“But now. They’re going to die now?”
He paused, choosing his response with care. “Soon.”
“Then why did you bring me here? If I can’t treat them, if I can’t do anything to save them, then why—”
“Youcansave them,” Merrick interrupted. “You’re heretosavethem.”
“But you just said—”
“Hazel,” he interrupted. “There’s more than one way to save alife.”
I stared with bewildered confusion. He was speaking in circles, saying they were going to die but only a breath later telling me I was meant to save them. If I was going to save them, then they wouldn’t die. If I was going to save them—
My breath caught as understanding detonated in my chest, as cruel as the skulls covering my parents’ faces.
“No.”
I think I spoke it out loud.
I knew my soul was screaming it.
“I’m not…I can’t…You can’t expect me to…” The words would not come. “I won’t,” I finally said, folding my arms over my chest to firmly dismiss the notion.
Merrick’s silvery eyes drifted from me to the bed. “They’re suffering,” he reminded me needlessly.
“So I will help ease their pain,” I said, searching through the valise. I rummaged through it, pulling out vials and sachets. “I can grind some—”
“It doesn’t matter what you do,” Merrick interrupted. “You’ll only be prolonging their misery. There is no relief for them. Theirpain will increase, they’ll beg you to free them.” His face darkened. “And before they do, they will infect others.”
“Others?” I echoed, glancing around the abandoned cabin. “Who?”
Merrick cocked his head toward the door, listening to something I couldn’t begin to hear. His eyes went distant, as if he were watching his words play out in real time. “Right now your oldest brother is making his way here. In his carriage is his new bride. They married in secret but want to tell your parents the happy news now. They plan to announce their marriage to her family in three days’ time at a large country dance, where there will be plenty of people, so her family won’t cause a scene. But Remy and his bride will have brought the sweats with them, caught from your parents. A hundred people at the dance will catch it. They’ll bring it home to their loved ones. They’ll spread it to more and more, and then—”
“You don’t know that!” I shouted, trying to stop his horrid litany. “You don’t know any of that!”
“You saw the deathshead,” he said gently.
“I sawa skull,” I corrected him. “There could be fluid building up in their brains, an infection of some sort. If I can relieve the pressure, then—”
“They’ll die no matter what you do, Hazel. It’s not a reflection on you or your talents, it’s a fact of mortal life. You’re a healer, a great one, but no one can ever truly escape me. I come for all. And very soon, I will come for them.”
Merrick’s words were said without malice, without anger. They were quiet and matter-of-fact.
They infuriated me.
“If you’re going to come for them, then why must I do anything?It sounds like all I need is to wait for you to do your job,” Isnapped. I was a cyclone of emotions burning too hot, fears running too cold.
“That’s true,” he admitted. “If you want them to suffer, go right ahead and wait. No one would blame you,” he added quickly. “Your relationship is decidedly…complicated. Do you want to watch them in pain? Do you want to see how low one can stoop before the end?”
My nose wrinkled in horror. “No.”
“Is it your brother, then? Do you want him to become ill? His bride? Her family? The minor nobles who will take it back to their estates, to their servants? They’ll pass the sweats through them like money changing hands on market day. It might even travel as far as Châtellerault, can you imagine?”
“No!” I shouted, covering my ears to block out his wicked scenario.
He tipped his long fingers in a gallant sweep toward my bag. “Then perform your charge well,Docteur.Save them, end them. I’m certain your studies on poisonous plants will be most useful, wouldn’t you agree?”
“I’m not poisoning them!” I protested.
