“I figured out the ring. You had it all wrong. All three rings are real. They’re bands that fit together like a puzzle to make one ring. And I’ve got one of the bands. Look.” I retrieved the iron ring box from my coat pocket. It wouldn’t fit through the bars, but I could tell by my father’s shocked expression that he knew exactly what it was.
“Where the devil did you get that? Was it those twins? How did you find them?” He shook his head. “You know what? Never mind. Put that damned ring away and just get me the hell out of here before that monster comes back.”
I shoved the iron box back into my coat pocket. “Where is he now?”
“Don’t know. Need to quit yapping and hurry. Find something to pry open the lock.”
Right. The lock. I wished Huck were here to pick it. “Can’t you break it open with one of those rocks over there?”
“Tried that. They just break up into pieces. Is that flashlight solid?”
It was metal and weighed a ton. “Pretty solid,” I told him.
“Could work. Let me see it—I think it’ll fit. So close...”
I stilled. “Do you hear something?”
“Just rats,” he said after listening. “One tried to bite my hand earlier. Probably carrying the damn plague.”
No, it wasn’t rats. It was more like... music.
He wasn’t interested. “We’ll worry about it later. Here, empress. Try it through these two bars on the door over here. They’re farther apart, I think.”
I did my best to ignore the niggling sound while trying the bars he suggested. They were far enough apart. But it didn’t matter. The moment I slipped the flashlight into his waiting fingers, the barred cell door creaked and swung inward.
“What the...?”
“It’s open!” I said, joy rushing through me. I pushed it further while he moved out of the way.
“That’s impossible,” he said, squinting at the door. “I’ve been beating on it for hours.”
“Don’t kick a gift horse.”
He started to argue with me. But before he could get a word out, he dropped the flashlight and jerked me toward him, into the cell. As he backed up, he shouted over my head, “You stay away from my daughter, you sick bastard!”
I twisted out of his grip and swung around, heart racing. A bearded man in a black suit stepped into the candlelight. And as he did, the music grew louder.
THUMP-THUMP.
THUMP-THUMP.
The bone ring!
In two quick movements, he strode to the cell and grabbed the door to swing it shut. And as he turned a key, locking me in with Father, my eyes went straight to the man’s hand: Two ivory bands were linked together on his forefinger. The only band that was missing was the one that fit in the middle.
The one inside my coat pocket.
THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP.
My vision swam. I gripped my father’s arm to stay upright.
“Miss Fox,” the man said with no emotion through the bars of the locked cell. “I see you received my message.”
“Hello, Mr. Sarkany,” I gritted out over the thumping noise.
“Sarkany?” my father growled. “This is George Rothwild.”
25
