And then I was sobbing, begging every god and demon I could imagine, praying feverishly to let him live, to let me stay conscious and find some way to heal him.
I took my fingers—they were freckled with terrifying blue splotches—and pressed them to his neck and closed my eyes.
There was a pounding in my head that sounded like footsteps.
Beneath my fingers, I felt nothing.
A voice rang out from the stairs.
And then I felt like nothing.
Come back, Sebastian.
Come back.
*
“Come back to me, Evelyn! Please!”
I opened my eyes at my sister’s voice. I was so near Sebastian and still alive. It must have been seconds only that I lay next to him.
“Come to me, darling, please, I will heal him but you must come to me.” Rose was begging, her voice low and sweet, and I had to heed her, dragging myself to her with fingertips and great lurches of movement that exhausted me. But I fought the swirling darkness that wanted to claim me, pushing myself forward as she continued to promise me that it would be all right.
“Here, Emily, carefully.”
The heaviness that had settled inside my head lifted as I dragged myself away from Sebastian. Rose was holding up a threaded needle, Emily staring at it in concentration.
“Mr. Kent, go to him slowly, but if you think it’s too much, come back. We don’t know what his power is like right now.” Rose was wringing her hands, betraying her calm voice. “But we must find a way to stop that bleeding.”
Mr. Kent took a cautious step to Sebastian, testing each one, gritting his teeth as he got closer. “I think I can manage for a few minutes.”
Sebastian was not moving, and I could not control my panicked gasps.
“Rose, Rose, we have to—”
“I am. I am.” She caught my arm, but her eyes were on Mr. Kent as he used his metal hand to lift the layers of fabric so Rose could see what needed to be done. She and Emily moved closer, blocking my view of Sebastian.
“Emily, you need to go slowly and neatly; think of it like embroidery—” Rose explained what she would have to do, while Emily took control of the needle, testing it. Mr. Kent was getting paler and blinking his eyes to stay conscious when Rose told him he had to pull out the dagger.
“As swiftly as possible, then press hard on the wound.”
Sebastian’s eyes did open then, and the sound he made was something I never wanted to hear again.
But he was alive.
Emily worked the airborne needle seamlessly, Rose guiding her every stitch. They found their rhythm and finished as Mr. Kent fell into a coughing fit.
“So, so tired.” There was no jest in his voice, and Rose cut the thread and sent him away urgently. He made it back to me, leaning entirely against the stone wall, gasping for breath.
“Will he be all right now?” I called to Rose, begging her to tell me the worst was over.
“I don’t … I don’t know.” Rose handed Emily a bandage lined with tape, which she telekinetically pressed down. “Miss Kane, can you get him downstairs?”
Mr. Kent tried to help me up, but we were both too unsteady after our long exposure, pulling each other down. Rose had to get between us, her small frame stronger than I had thought, as she helped us slowly to the stairs.
Emily concentrated on Sebastian, untying his restraints and gently floating him up. She slowly descended the narrow spiral stairs backward, maneuvering him down after her. His limbs and head dangled like a rag doll’s, and I begged him to stay alive.
Outside the White Tower, our friends were waiting. Woozy, exhausted, and heartsick, I nearly collapsed into Arthur’s arms, while Miss Chen and Laura hurried to help Mr. Kent and Catherine held Rose.
“Arthur, is he still…?” I asked. “Can you hear a heartbeat?”
Arthur brought me a few steps closer to Sebastian’s floating body, and tilted his head for an agonizing moment before nodding. “I can ’ear it, but it’s weak.”
Alive then, for now. Thank heavens. Just a little while longer.
We made a sad but terrifying parade as we slowly trudged back through the tower, over the rubble, and around the smoldering flames. All around us, on the tower green, the outer ward, and along the battlements, bodies lay sleeping and vines slowly moved them outside the walls. Miss Tolman sat tied up in one corner, her mouth stuffed with a rag and her baleful glare saying enough.
We made it over the moat and to the last tower, where William, Mr. Adeoti, and two carriages waited for us. Emily lay Sebastian down gently in the first one, then stumbled back in exhaustion into Rose’s and Catherine’s arms.
“Army’s on their way,” William said, peering off into the darkness to the north. “Preparing to storm the place, looksit.”
“We should disappear quickly. For Mr. Braddock’s safety and theirs,” Catherine said. “I don’t know if they are coming because of Captain Goode’s illegal takeover of the tower, or because of the battle.”
From not far off, I could hear the calls and stomps preceding the arrival of the army. What the soldiers would do once they arrived and found this scene, I did not know. But we couldn’t leave everyone else here.
“What about all the Society members?” I rasped. At some point I had either cried myself raw or lost the energy required for speaking. “We need to keep the dangerous ones bound. But most of the others don’t deserve to be punished. Not with Captain Goode forcing them.”
“George is moving them to a raft,” Miss Fahlstrom said, emerging from the Thames side of the tower.
My body stiffened instinctively at the sight of her, but Mr. Kent was quick to put in his reassurances.
“She stopped helping … Captain Goode after the trial,” he said, his breath heavy.
“I’m sorry I helped him,” she said, coughing and grasping the stone tower next to her, weak from Sebastian’s power, too. “I only wanted to protect everyone with my warnings.”
Mr. Adeoti hastened over to give her support. “I can sort out who should be left for the police to arrest.”
“I’ll take the others to our secret rooms,” Arthur said. “Let them decide what to do from there.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“You best be goin’ now,” Arthur said, giving William a wave. “Braddock’s country home is in Barking. Long ride but the safest place for ’em.”
I nodded, barely understanding, and tried to climb into Sebastian’s carriage. About ten arms pulled me back and many insistent points were made about me dying if I stayed with him for the ride. But I refused to let him travel alone, imagining we would find him dead when we arrived. Miss Rao grumpily agreed to get in with him but would knock at the roof once she could take no more.
With Arthur staying behind, Miss Chen volunteered to drive the other carriage. The rest of us piled inside, Laura in Mr. Kent’s arms, clinging to his neck with tears sliding down her pale cheeks. I rested on Rose’s lap, she and Catherine stroking my hair and murmuring sounds of reassurance. Emily dozed off immediately on Catherine’s shoulder. Miss Fahlstrom left me with a short message before the door was shut and we set off.
Every ten minutes or so, the carriages stopped, and someone new volunteered to go with Sebastian. Each time I received a full report of him still being alive, still breathing. Rose tried to convince me that it was good that he was still unconscious and therefore unbothered by the jerks and buckles of the carriage.
The journey must have been about three hours, but it could have been days. All I knew was that the sun was rising when we finally arrived at Sebastian’s estate. No one would let me see him as he was removed from the carriage. And Miss Fahlstrom’s three words were all that repeated in my head, words I hoped were true.
“He will live.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
DEATH. All that was left was the book labeled Death.
My footsteps echoed through the empty Society of Aberrations library. The leather cover felt soft under my fingertips as I traced over the golden lettering. The last entry would need to be rewritten—Sebastian Braddock’s biography was hideously distorted. But there would be time for that.