Satan root. The poison they slipped in my tea in the dining hall.Ha!
“What was the twist?”
He buttons the coat around Ruth, pats her on the head, then turns to face me.
“Must I share all of my tricks with you?”
I gesture my hands back at the house. “Yes, you must.”
“Red piper dust. Sprinkled in the champagne, but once it hits stomach acid, it produces a vibrant red concoction.”
The blood. It wasn’t blood, after all. He tricked them.
“So, they only think they’re dying…” I say.Wow, he really thought this through.
“For about as long as you thought you were dying,” he adds.
I stare at him, stupidly,happily.
“You—work at Emerald Lake Asylum—too?” Ruth chirps up behind us, most likely sensing the tension dissipating.
Dessin grins, crossing his arms over his chest. “I suppose you can say that.”
“He’s a patient.” I roll my eyes, correcting her. “He’s in the thirteenth room in the intricate section.”
As expected, her eyes expand, bouncing back and forth between Dessin and me. She’s heard of him, maybe from her parents or maybe from boutique gossip.
“But you can’t talk about what happened tonight,” I warn. Not because I think anyone will believe her. The other conformists won’t even breathe a word of it.
Ruth huffs, tightening the coat around her. “Why did he do all of that?”
“They haven’t exactly made my time at the asylum pleasant. They’ve poisoned me and forced me to endure a treatment locked in a tin coffin. Dessin was only ensuring they left me alone.” I shrug. I hope this doesn’t chase her away.
She’s unmoving, watching the house and the indigo sky clumped with violet clouds in its backdrop. Then, she laughs quietly, as if someone whispered a joke in her ear.
“I think it worked.” She looks back at us with a shy, pink-lipped smile. “He gave a convincing performance. Bravo, sir.”
Dessin bows his head at her. And I want to hug him, tell him thank you, tell him I wouldn’t have lasted another week with how they treated me. But that would be a lie. I would have stayed. Endured. Taken on more poison. I meant what I said to Judas.
I won’t leave him.
“About what Ash said before…” I prompt Dessin with the utmost sense of caution.
“What about it?” He blinks slowly.
“Well, wha—what do you think about what he said?”Err, how do I ask?He nearly lost his temper when Ash said it.He said you were in love with me.
He looks away, as if remembering Ash’s exact words, then those dark eyes slide back to mine. They swallow me whole with a silent message I can’t decipher. But this look is pure heat and untamed hunger. A trill of excitement reverberates down my spine, and my heart pelts a percussion against my ribs.
“I do not wish to go home tonight,” Ruth interrupts, stepping back into our circle. The spell is broken. “I can’t lie to my parents. They’ll know I’m shaken up about something.”
I don’t hesitate. “You’ll come home with me.” I lock my arm to hers and pull her to my side. “It’s the least I can do.”
Dessin walks with us for about twenty minutes, ending the night at my front doorstep by stating that he won’t be returning Aurick’s tuxedo. Adding that his muscles stretched it out, and it would never fit Aurick’s corpse-like body again.
And as he disappears into the midnight horizon, on a lonely walk back to his cage, I want to chase after him. Wrap my arms around his neck and thank him for the bit of life he’s jolted back into my body.
~
