Page 163 of House of Roots and Ruin
“You knew all of the things he wanted to do to me, andyou still brought me here,” I accused, my stomach sloshing. A wave of anger trembled through me. “How could you do that?”
Dauphine’s lips rose in a painful smile. “Because I knewthat nothing would come of it. Alexander’s injury…I knew he wouldn’t be able to have children.” She nodded earnestly and I couldn’t tell if she meant to reassure me or herself. “And even if he could, he’s nothing like—”
She stopped, catching herself just in time.
“Like Julien,” I supplied. “Like Viktor.”
Dauphine took in a sharp breath. “How do you know about them?” She frowned. “Gerard’s diary. You found Gerard’s diary?”
“I’ve met them.”
Her eyes grew large. “Where?”
“At the house…in the secret passages. They…they’re at Chauntilalie.”
The glass fell from her grasp, shattering on the table.
“That’s not possible. No.” Her denial was hushed, a plea for contradiction.
I nodded. “They’ve been there for weeks.”
Dauphine closed her eyes, her breath shaking, as the serving girl came back into the room.
“I thought I heard…Oh, oh, let me clean that up,” she said, crossing to the table, hands fluttering.
“Leave us,” Dauphine instructed.
“It won’t be a moment,” the barmaid said, picking up the biggest pieces of glass. “I’ll just—”
“Leave. Now!” The order came barking out of her throat and the serving girl jumped. All of the pieces she’d gathered scattered across the floor as she scurried away.
Dauphine’s eyes opened. “We need to get back to Chauntilalie. Alexander is in terrible danger.”
“From them?”
She nodded.
“No,” I disagreed, even as I remembered Viktor smashing his smoldering hands on the bench. “They’re not…They’re angry, yes, but they’re not dangerous. They want to put a stop to everything, to hold Gerard accountable.” I brightened, relief easing the ache along my sternum. “You can help us. You can explain what he’s done to the authorities. You can verify everything.”
“And admit what I’ve done? Admit what I allowed him to do? To those girls—to me?” She shook her head. “No, Verity. No.” She grabbed the bottle and took a long swig directly from it.
“Whydidyou let him?” I asked quietly. “You must have known all those medicines, all those shots…they weren’t normal.”
Dauphine hummed in agreement. Her skin, normally so lustrous, had a slightly green pallor to it and her eyes were vague and unfocused. “I knew,” she confirmed. “I knew everything he was doing and I let him.” She swallowed back a cry. “I let him because I was a stupid, young girl and I believed in him. I believed in everything he was doing, everything he sought to achieve.” She let out a short laugh. “I was so, so stupid.”
“But whatishe trying to do? We found some of his papers. We know he wants to talk to the gods, but why?”
She stared at me, a look of disgust crossing her face. “He’s not trying to talk to the gods, Verity. He’s trying tocreateone.”
My stomach lurched, remembering the babies in the jars. The gills. The horns. “That’s impossible.”
“Not for Gerard. Not with all those golden women. He just needed to find the right combination.” She looked at me meaningfully.
A shudder ran through me and I finished off the last of myglass, wanting to slip into the wine’s hazy embrace and let it dull everything into muted shades of apathy.
This was all so much bigger than I feared. Bigger than I could handle.
I wanted to get back to Chauntilalie.
