“I’ll take a look. Give me a minute headstart to gather my things and meet me in the lab.”
Grabbing his gladstone, the Vaseline, a wash cloth, a clean surgical kit, and a bowl of warm water, Oliver laid out everything on the bench. As he washed his hands, Felipe wandered into the lab in only his trousers and undershirt. Goosebumps rose over Felipe’s skin as he shivered and sank onto the metal stool. The lab and apartment were always cold this time of year, but huddled up with Felipe under their wedding quilt, it was far easier to ignore. Right now, Oliver wanted nothing more than to pull Felipe back into bed and help him unwind until the pensive furrow between his brows eased.After dinner, Oliver reminded himself as he returned to Felipe’s side. His partner started to scratch over the bandage but stopped when he found Oliver watching. A bandage change was definitely overdue.
With a handful of strategic cuts, Oliver carefully removed the gauze wrapped around Felipe’s arm and fingers. The burns on his bicep and shoulder had healed to shiny pink flesh that looked tender yet much closer to normal than it had been the day before. The skin on the lower half of his arm was still damaged but appeared far less angry than it had apart from a few severaldeeper wounds. If Oliver had seen them on anyone else, he would have been deeply concerned about how they would treat the wounds or even manage the patient’s pain. His hand, on the other hand, still looked awful, but at least he couldn’t see any naked bone peeking out now. Oliver shook his head. He never thought he would think that and wished he hadn’t. A few more days of rest and a steady stream of food, and his hand would heal. Dipping the washcloth into the bowl of water, Oliver rinsed Felipe’s wounds. His partner bit back a wince as he applied antiseptic to the deeper cuts and areas that still looked angry, but when Oliver squished petroleum jelly between Felipe’s fingers and down the length of his arm, his partner shuddered and bit back a laugh.
“What?”
“I was just thinking this must be how frogs feel,” he murmured under his breath.
“You arenota frog, Felipe. A slug, maybe. A horrible frog, no.”
Felipe smiled at Oliver’s disgusted look as he wiped the remaining goop from his hands. Oliver grabbed a clean roll of gauze, but right as he placed it against Felipe’s little finger, a heavy rap-rap-rap sounded on the lab’s outer door. Oliver and Felipe exchanged a concerned glance. It certainly wasn’t Gwen; she would have let herself in with a soft knock. The people from the kitchens sometimes knocked when they dropped off food, but they didn’t hammer the door like they were going to break it down. Felipe stood a step behind Oliver as he moved to get the door, but before they could even reach the stairs, the inner door rattled and swung open to reveal Head Inspector Williams. The man’s bushy brows were drawn into a deep scowl as his gaze ran disapprovingly over Oliver and then Felipe in his undershirt. His eyes snagged on the raw flesh of his mangled arm before turning to the empty autopsy table and mortuary cabinets with an air ofdisgust. Every time he ventured to the lab, he always looked as if he wanted to be anywhere else, but Oliver had never seen him look so bodeful. Each slow step was punctuated by the heavy thunk of his wooden leg. When he stopped and his attention landed squarely on Oliver, he fought the urge to shrink under the weight of his stare.
Felipe stepped closer until he flanked his partner. “How may we help you, Head Inspector Williams?”
“I would like to know where you get off ignoring repeated orders to come to my office. Are you too good to come upstairs now?” the head inspector said, never taking his eyes off Oliver.
“I— I haven’t ignored anything. I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’ve been out all day investigating the Enoch Whitley case,” Oliver replied. His heart pounded in his throat as he silently cursed himself for not opening the mail capsules that had stacked up. “We— we only got back twenty minutes ago.”
“I find that hard to believe. You were supposed to come see me when you were released from the infirmary, but I’m sure you’ll tell me Dr. Perkins didn’t pass that message on. Now, you ignore my orders asecondtime. I am not known for my patience, Barlow, and I do not take kindly to being ignored.”
Oliver and Felipe exchanged a tense glance. No one had told them the head inspector wanted to see them when they left the infirmary, and they hadn’t received a summons after. When the head inspector stepped close enough to loom over Oliver, any hope of talking out the misunderstanding was dashed. The water in the wash basin sloshed threateningly behind them, and Oliver swallowed down an apology and resisted the urge to step back. He racked his brain for anything he could have done wrong. The only thing they had done that might attract his ire was what happened at the charity bazaar. Oliver might have missed a few days of work because he hurt himself, but he hadn’t done anything truly wrong and neither had Felipe.
“But we didn’t receive any messages,” Oliver said, even as Felipe laid a hand on his arm to shut him up. “How could we have—?”
“Cut the bullshit, Barlow. Tell me what you did to Minerva Cutler,” the head inspector replied, his voice like ice.
“What do you mean? I didn’t do anything to her, except keep her alive until the healers came. Why? Has something else happened to her?”
“Don’t toy with me, and don’t make me ask you again. Everyone saw you do something. What did you do to her?”
Oliver’s heart thundered in his ears. All he did was try to keep Mrs. Cutler alive until help arrived. He hadn’t hurt anyone besides himself. Slowing down someone’s heart long-term could have lasting effects, but it was a risk he was willing to take when the alternative was Mrs. Cutler bleeding to death. No matter how he looked at it, he hadn’t done anything wrong, but when he stared into the head inspector’s face, he realized the anger in the other man’s features was overlaid with fear and revulsion. Cold clarity broke over Oliver like a plunge into icy waters. The head inspector knew he was a necromancer; he had been one of the people to hire him, and he realized what Oliver must have done to keep Mrs. Cutler alive. Oliver swallowed against the knot in his throat. There was no right answer. If he lied, the head inspector would know. If he told the truth, he would be even angrier.
“He did what he had to,” Felipe supplied.
“I didn’t ask you, Galvan.”
The head inspector moved as if he might grab Oliver, but Felipe surged between them. The air drew taut as a bowstring as Oliver and the head inspector eyed the barely concealed scalpel in Felipe’s hand at the same time.
“Touch him, and it’ll be the last thing you do.”
“If he doesn’t start talking, it’ll be the last thing he does in this building,” Head Inspector Williams snarled. “People are starting to ask questions about what you did, and I don’t like looking stupid and not having answers.”
Oliver’s entire body clenched with fear. His knees trembled and his teeth chattered, but he forced his body to lock. “You know what my powers are. If you know the answer, then why are you asking me?”
“Because last I checked, you’re a necromancer,” he spat. “If that woman is really dead or bedeviled, I need to know right now. What did you do to her?”
“I didn’tdoanything to her,” Oliver cried.
He wanted to press the heels of his hands into his eyes and cry, but Felipe’s hand on his side as he stepped back was enough to steady him. He hated how no one understood how his powers worked. How no one bothered to try to understand. They had all just assumed it was bad, that he was bad, no matter what they knew of him.
“If you’re trying to insinuate that I killed her, I did not. I did the opposite. I held onto her life until the healers could help her. The magic from the curse was ravaging her body, not me. Every heartbeat made her bleed, so I slowed her heart to nearly a stop until the healers could fix her blood vessels. Yes, I tethered her like I do the dead, but no, she isn’t a walking corpse or ‘bedeviled.’ But she is alive, which is the important part.”
The head inspector’s eyes widened. “What do you mean you tethered her like the dead? When we hired you, you told us you didn’t use your powers. You lied to us.”
“I was a doctor, then. I had no need for them.”
“Did you know about this, Galvan?”
