kill you if you’ve hurt them!”
“You can certainly try.”
My heart was pounding, telling me to get away from him, but he was too strong. I balled my fists, ready to tear him apart with whatever I could get my hands on in McKenna’s kitchen. The iron skillet. A rolling pin. I just had to get close enough to the cabinets.
A gunshot blasted through the kitchen.
The Beast went stiff. I screamed in shock and pushed away from him as his dark blood splattered onto my dress. The floor was already slick with drops of blood. He lunged for me, but I ducked his hand.
“Juliet!” Montgomery slumped in the doorway, holding a rifle. “This way—run!”
I shoved at the Beast, who clawed at me with his fingernails. With a growl, I dug my fingers into the mess of his shoulder where the rifle blast had hit. He roared, and I was able to shove him to the ground, tripping over him in my heavy skirts, and race toward the door.
“Outside,” I said. “We can lose him in the gardens.”
“The wind is too strong. It will carry our scent.”
Angry cries came from the kitchen, amid the clashing of pots and pans. I cringed; all I wanted to do was pull myself into a ball and hide from the world.
“Over here,” a small voice said.
I whipped my head around the vast foyer but saw no one. Had someone survived the Beast’s wrath? Montgomery pointed to the dusty tapestries flanking the grand fireplace. One of the tapestries ruffled, and a little face stared out at us. One milky white eye, the other dark brown.
“Hensley!” I helped Montgomery hobble to the tapestry. It hid a wooden panel that slid open to admit us to the secret passageways. I lifted my skirts to climb in and tried to help Montgomery, but he was too heavy. To my surprise, Hensley—though he barely came up to Montgomery’s ribs—easily lifted him over the panel and into the tunnel. I slid the panel closed, and we were bathed in darkness.
“This way” came Hensley’s disembodied voice.
“Hensley, are you alone? Is anyone else alive?”
“Shh,” he said. “That creature will hear us. He doesn’t know about the narrow rooms.”
He moved almost too fast for us to follow. My thoughts were in a daze as I stumbled over loose bricks. How could I kill the Beast with Montgomery wounded and only a little boy to help? If I offered to stay with the Beast, waltz with him like a madwoman around the kitchen, would he let Montgomery go?
Hensley hurried down a flight of narrow stairs that Montgomery struggled with.