Everything changed.
Time held still. As if in slow motion, Laila saw Séverin take a deep breath, his breath pluming in the air, the silver fog of it suspended for one perfect moment of silence… and thensoundrushed in. From the eastern corner of the wall, the ice rhino crashed through the glass barrier. Shattered ice rained down, scattering across the floor. The rhino charged, a deep sound bellowing from its lungs. Out the corner of her eye, Laila watched as the other animals slowly came to life. A jaguar’s crystal fur rippled. It swung its head and pawed the ground.
The staircase had triggered life.
“Get back!” she called.
Séverin turned his head, but a small ball of ice launched at him from opposite the wall, splattering on his face and covering his mouth and nose in a cobweb of ice. He stumbled back, falling onto the stairs. Laila moved to run toward him, but the rhino blocked her way.
“Someone get him!” she called.
Zofia tossed her torch to Enrique and quickly threw an explosive net across the rhino.
“Ignite,” she willed.
Behind them, Hypnos dashed out into the hall, shouting for help.
The Forged net caught flame, and the rhino shrieked, exploding into a thousand shards of ice. Zofia and Laila ran to Séverin. They each grabbed one arm, hoisting him off the staircase. The moment he crossed the boundary, the ice animals once more fell still and silent. Laila pulled at the ice covering his mouth, but it was too slippery.
Laila grasped again, andagain, but the ice only burned her hand and stuck fast to his skin. Her breath turned jagged inside her. She risked a glance at Séverin and wished she hadn’t. His pupils were blown wide, the veins of his throat bulging as he threw off her hands and started to claw at his face. He was dying right before her eyes.
Zofia reached for a match, but Séverin clutched her wrist.
“You’ll burn him!” cried Laila.
“Disfigurement and death are not comparable options,” said Zofia fiercely.
Then, out the corner of Laila’s eyes, she caught a whip of red as a figure rushed toward them. Eva dropped to the floor beside them, breathless. Séverin’s head listed to one side. A blue sheencrept over his skin, and his eyelids started fluttering shut. A sob caught in Laila’s throat.
“I can save him,” said Eva, shoving Laila out of the way. “I’ve seen this kind of attack before.”
Eva grabbed Séverin’s face, then pressed her mouth over his. Her red hair fell over them both, and Séverin clung to her, his hands grabbing at her back. Immediately, the ice melted from Séverin’s mouth. He gasped for breath as Eva pulled away, his face still cradled in her hands. The sight sent a strange twist of acid through her stomach. She watched as Séverin blinked rapidly. Ice rimmed his eyelashes. His gaze pinned Eva as if he were a cursed prince and she alone had freed him.
PART III
From the archival records of the Order of Babelauthor unknown
1878, Amsterdam
Blood-Forging is a particularly vulgar art, fit only for the meanest of brothels. That it is not banned in every country is, I believe, an utter travesty.
16
LAILA
Laila crossed and uncrossed her ankles, fidgeting with the end of her dress. Nearly four hours had passed since Eva rescued Séverin. Since then, he had been holed up with her and a physician Ruslan had brought in from Irkutsk. No one was allowed to enter his chamber despite Laila’s protests. On the one hand, she wasn’t waiting alone… but she was the only one left awake.
After two hours, Hypnos had commandeered Enrique’s left shoulder as a pillow. After three, Zofia started to doze off, though she kept jerking her head back until Enrique—terrified she’d snap her neck—maneuvered his right shoulder into her pillow.
“Don’t worry, Laila,” Enrique had said, yawning. “There’s no way I’ll fall asleep like this. We’ll see him soon. I’m sure of it.”
That was twenty minutes ago.
Now he was lightly snoring.
Laila sighed and removed her blanket. Gently, she tucked it across the three of them and started clearing the papers on thetable filled with Enrique’s notes recounting what he’d seen, and Zofia’s diagrams of the hallway. Hypnos had also asked for paper, for what purpose Laila couldn’t fathom until she looked down and saw doodles of snowflakes and the animals from the ice menagerie.
Outside the window, the frozen lake gleamed sleek with new snow. Earlier, it had seemed so isolated. Now, activity buzzed around the palace. Armored Sphinxes stood, unmoving, around the perimeters. The familiar bloodred shimmer of Forged alarm nets stretched across the ice. Necessary precautions, Ruslan had explained, to keep them safe from the Fallen House members who had attacked them in Moscow.
