The Cerulean (Untitled Duology, #1)(23)

Somehow it wasn’t, though.

Then Xavier opened the portfolio and held up a photograph, and Agnes forgot about gossiping rich girls, forgot about the fact that her father always, always let her down, because she was staring at something that couldn’t be real.

“It’s . . .” Elizabeth was frowning.

“A tree,” Leo finished, looking just as confused.

Kiernan grew serious for the first time since dinner had started. “It is not just any tree, my young friends. It—”

“It has a face,” Agnes said. How could they not see it? The photo was in black and white, the tree small and willowy with pale bark and dark leaves. And about halfway down the trunk were three eyes that formed a triangle and a slash of a mouth underneath.

“Well spotted, Miss McLellan! What sharp powers of observation you have,” Kiernan said, impressed. Xavier’s face was unreadable; Leo took another drink, looking disgruntled.

“Why, what is it?” Elizabeth asked.

“It is called an Arboreal,” Xavier explained.

“They are an old myth in my country,” Kiernan said. “Though clearly a myth no longer. Your father and I worked diligently to discover this fellow’s location, and my associates brought him over from Pelago two months ago.”

“What does it do?” Marianne asked.

Xavier smiled and shook his head. “Now that I will not reveal. Not yet.” He put down the photo of the Arboreal and picked up another. This photograph was dark and murky—Agnes could only make out two bulging orbs that looked like . . .

“Eyes!” Marianne shrieked. “Those are eyes, aren’t they?”

“They are indeed,” said Kiernan. Leo was looking more and more unhappy, and he drained the last of his champagne. Agnes assumed he was disappointed the conversation was not revolving around him. “This is a mertag, a sea creature that travels the currents around the Pelagan islands. We caught this one just off the coast of—”

“He was a slippery little bugger,” Xavier said, interrupting. “Very hard to catch.”

“And I assume you won’t tell us what he does either?” Elizabeth asked.

Xavier winked. “Smart girl.”

Leo shifted in his seat as a footman came over to refill his glass, and Agnes wondered if he was thinking what she was—these photographs should have been shown at a private family dinner. It felt as if Marianne and Elizabeth were stealing her and Leo’s lines.

“And these creatures will feature in the new show?”

“They will,” Xavier confirmed. “They will do that and more.” He gave Kiernan a significant look. “But we are still searching. We have heard of sprites that live in the grasses of the Knottle Plains. There will be an expedition shortly to see if they can be found.”

Agnes was surprised to see the color drain from Kiernan’s face, and his hand curled tightly around his glass.

“What do they look like?” Marianne asked.

“Now, now,” Kiernan said before Xavier could respond. “We don’t want to reveal too much.”

A look passed between them that Agnes did not understand. But then her father’s face relaxed.

“Too true, my friend, too true. Ladies, suffice it to say that this show will be unlike anything seen in Kaolin or Pelago before. And it will be for one night only—one night of magic and mystery that I promise you will not want to miss.”

“Father,” Leo burst out, the champagne giving his voice a passionate ring. “I wish to go on this mission. I will help find these sprites and bring them back to you, I swear it. Give me this opportunity and I promise I will not let you down.”

Xavier McLellan’s impressive eyebrows rose about an inch up his forehead. Agnes felt that Leo’s fate was balanced precariously as if on the edge of a knife. He whined about wanting to take over the business all the time, but offering to actively search for some creatures in the Knottle Plains was new for him. Agnes couldn’t decide whether she was annoyed or impressed.

Everyone at the table was watching Xavier and Leo—even Marianne seemed to understand that something important was happening.

“Very well,” Xavier finally said, giving his son a curt nod and holding out his glass for Swansea to refill. Then he smirked. “Perhaps you’ve got more of me than your mother in you after all.”

It was like a punch in Agnes’s gut. She was far better suited than Leo to join this expedition to the Knottle Plains. She had knowledge of medicine, anatomy, science. She could study the plant life, or search for footprints, or . . . anything. She was smart and capable, more than her stupid brother with his sycophantic smile.

Elizabeth and Marianne seemed to think Leo’s outburst quite bold, and they gushed excitedly about the upcoming production while Kiernan and Xavier indulged them with smiles. And Agnes kept silent, staring at the cut of tuna on her plate and fuming.





9

Leo

DINNER HADN’T GONE QUITE THE WAY HE’D HOPED, LEO had to admit.

He sat in an armchair in the drawing room, sipping an espresso and straining to hear any conversation that might make it through the door of his father’s study. Xavier and Kiernan had been holed up in there for nearly an hour now, since dinner ended and Marianne and Elizabeth had said their good nights. Agnes had long gone off to bed, but Leo stayed up, hoping to catch a private moment with his father.