“How did you get Mr. Braddock blamed for these crimes?” Mr. Kent asked.
Captain Goode leaped out of the witness-box, but his answer still came. “I raised his power to a deadly level at the Belgrave Ball to kill everyone in the room. I sent members of the Society of Aberrations to Paddington Station to destroy the train. And I ordered a member to create illusions of Mr. Braddock fleeing Paddington and attacking the Queen.” He shook his head wildly and turned to the crowd. “No, these are lies, I did not—”
“Are you blackmailing some members of the Society of Aberrations into working for you?”
Captain Goode tried to block his ears, but the question was loud enough to get through. “Yes! N—”
“How?”
“Threatening their families and friends. Imprisoning them. Hurting them.” Captain Goode waved to his guards below the stage. “No! He is lying and manipulating my mind. Stop him!”
“Arrest that man!” Mr. Kent fired back.
Most of the Society members and the police stood frozen, unsure what to do. Even Miss Fahlstrom rose from her seat, looking rather disturbed.
But there were enough who were still loyal to Captain Goode. One extremely large man leaped from the bottom of the stage straight into the middle of the crowd and out of the stadium with a few swift bounces like a spring-heeled jack, a sight made even odder given the man’s height and breadth. A worn, worried-looking, almost motherly woman fired needles from her hand, puncturing holes in the balloon. And a loud crack rent the air as the electric woman fired a massive bolt at the basket of Mr. Kent’s balloon, setting it ablaze.
“No!” Laura screamed. The crowd erupted, but not in the direction Mr. Kent had hoped. The tension from the trial, the strangeness of the balloon, Captain Goode’s sudden revelations, the startling display of powers—it was too much. Everyone rushed up the stairs, climbing up the court steps, a massive tide of bodies that pushed us in the wrong direction.
“I appear to be on fire.” Mr. Kent’s voice wavered nervously through the speaking trumpet as his balloon descended. “Miss Wyndham, if you’re out there, this was entirely Mr. Braddock’s fault. He used flattery, and I was powerless to resist.”
I looked around frantically, catching a glimpse of Sebastian being dragged up the stairs by Captain Goode on the other side of the court. The rest of the Society members followed in the direction of Mr. Kent’s balloon, which drifted toward the end of the fields. Smoke started to fill the court, courtesy of Mr. Shaw.
“We have to help him!” Laura cried, pulling desperately out of Emily’s hold. She forced her way upstairs and into the sea of bodies, trying to get around the court the long way, to get to Mr. Kent’s balloon.
“Laura! Laura!” I shouted, struggling forward. “Dammit, stop her!” I tried to keep my eyes on her, Sebastian, and Mr. Kent all at once, fear for them rising.
Emily was already chasing after Laura, climbing up the steps, telekinetically stopping the people in her way, creating a narrow path through the crowd.
We stumbled through the screaming masses in her wake. People knocked into us from the side, but I kept Emily in my sight and pushed and elbowed everyone else out of the way without much restraint. My touch would heal them anyway.
We finally got to the other side of the court, where there was actually room to breathe, and joined the spectators confused enough to run in the direction of the chaos. I lost track of Captain Goode, Sebastian, and even Mr. Kent’s balloon as the smoke blocked our view, but we pressed on behind Emily, coughing our way through.
And suddenly the balloon was in front of us, deflated on the grass, the empty basket still burning away, the source of the smoke. No one from the Society was there. Only a few gawking spectators, policemen, and Laura, her feet locked to the ground, struggling against Emily’s telekinetic hold and then her real hold.
“No, no, no, no,” Laura whispered, every bit of her small and helpless. She sank back into Emily’s arms. “He’s going to kill Nicky!”
I put my hands on Laura’s shoulders, trying to keep her still, trying to calm myself at the same time. My body was vibrating with tension, every nerve on alert, every bit of me stretched to the limit. “Laura. Look at me. Captain Goode won’t. He told me himself. The powers are valuable. He’ll keep them alive. And we’ll get them back. Say it.”
Laura repeated me, sniffles between each word. “We’ll—get—them—back.”
I took a deep breath. She took one herself. And another. Calming herself enough that Emily and I could loosen our holds.
Miss Chen’s frown cut between us. “I know he wants them alive, but that’s exactly why we should be back to panicking and running.”
“What … what do you mean?” I asked.
“He can enhance Mr. Kent and ask Mr. Braddock anything,” she said. “What do you think will be his first question?”
Chapter Nineteen
“MRS. TUFFINS!” I burst through the door after Miss Chen, the others close behind us. “Are you here? Mrs. Tuffins!”
My panic was in full force. With Mr. Kent and Sebastian captive, there was no doubt Captain Goode knew our hiding place. And with so many Society of Aberrations members already gathered with him, an attack was likely minutes away. It was one thing to put ourselves in danger, but now we’d put the lives of Mrs. Tuffins and her people at risk. More innocents with the unfortunate luck of simply knowing us.
“Dears?” She shuffled out of the parlor, her face wreathed in concern. “What’s happened? Is something the matter? Let me get you some tea—”
“No! No time! I am so sorry, this is very, ah…”
I looked at the others, suddenly realizing this was going to be impossible to explain quickly. Miss Chen’s wide eyes and swift head shake made it clear she did not want the responsibility. Catherine opened her mouth a few times and shrugged.
“We all possess strange powers. Except Miss Harding and Miss Kent,” Emily announced, floating a ribbon in the air as proof. “And Captain Goode is an evil man who very much wants to kill us.”
She gave a nod, as if the matter was very much settled. I stared between her and Mrs. Tuffins’s puzzled face. This was rather a lot to take in. There was a part of me that hoped she might faint.
But Mrs. Tuffins seemed to be puzzled for an entirely different reason. “Why I know that, my dears. Was that a secret?”
“Oh, um, a little?” I said.
“Well, goodness me, I don’t believe I have told anyone—I always keep my guests’ affairs private—but it would be a little hard not to have noticed!”
A very good point.
“Thank you, you are such a wonderful, understanding hostess,” I said, taking her hand. “But I am afraid everyone here needs to leave. At once.”
This time she took in Laura’s tear-stained face and looked completely bewildered. “Leave? The house? Oh heavens, did Mr. Braddock’s trial not go well?”
She paid much more attention than I thought. I really should have expected that from a Tuffins.
“It did not. And Captain Goode and other members of the Society will be here any moment, and I do not think they would hesitate to kill everyone in the house,” I said, adopting Emily’s blunt manner. I gestured for the others to go and pack up their things. “Is there somewhere you can stay for some time?”
“Well, my sister’s, but…” Mrs. Tuffins looked terribly distressed, and I felt like the worst possible person.
“I am so very sorry for this. We will find a way to make it up to you,” I said. “But we need to get everyone out of here. Our lives depend on it.”
I gave her hand one more squeeze and ran upstairs to grab whatever I could stuff into a small bag. Rose was in our room, lips white as she hurriedly packed up her borrowed medical supplies.
“We will find a way through—”