Nelly’s voice dropped to a sharp hiss. “Lord Blackthorn is still awake! He knows she’s missing!”
I blinked hard, my pulse thundering in my ears. Realization settled over me in a wash of pure terror.
Poe’s voice echoed in my mind. The way he’d reacted to the story of William Wilson and his doppelgänger… all along he’d been trying to warn me.
Two shadows. One bone.
Sylum had a twin.
Every strange, unexplainable moment, every contradiction—Sylum in two places at once. The whispers. The man in the garden with Lydia… no perhaps not Lydia after all.
I looked at Nelly. My sweet, timid Nelly. The only one I’d trusted. But she didn’t look timid now. Her face was calculating and cold. I studied her closely, frowning behind Julien’s hand.
Her hair was brown. A mousy color, that was too dull to even catch light. The woman I had seen so many times had strands of gold that shimmered softly…
Confusion coiled around my stomach and I felt like I was going to be sick.
Was there someone else? Had Lydia been helping them? To what end?
Julien’s voice cut through my thoughts, wild and unsteady. “I had to,” he snarled. “She found the passageways.”
He jerked me closer, his breath ragged. “Stop talking!” he hissed, though his eyes weren’t on me or Nelly, but somewhere beyond, as if arguing with unseen ghosts.
“There’s no one there,” Nelly groaned, her tone flat, almost bored. “You really are mad.”
Julien turned on her, his voice cracking. “Shut up! Shut up!”
He squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head violently, muttering to himself.
Nelly sighed, the sound weary and annoyed. Her slippers tapped softly against the floor as she moved closer. “I swear I have to do everything,” she muttered. “All this work, and you nearly ruin it.”
She pulled something from her apron pocket—a small amber vial.
My stomach turned.
Laudanum perhaps, or something worse.
She uncorked it with a practiced flick. “Hold her still.”
Julien hesitated, but obeyed. His hand shifted from my mouth to my jaw, pinching cruelly until my lips parted.
“No!”
The word barely escaped before Nelly tipped the vial, forcing the bitter liquid down my throat. It burned like poison.
I coughed, sputtered, tried to spit it out, but Julien’s hand clamped back over my mouth. I thrashed, kicking and twisting, but his grip was iron.
Pushing with everything I had left, I slammed my elbow into his ribs. He grunted, staggering just enough for me to shove Nelly.
She stumbled back, her feet tangling as she tried to regain her balance. The collision knocked her cap askew.
A lock of golden hair fell loose.
For a single heartbeat, everything froze.
Nelly had blonde hair…
She glared at me, then calmly, lifted the edge of her wig and tucked the strand back into place.
