Susan Dennard - A Darkness Strange and Lovely

I know I wasn’t.

He ran his thumbs along my cheeks, down my jaw, over my lips. And his eyes seemed to scour every inch of me. Then, ever so slowly, Daniel Sheridan lowered his head and grazed his lips over mine.

And I felt as if my heart might explode.

Yet despite that—despite the fragile perfection of his touch—it wasn’t enough for me. It could never be enough. He smelled of sweat and blood and gunpowder. Of caves and torchlight and everything we had been through.

I loved him, and I would not let him walk away—not this time. So before he could draw back or change his mind, I pushed forward and kissed him again. Hard.

A low groan broke from his mouth, and now I knew my heart exploded. My brain, my skin, my lips —everything burned with feverish need.

His hands dropped to my waist, pulling my whole body to his. And now he kissed me, determined at first and then almost desperate. No matter how many times we pressed our lips together, it was not enough.

Then came the nip of teeth, a flick of tongue, and my knees turned to jelly. I almost fell backward.

But he would never let me fall. He crushed me to him, his body hot through his clothes—hot through my clothes. Then he guided me backward and pressed me to the door.

And all I could think—all I could feel—was that I needed more. More of him, more of Daniel.

His stubble scratched my face raw. I did not care. I was too lost in the feel of his lips, of his tongue . . . of any feeling that proved we were alive.

His lips left mine, but before I could beg him to stay, his mouth was tracing along my neck, biting and possessive, and now it was my turn to groan. I could barely breathe, my heart hammered too hard against my lungs, and I certainly could not see straight.

But the moment couldn’t last forever. Always, the real world had to interfere.

A weak voice called out. “Daniel? Eleanor?”

Daniel and I paused. Our hearts drummed and our breathing rasped—so loudly, I almost thought I had imagined that voice.

But the voice called again. “Daniel?” It was Joseph, and at that realization, Daniel and I staggered apart.

“Is all well?” Joseph called.

“Yes,” Daniel croaked, scrubbing a hand over his face. He blinked quickly, as if trying to grab a hold of who he was, where we were, and what had just happened. . . . He looked as completely lost as I felt.

“We’re . . . we’re coming,” he said, his head swinging toward the sitting room.

“Just a moment,” I chimed, forcing my legs to walk, to step away from Daniel. I knew that now was not the time for love, but that did not change how much my body wanted it to be the time. Did not change how much my pulse pounded in my stomach, painful and confused . . . and unfulfilled.

“Wait.” Daniel reached for me.

“No.” I slipped away from him, and a bitter laugh broke through my lips. It never seemed to be the time for Daniel and me.

I glanced back at him. “Joseph needs us, remember? He’s hurt. Badly.” Without another look, I marched away from the door, away from Daniel, and away from everything we had just shared.

While Daniel tended Joseph’s wound, I wandered through Madame Marineaux’s sitting room, skirting the Marquis’s curtain-covered body. The memory from before tickled at my brain. It had to do with the cane. With something I was supposed to do . . .

Then my eyes landed on it. The low shelf from Madame Marineaux’s vision—and the Oriental fan on it. There was something glowing behind the flowered folds.

My breath hitched, and I dropped to the floor, sliding the fan aside to reveal the ivory fist. Now uncovered, the clenched fingers glowed as brightly as a magical well in my chest—and the artifact was mine. I could finally have it. Clearly Madame Marineaux wanted me to take it, for she had shown me where it was.

Ever so gently, I grasped it with both of my hands and held it up.

“What have you found?” Joseph rasped.

I flinched, my fingers closing around the ivory as fast as possible. “N-nothing,” I stammered, stuffing it into my pocket. I stood. “It’s just . . .” My gaze lit on a different shelf—a shelf with hair clasps—and something Madame Marineaux had said flittered through my mind.

We can get your friend, the Chinese girl, back from him.

“Daniel,” I said slowly, “when you followed that lead on Jie—to the train station—why did you think the trail had gone cold?”

“Because people saw a Chinese boy there with a young man. They both boarded a train.” He walked to me—though I couldn’t help but notice he stopped three feet away. The air between us practically shimmered.

I gulped, and he rammed his hands into his pockets. “I don’t think,” he said gruffly, “that Jie would willingly get on the train if she’d been kidnapped.”

“No, but she would if she was compelled.” I held the hair clasp out to him. “Madame Marineaux said she could put her venom on anything—compel anyone to do as she wished.”

Daniel pulled back from the clasp—or perhaps he was pulling back from my hand. He nodded.

“Yeah, I reckon it’s possible she was under a spell, but then where was Jie going? And who was she with?”

“Marcus.” Joseph’s voice was barely above a whisper, yet the name seemed to roar through the room. “Jie was . . . with Marcus.”

The clasp fell from my fingers. I whipped my gaze to Joseph. “Wh-why would you say that?”

