Ta-ta! And remember, darlings: A fool thinks himself to be a wise man, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. Kiss kiss!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Pax’s eyes widen, dark and deep, and I almost fall in. “This is it! This is how we destroy him. This is the soiree in Nirav’s painting.”
Stella, girl, this is a dangerous path.
Think HARD before you proceed. We cannot support revenge.
You will be abandoned.
I ignore this. I’ve begged Spirit to leave me be. And that is now their threat? I can’t help myself: I grin at Pax’s zeal. “Yes.”
Pax paces the empty space. His steps leave footprints in the dust, like in sand or snow. It feels ominous somehow, this evidence of his existence, as we discuss revenge.
Pax is roiling, his desire practically like a pot on boil. “The Hope Diamond. It’s almost too perfect. A scandal involving that gem will ruin his reputation. If we can steal that diamond, it will destroy his social standing, once and for all.”
“Is it enough, though?” I ask. “Is destroying him socially enough?” Oh, is it easy to be swept into a wave of revenge. How quickly I could drown in wanting more.
Pax licks his full, pink lips. “Yes. Yes, it is. He’s hanging by a thread on the New York social scene. His reputation will not survive this.” He leans in the doorway, fists in pockets, and cocks an eyebrow at me. “We’ll be a merry band of bandits, Stella!”
I do find that catchy. It seems rather unimportant to me,social standing, but Pax seems to think it’s a powerful way to seek vengeance. I look to tiny Nirav, drawing pictures of koi fish in the dust with his fingertip. “A merry band of bandits,” I repeat. “Just us? Three people, stealing the world’s most famous diamond?”
“No,” Pax says. “We’ll definitely need others.” He turns his mischievous grin on Nirav. “And I’d say we’re closer to two and a half people.”
Nirav stops drawing, crosses the room, and stomps on Pax’s toes.
Pax pretends to be gravely injured, hopping about on one foot. His playfulness with Nirav must be how he interacted with his sister Julia. It’s so pure and lighthearted. It’s information I’m both glad to know and wish I didn’t. “Tame your pet, would you?” Pax teases. Nirav laughs silently, which warms me.
“Absolutely not,” I say.
Nirav grins at Pax and nods once. He returns to drawing in dust.
“Who’s going to help us?” I ask. “I know no one in this city. Or at least, no one I can ask to assist us in a felony.”
“I know lots of folks in this city, and every one of them would assist us in a felony,” Pax says, then pauses. “But that’s a life I’m trying to escape.”
I respect that.
Pax stops pacing and reaches inside his jacket pocket.
“The list,” he says, unfolding a small, yellow piece of paper and smoothing it across the countertop. It’s a telegram. I don’t get a good glimpse at it, but it appears to have five or six names there, total. He taps it twice. “This is the list of psychics and mediums that Stead developed. He sent it before he departedLondon. And Clarice DuBois is on this list. I’ve already tried to recruit her for the Bureau, but she, well. She laughed in my face.”
Heavens, I wish I’d seen that. “She’s rather successful.”
“She’s rather infuriating.”
“Infuriating. I like her already.”
“No, you don’t,” Pax says, and there’s a tinge to his voice that lets me know: Clarice DuBois did not give Pax what he wants, and Pax Princip is very used to getting what he wants.
Am I playing right into that?
I glance at the telegram again. Pax picks it up off the countertop and holds it like it’s a key that unlocks something big, something important. “Thisis the talent William Stead wanted for Julia’s Bureau. We’ll recruitthem.”
He is so excited about this idea, but it makes my stomach clench. Stead warned us not to do this.Specificallythis.
Spirit bombards me with a barrage of messages: a snake, coiled tight, hissing and rattling its tail. A dog, snarling, drooling, growling. Alarm bells like those on a firehouse, clanging loudly. Smoke.
