“Bless you, Hogarth.” Kate pulled the stopper out and took a long swallow. She smiled at Charlotte. Then she turned and stared at Imogen on the table. Kate seemed momentarily frozen, unwilling to go closer to her horribly changed sister, even as Hogarth returned to stand beside Imogen. Kate walked stiff-legged to where Penny and Malcolm were rising to their feet. She pulled the second Lancaster pistol from the gagging Malcolm.
Simon kicked the sizzling cadaver of the clawed homunculus aside, shifting his attention between the approaching Kate, with the heavy pistol dangling from her hand, and the trapped doctor, with his last freakish protector. “Careful, Kate, that last homunculus is likely the most horrific if it’s his last defense.”
Kate leveled the pistol. She fired and the white thing was blown off its feet to slide dead against the wall. She handed the weapon to Simon and advanced on the doctor.
“Kate, stop!” Simon cried. “We have no idea what he is capable of.”
The doctor raised the syringe of green liquid, but Kate slapped it out of his hand. She seized his collar and drove a fist into his face. Then again. And again. His nose flattened into pulp and blood flowed down across his mouth.
Kate shook him. “Now tell me that you can reverse what you did to Imogen. Tell me that.”
White gurgled blood. “That thing is your sister now and forever.”
Kate put both hands around the doctor’s throat. “Then there’s no reason for you to live.” Her voice was cold and unemotional as she tightened her grip.
He struggled to speak, working his jaw from side to side. He spat a tooth in her face and bit down on something in his mouth. “I would prefer to die by my own intellect, then allow your pathetic hands to finish me.”
Kate’s fingers squeezed deep into his throat, disappearing into softening flesh. White began to change shape. His face grew flaccid. What had been his head caved in and cascaded over her hands in a slimy rush. The body spilled to the floor with a sickening splash. His empty suit dropped into the puddle that had been Dr. William White.
“Coward,” Kate snarled, staring down in anger rather than horror or amazement. She knelt and reached into the slime. After a second, she stood, clutching the key.
Simon spun Kate around and embraced her. The tightness in his chest finally abated, allowing him a natural breath of relief. He held her up and took in the sight of her. He smoothed the hair from her face. With one arm, he removed the bandolier from across his shoulders. “I believe this is yours.”
Her eyes filled with warmth that he had carried it into battle. But it was fleeting. She forced her gaze to where Hogarth was holding the limp, pale hand of the figure on the table. The sturdy manservant looked back at Kate with tears streaming down his face.
Simon said, “Kate, forgive us. We failed.”
She shook her head emphatically and found herself supporting Simon rather than the other way around. They went to the table, and Kate touched the white thing lying there. Imogen’s eyes, one human but pale and one darkly mechanical, rotated toward her. An inhuman hand with grotesquely long fingers gently reached out. Kate grasped it.
“So brave you were,” Kate whispered, brushing her other hand over Imogen’s smooth, bald head. “Father would have been so proud of you. As I am.”
Imogen’s already ragged breathing grew rougher. She began to writhe, causing Kate to stiffen in alarm.
“Oh my God,” Kate breathed. “She’s dying. The transformation process wasn’t finished.”
“Perhaps it’s for the best.” Simon stepped to her side. “She isn’t Imogen.”
Kate stared at the horrific thing that had once been her sister, and she could still see Imogen there. She could hear her sister’s old voice in the rasping noises. Kate took the syringe of green liquid from the table and inserted the needle as she had seen Dr. White do with other substances. She pushed the plunger, injecting the green into her sister’s body. Imogen went rigid, as if her muscles were stone. Her peculiar eyes stretched wide. Kate slid the needle out and violently threw it aside.
She put a hand against her sister’s frozen cheek. “I’m sorry, Imogen. I’m not as brave as you. I couldn’t let you go.”
“Kate, we must leave,” Simon said. The entire group was in tatters. Wounds half-healed and others newly raw and vibrant showed on all of them. Everyone’s movements were slow and pained. They were injured and exhausted, fortunate not to be dead. Perhaps it was only the effects of Kate’s elixir that kept them upright. “If we don’t go now, we may not be able to walk out under our own power.”
Hogarth removed his coat and wrapped it around Imogen to protect him from the quills that lay flat along her arm. He gathered the gasping woman against his chest.
There was a deep thumping sound from the door. All heads turned to the amber monolith that blocked the entrance. Through the distorting orange substance, they saw a large shape moving. Something smashed against the amber, shaking the wall. Small lines webbed the crystal. The dark figure struck again and the tiny fissures widened into cracks.
“Oh my God,” Charlotte whispered. “It’s Gretta.”
Chapter Thirty