An animal cry burst from my brother. Lunging forward, he grabbed Julian’s arm to wrest him away from Marin. Panic howled in my chest. No!
Sean jerked violently, and I choked on a scream when he froze in mid-motion.
My heart thumped once. Twice. Nothing changed. “Brother...” My voice emerged in a whispered plea as I blinked at his statue-still body and outstretched arms.
Julian snorted in disgust and yanked his woolen sleeve from Sean’s stony grasp.
“What did you do to him?” I cried. A burst of fire rushed to my fingertips, and I made to move again when Cate’s grip tightened on my elbow.
“Don’t, Selah,” she said softly, “or Sean will be dead before you reach him.”
I glowered at the man, my sight rimmed with red amidst the green torchlight. Only one person would die tonight, and that was Julian, the very moment I got my hands on him.
He patted my brother’s cheek. “You can thank my mother for that trick.” With an arrogant smile, he stepped around Sean, closing the distance between us to ten generous paces.
Marin whimpered and stole a terrified glance at her husband, who now appeared to be grasping at the air behind them. Tom and Henry remained in place, tracking Julian’s every move like two predators awaiting the opportunity to strike.
“My dear Lord Stroud,” Cate said, every bit the well-bred lady even in a cavern. “Let me be the first to commend you for killing Carmen, though it seems something you should have shared while we were still at the inn.”
An indignant breath burst from me, and I gaped at Cate, sure she must be mistaken. “Julian didn’t kill her.”
“I assure you, he did.”
“How could one man kill Carmen?” And not even a warrior at that, but a man with the gift of agriculture. I thrust a finger at him as if to prove my point. “How could he have killed her?”
His smooth laugh echoed through the cavern. “I would think that obvious, especially for someone so adept at healing. But if you require further explanation, suffice it to say I stole your knife while you were napping on the Sea Witch and stuck it in Carmen’s heart.”
The muscles jumped in my neck as I whipped my gaze from the witch to Julian. Despite the overwhelming evidence, my brain refused to accept his admission.
“When did you kill her?” Henry asked.
Julian appeared bored by his question. “Two days ago, while Miss Rose, Mr. Roth and I were scouring the countryside for Selah.”
My hand flew to my mouth. James and Justine... I hadn’t felt the cavern open again since the other three arrived.
“Where are they now?” Tom’s voice rumbled.
“Safe for the time being, though I fear Miss Rose won’t be joining us.” Julian rubbed his chin. “She didn’t fancy the branch in her mouth any more than the one holding her to a tree. And I daresay Mr. Roth will never forgive himself for being taken unaware a second time.”
A mounting pressure began to throb in my temples. “I don’t understand. Why are you doing this? Why the elaborate pretense?”
Releasing my arm, Cate moved beside me. “Because he needed us here to break the curse.”
“What does it matter, now the witch is dead?”
Julian fixed me with a dark stare. “Oh, it matters a great deal, Selah.”
He caressed my name, gentle as a lover, and in direct disparity with the man who had already struck first and second blood tonight. Volatile and violent. It sickened me to think this could be another desperate attempt to win my favor.
“Please, Julian, you need to stop this before it goes any further.” The whole scene felt like a big ruse, and any moment my brother would move and Marin would be free.
“That’s not Julian,” Cate said in a soft voice.
“Of course it is.” I raked the man from head to toe. Dark brown hair, elegant features, trim build...without doubt he was the man I’d met in Cate’s drawing room nearly three weeks ago.
“I assure you, it’s not him,” she persisted. “Lord Stroud is dead.”
My knees wobbled, and I clutched at my skirts to keep steady. Impossible...unless the man had an identical twin.
Henry slid Cate a sideways look. “If that were the case, he’d have been called out for an imposter the moment he came to London.”
“He may look and speak the same as Lord Stroud, but I assure you, it’s not him.”
A memory nibbled at my brain of black hair and altered features. An aberration of himself, as though one image had been laid over another... At the time, I thought him on the verge of death and his soul disintegrating.
Cate spoke to Julian, yet in the third person. “Lord Stroud arrived in town last spring after his father died. Was that really him or had you already claimed the spoils of death?”