A Dreadful Splendor (103)

He cursed at her, holding the dagger above his head. “You caused this!” he yelled at her. “You’re making me do this!”

Her fingernails scraped the side of his face as he tried to fend her off with one hand. I kept my eyes on the dagger as I feverishly worked the brooch. I felt the pin advance a bit more.

Audra seemed to be gaining strength. She pounded his chest, and they both disappeared under the waves in a swirling mass.

The dungeon became eerily quiet. Only my quickening breaths and the splash of the tide echoed around me. Mr. Lockhart surfaced first, his mouth opened in a silent scream. The hilt of the dagger was sticking out of the side of his neck.

Stunned, he pressed a hand to his wound as blood gushed between his fingers. A gurgling came from his throat. He stared at me in terrified awe, silently pleading. But it was too late. He’d condemned us both to this watery grave. I’m sorry, he mouthed. Then his eyes rolled back, and his body crumpled into the waves.





Chapter Fifty-Nine




Audra sputtered a million apologies as her shaking hands reached for Mr. Lockhart’s lifeless body, now floating faceup. “What am I to do without you?” She cradled him in her arms as the blood swirled with the seawater around them.

A complicated sorrow rushed over me, making me want to scream at the absurd cruelty of it all, or at least cry like Audra, but I couldn’t give in; I had to keep my wits. I knew how to package away grief. Any remorse I had for Mr. Lockhart had to be pushed down and ignored. My fingers should have been numb from the water, but all my concentration was focused on working that tiny pin through the rusted lock.

Audra looked up from Mr. Lockhart, still in her arms. She’d stopped crying, but her eyes were puffy and red. “I couldn’t let you die in vain.” She smiled at me demurely, and it was more unsettling than any sneer. “The voices want us to suffer as they did. It’s the only way they’ll be quiet.”

I fought to keep balance as the water continued to ebb and flow around me. “I’m a spiritualist. I can contact the ghosts and learn what they want for certain. Then they’ll finally give you peace.”

“I can hear them fine.” She stared at me unblinking, her eyes as cold and hard as the cuffs that encircled my wrists. “Somerset is more than a home. It’s a part of me, surely as if I were made of its stones. I could never leave and then return pretending to be someone else.” She looked back down at Mr. Lockhart’s face, then gently pulled his eyelids closed. “But he has finally shown me the answer. Now I know death is the only true way to claim Somerset forever. That’s what the voices have been trying to tell me all along.”

I licked my lips and tasted salt. “Don’t give up, Audra. You were meant to be head of Somerset.” My fingers worked underwater. I felt the pin move again. “All your sacrifices won’t be for nothing. There’s always a way. I can help you.”

She kissed Mr. Lockhart on the forehead, then let go of his body. The waves pushed him to the other side of the dungeon, leaving a trail of blood through the water. “I’ve spent many hours down here, staring at the skeletons, wondering how they must have felt. Screaming for help until the last breaths left their chests.” She lowered her voice like she was telling me a secret. “I only heard them after they died. Still do.” A note of fear had crept into her voice. She looked over her shoulder at the shadows. “No matter how far I travel, their screams for help will still find me. Somerset will never be free of their tortured spirits until we pay the price.”

The pin suddenly stopped. I held my breath and twisted the brooch, testing the tumblers. I could sense the pressure. All I needed was one more turn. Then there was a snap, and I felt the brooch break off and slip from my fingers. I watched it sink out of sight.

There was a moment of dumb shock, then a surge of furious misery that made me scream out loud. The dam that I’d been working so hard to keep intact fell apart. The grief, the anger, and all the horrible guilt exploded from my very heart.

I pounded the water with my fists and pulled with all my might, ignoring how the iron wore at my flesh. I continued to thrash around until weakness set in. Gasping, I pressed my back up against the rock wall. I had no more ideas, no more tricks. An unrelenting wretchedness took over.

Audra watched me with a knowing expression. “Death is the only way to escape those cuffs, Jenny. You know I’m right. Death is your old friend, yes? How can you be afraid of something you’ve known your entire life?”

There was a dullness in my ears, giving her words a muffled quality. I said nothing because part of me had always known it was going to end this way.

I wish I’d never been born. I wish you’d jumped into the harbour the day my father died.

My final, cruel words to Maman came back to haunt me. It was fitting. I knew I didn’t deserve any better before I took my last breath.

“This is how we all get what we want,” she said calmly. “They will find the dungeon, see our bodies, and know that Gareth is innocent. You can give him his freedom. And we get Somerset. Think of it! We’ll live on as legends, much better than anything we could have done in our lifetime. We will never get old. We’ll always be beautiful. A famous artist will paint your portrait and they’ll hang it beside mine in the Gallery Hall. Imagine how grand! And we’ll haunt Somerset forever. Like sisters.”