I glared at the Vicomte. “Set her free. I’ll put magick into your damned watch.”
The Vicomte shook his head. “Hurting Veronique bothers you, eh? Now, you just made sure that your friend would spend even more time on the rack.” He bared his yellow teeth. “You made a fool of me, Elea. Don’t think you’re getting an easy death. She certainly won’t.”
I opened my mouth and then closed it again. There was nothing I could say that would speed things along. My best chance was to wait my turn.
And watch him kill Veronique. The thought made me queasy.
The Vicomte gripped the wooden crank. “Since that we’re all set and paying attention, I’ll begin my demonstration.”
Veronique’s chest barely rose and fell. Her lips and fingertips took on a blue tinge. “You don’t need to do this, Gaspard.”
“Ah, but I do. It’s all your friend’s fault.” He gestured toward me, blaming me for Veronique’s pain. I hated him even more for that. “Elea cares for you, my sweet, and so she needs to watch you perish.”
A tear rolled down Veronique’s dirty cheek. Rage blazed through my soul. This isn’t how anyone deserves to die.
The Vicomte turned to me. “Now, be a good girl and watch silently, or I’ll be forced to bring on another subject for my demonstration.” He stared pointedly at Ada, who cowered more deeply into the corner. “Do we understand each other?”
How I hated answering him. “Yes.”
Lean on your Necromancer training. Don’t show emotion.
“Excellent. I knew you’d see reason.” The Vicomte nodded toward Veronique. “This pathetic creature was a machinist for me once. Not as talented as Amelia, mind you. Even so, I thought she could develop skills over time.” His thin lips curled with distaste. “She didn’t.”
Rage had me seeing red. The Vicomte was about to kill Veronique, and yet, he talked about her as if she were nothing more than a defective gear in one of his machines. Every corner of my soul wanted to take him down.
Not yet, Elea.
I forced myself to focus on my breathing, something that Mother Superior taught me long ago. My control hung on by a thread.
“She does have some useful skills, as it turns out,” continued the Vicomte. “Veronique can’t pull Necromancer power into herself. She does naturally attract it, however. Every few days I can bring her here and harvest more energy from her.” He smiled down at Veronique. There was nothing gentle in his grin. “Just like a cow, you see? Only she gives out a different kind of milk.”
Ada began weeping in the corner. This was what the Vicomte had done to her. To all of them. Broken their spirits like animals. My hands balled into fists. I simply had to make him pay.
“First, I shall place the device on her.” The Vicomte pulled the vortex watch from his pocket and pressed the sides. Long, sharp prongs jutted out from the base.
I scanned Veronique’s body and fought the urge to gasp. Like Ada, she was covered in small, oozing sores. It was clear where those wounds were coming from: the prongs on the vortex watch.
The Vicomte stepped up to the head of the table. He was so close now I could strangle him if my hands were free. I struggled to lunge forward, but Hannah and Jonas held me firmly.
In one swift movement, the Vicomte jammed the watch face onto the base of Veronique’s throat. Thin trickles of blood ran out from where the prongs dug into her skin. She whimpered with pain. It was an effort to focus on the mission instead of screaming.
Get that vortex watch. Forget everything else.
“There, you see?” The Vicomte tapped the watch face in Veronique’s neck. “She’s ready to be milked, as it were.” He chuckled softly at his own joke. I wanted to gouge out his eyeballs with my bare fingernails.
The Vicomte stepped back to the base of the table and reset his hands onto the crank. “As you can see, the watch face isn’t lighting up. No power yet. Veronique doesn’t know how to access magick or refuses to. Either way, it doesn’t matter. We just need a little more pain, don’t we?”
Veronique moaned, and I never wanted to kill the Vicomte more than I did right now.
The Vicomte spun the wheel. Veronique’s hands and feet were wrenched in opposite directions. She writhed on the table, her pale lips widening with a pathetic scream. The Vicomte didn’t seem affected in the least. “Normally, we’d put a silencer spell on her, but for your benefit? Not today.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at the watch face at the base of Veronique’s throat. “Nothing yet. Let’s try a little more pain.”
“No.” The word left my lips before I could stop myself. Foolish move. Seeing my anguish only made the Vicomte more vicious.
“Yes.” The Vicomte gave the wheel a vigorous twist. The planes of the table drew farther apart than ever. Veronique howled in agony. Snapping noises sounded as something terrible happened to her joints and tendons.
The watch face flickered with the barest level of brightness.