I raised my chin. Octavia had to think she didn’t scare me, though the opposite was true. If I was going to spend my time in the court of the Winter Queen, it wasn’t going to be as a pet. “You can trust me. Unlike you, I know what that word means.”
Octavia gave another croaking laugh. “Good. As for the nightmare clock, the mad inventor Tesla didn’t just build Gates between physical realms. He started the Storm, and it will end with him.” She snapped her fingers. “Tremaine, take her back to the hexenring.”
He dragged me out of the room, his mouth set in a grim line. I hadn’t seen Tremaine angry often before, but it had always led to explosive results. “I bet you think you’re terribly clever for pulling that little stunt, ratting me out. Rest assured, when you’re back in the fold, I’m going to teach you some manners.”
I jerked my arm from his grasp and stepped into the hexenring on my own. After hearing Octavia’s revelations, after being taken from the Bone Sepulchre, I was worn out. I didn’t have the capacity for any more emotion. “I’ll never be afraid of you again,” I told Tremaine as my body began to separate from my mind, the awful vertigo of magic sinking its claws into me once again. It might not always be true, but after what had happened, I couldn’t let him think he’d won. “I’ve seen what else is out there. You’re nothing.”
Tremaine laughed, throwing his head back. “I’ll be everything to you, Aoife. You’ll see, when you return. If I can’t take the Winter Throne as a regent, then marrying its heir will do nicely.”
I stared at him, feeling a chill when I realized that he’d once again managed to outmaneuver me, but then the magic of the hexenring took me and I was flying. I caught the brief, dreamlike flashes of the other places, dark and light places, bloody places and empty places, before I landed back in the same corridor of the Bone Sepulchre from which I’d left.
15
The Machinery of Magic
THE FIRST PERSON to see me was a woman in a smart suit, who screamed loudly and promptly fainted. Girls didn’t appear out of thin air every day, apparently, even in the lair of the Brotherhood of Iron.
Casey came running, followed by Crosley and a few of the men in white. Crosley crouched down, turning my head this way and that, his flabby hands all over me. “What happened? Casey told us the most outlandish story. Are there Fae in the Sepulchre?”
Even in my dizzied state, I knew Crosley couldn’t know what had transpired between Tremaine and me. I still needed Crosley and the Brotherhood’s help, and if he knew the Fae had managed to infiltrate his base, any trust I’d earned would crumble.
“She’s crazy,” I said. “I just fainted. I’m exhausted. All those tests have taken it out of me.”
I cut my gaze to Casey, praying that she’d go along with me. She owed me—she’d been spying on me ever since we’d met. She didn’t say anything, and after a moment Crosley and one of the men in white helped me up. Crosley fussed, dabbing under my bleeding nose with a handkerchief. “I blame myself,” he said. “I’ve pushed you too hard, and you’re such a delicate little thing.”
I leaned against him dramatically and held the kerchief to my nose. “I’m just so tired.” It was harder than anything to act normal for the Brotherhood after what had just happened, but my entire plan relied on it.
“Casey,” Crosley said, handing me off. “Help her to her room, please?”
“Of course, sir,” Casey murmured, putting her arm around me. As we walked away she leaned in close and whispered, “What the hell is going on? Who was that?”
I shook my throbbing head, acutely aware of Crosley watching us retreat down the hall. “Not here. In my room.”
We stumbled in an awkward dance into the room Crosley had had prepared for me the previous evening, where I collapsed on my bunk. Someone had left a tea tray, and Casey poured me a cup. It warmed me up a little, but it couldn’t erase the memory of the cold, fathomless eyes of the Winter Queen boring into mine.
“You look really terrible.” Casey sat on the edge of the bed and pressed her hand to my forehead in a motherly manner. More motherly than Nerissa had ever been, for sure.
Nerissa. I’d promised Octavia we’d both come back. Did Nerissa even remember she was from the Thorn Land? Did she even know her sister’s name?
“Fae will do that to you,” I said. Casey’s face crinkled in alarm.
“I knew I wasn’t imagining things,” she said. “Mr. Crosley said I was, but I knew something had happened to you—that a Fae was in the Bone Sepulchre.” She stood, her braids clanking, echoing her excitement. “Maybe we can still catch him!”
“Casey,” I sighed, irritated at her innocence in matters of the Fae. “Forget it. He’s long gone.”
“But Mr. Crosley will be furious with us if he doesn’t know the truth.…” She worried her lip and sat back down. “What did the Fae do to you? Are you hurt?”
“Not physically,” I said, waving her off. I didn’t want Casey worried about me—I needed her, I realized, and I was going to have to tell her the truth.
As briefly as I could, I outlined what had happened with Tremaine, why he’d come for me and how Octavia had revealed the location of the nightmare clock.
“Tesla built this place,” I finished. “He built the Gates. I need to know what else he might have here—plans nobody ever saw, secret things like the clock he built for the Brotherhood. Then I think I can set everything right.”
Casey stayed quiet, not looking at me, and I grew nervous. “Please don’t think I’m crazy,” I begged. “I’m not. All of this is true, and it’s the only way I know to stop what’s going to happen to the world.”
Casey finally spoke, barely above a whisper. “I told Mr. Crosley when you came here what you’d been doing with your father—practicing your Weird, getting ready to take over as Gateminder. I told him I couldn’t be sure, but I had a feeling you’d run into Proctors in Innsmouth. And you know what he said?”
“What?” I said. My stomach was knotting uncomfortably. Calm down, Aoife. I just had to act innocent of whatever Casey was going to reveal.
“He said to leave you be,” Casey said. “He said that in time, you’d either serve one purpose or another for the Brotherhood. He told me that if you can’t fix what you’ve done, you’ll at least be incentive for Mr. Grayson to come back to the fold.” Casey wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m sorry, I know I should have told you before, but if he ever found out we talked …” She began to shake.
I felt bile creep up my throat, felt the thick, knobby hand of fear grasp my neck. I itched to run back out into the snow, anywhere but here, but I forced myself to remain perfectly still, my body’s only movement the beating of my heart. I would not panic. Would not crack. Everything depended on it.
“Look,” Casey said, “I know what happened in Lovecraft wasn’t your fault. I know how tricky the Fae can be.” She lowered her voice. “I lied to you when I said I’d only seen two. They took my sister, when we were both tiny. They left a creature in her crib, this squalling thing with double rows of teeth and no eyes. I know Crosley and those men can’t possibly understand what they’re dealing with when they make those bargains.” Her mouth quirked. “Besides, I know you, and I know you’re not some simpering pushover. That act didn’t fool me.”
“I’m actually a bit glad of that,” I said, managing a tiny smile. “It’s getting tiresome.”
“So what now?” Casey sighed. “Seems as if we’re over a barrel.”
I rubbed my temples. They ached, like everything else in me ached, including my thoughts. There were so many pieces, so many lies I’d stacked on top of lies, until they threatened to topple and crush me. Well, the lying was over, at least with Casey. I was sick of it anyway, sick nearly to death.