His finger lifted wearily, and he pointed at the portraits above the fireplace. “That is Marcus’s mother.”

“Claire?” I gaped at him, horror rising in my chest. “Claire LeJeunes—”

“Claire Duval,” Joseph corrected. “And, trust me: I know what she looks like.”

I gripped the sides of my face. “I should have realized! Madame Marineaux showed me this portrait—she told me over and over how much I reminded her of Claire.”

“You could not have known,” Joseph murmured. He took a quick swig from Oliver’s flask and, wincing, said, “If anyone should have realized, it is I. The Marquis told me his sister lived in New

Orleans, yet the connection eluded me. I had no idea she was French aristocracy.”

“But . . .” Daniel wet his lips. “Didn’t Madame Marineaux say that Marcus killed his mother?”

“Yes.” My hand eased into my pocket, my fingers sliding around the ivory. Just touching it made me feel better. Stronger. I stood taller. “The Madame also said that Marcus tricked her into a binding agreement. And she also said Marcus was going to Marseille.”

“And if Jie was with Marcus at the train station,” Joseph said, “then she is also bound for

Marseille.”

“But what’s there?” Daniel asked.

“The answer to the Black Pullet.” I closed my eyes, my fingers clenching the ivory even more tightly. “Marcus found my letters from Elijah, and he must have solved the riddles within. He must have seen something in them that I did not.” In a flat voice, I told them what happened with the burned letters and the Jack-and-the-beanstalk riddle. “There’s a crypt in Notre-Dame de la Garde, and something important must be in there. That’s why Marcus is going to Marseille, and it means . . .”

Joseph sat taller. “It means we must also go to Marseille.”

“Unless it’s a trap.” Daniel tugged at his hair, a grimace on his face. “Why keep Jie alive unless it’s to lure us down there?”

“Perhaps you are right.” Joseph’s fingers went absentmindedly to his wound.

Daniel snatched Joseph’s wrist. “Don’t.”

Joseph blinked. His hand lowered, and he quickly tossed back another swig from the flask. Then he drew back his shoulders. “But, trap or not, I will not leave Jie in that monster’s hands. We go to

Marseille.”

“I . . .” I bit my lip. “I want to save Jie too, but if Marcus left yesterday, then he’s a whole day ahead of us. He also knows what was in Elijah’s letters. He knows where to go. He’ll be ready and waiting long before we can even get train tickets.”

“No,” Daniel said. He stepped to Joseph’s side. “You forget: I have an airship. It’s faster than any train. We can be in Marseille in a few hours. Then we could trap him.”

Desire blossomed in my chest. Desire and something darker—something violent. I was ready to go after Marcus. No more waiting, no more looking for clues or answers. I was ready to face him now and to make him pay.

Make him pay for wearing Elijah’s corpse. For hurting Joseph. For taking Jie and killing, killing, killing so many innocent people. For killing his own mother and entrapping Madame Marineaux . . .

And for all the hell I had had to endure over the last three months. It was time for Marcus to pay.

As Daniel placed a hand behind Joseph and helped the Creole stand, I asked, “How long does your balloon take to prepare?” My words lashed out, overeager and hungry. I swallowed and forced myself to add, “To prepare it for flying, I mean.”

Daniel’s eyes flicked to mine, but he instantly looked away. “It can be ready to go in an hour.”

“Then let us go.” Joseph motioned to the door. “Hopefully your de—” He broke off. “Hopefully

Oliver has found a cab by now, for there is no time to waste.” He and Daniel shuffled past me toward the door.

I took two steps after them. “Joseph?”

He glanced back at me, his eyes dark and inscrutable. “Wi?”

“When you said ‘Let us go,’ did you mean . . . all of us?”

His lips twitched up ever so slightly, and he nodded once. “Yes, Eleanor. I meant all of us.”

I could not help it. I grinned.

Several hours later, with the sun almost risen and the sky a stunning blue, I found myself at the gates of the Tuileries Gardens. Daniel’s balloon drifted overhead, packed and waiting. Oliver was already on board, sulking . . . furious. Daniel was still in the lab, grabbing his final things, and the last

I had seen of Joseph, he had been beneath the hotel doctor’s none-too-gentle hands. I’d had just enough time to get cleaned up and don a fresh suit (awkwardly borrowed from Daniel) before the airship had arrived, ready to be loaded with the Spirit-Hunters’ equipment. I left letters for Allison and Laure, explaining everything and begging for their forgiveness. Whatever news Allison had would simply have to wait. If she had made it this far from Philadelphia, she could make it a bit longer.

The same went for Laure. I felt rotten for abandoning her. After the horrors of yesterday, she deserved better, but I could not— would not—risk Jie’s life waiting for both girls to arrive. Perhaps I would see them in Marseille.

And now it was time for me to go.