Page 55 of The Thirteenth Child
I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to think Merrick would be behind something so dastardly.
But I also couldn’t find it in me to say he wouldn’t….
Kieron’s eyes flickered open and he tried to focus. “Where are we today, Hazel?”
I swallowed. “We’re at home.”
“Today Hazel home,” he repeated, struggling to sit up. “Today Hazel’s home. No. I need today Hazel my home…” His words were like apples left past harvest, wormy and softened to mush.
“It’s all right. You’re safe here. You were hurt, but I’ll take care of you, I promise.”
“Today Hazel promise,” he repeated dully. “Prom…ise…prom…”
His eyes rolled back into his head as his body began to shudder, to shake. His muscles rippled beneath my fingertips as he bucked against me, and I fumbled for something to put in his mouth to keep him from biting off his own tongue.
After a moment, the seizure passed. His eyes fell open, gazing about the room, and when they found mine, he broke into a sloppy smile. “Not right today Hazel. Not…true.” He blinked, struggling to find the right words in his addled mind. “Not right Hazel today. Today Hazel. Hazel.”
I squeezed his arms. “Just rest now, Kieron. Rest.”
I plucked the drill from its bath. The spiked bit gleamed inside the cylindrical blade, a gruesome flower ready for blood.
“Not right today Hazel,” Kieron repeated behind me, pawing at my skirts, the pitch of his voice rising with panic. Was he trying to tell me he knew what I was about to do? Did some part of him know he was meant to die? Would he try to stop me?
The drill fell from my hands to the floor and I cursed. I’d need to clean it again and there was no time, there wasn’t time, there wasn’t—
“Not today Hazel,” he insisted. A wounded noise of frustration escaped him. “I take care of today Hazel.” His fingers shook as they wrapped around mine, tightening as if he was trying to impart the message his tongue could not convey.
With a final burst of strength, he pulled me down to him, kissing me with all the fervor I’d imagined for our wedding day.
But like everything about this afternoon, it was off.
The moment his fingers knotted through mine, I wanted to recoil. His soft lips had turned to bone, cold and unyielding. The ridge beneath his nose cavity pressed in painfully. Bared teeth clattered against my own.
“I…love today Hazel. Hazel. All…all…always.”
Kieron’s eyes rolled backward as he fell into unconsciousness, and I was ashamed to feel happy he’d slipped under. It would be easier to get through this without him breaking my heart each time he spoke, flailing and jostling the surgical table as I tried to work. It was for the best.
“I will see you soon,” I promised his still form, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead.
And then I picked up the razor.
The surgery itself didn’t take long.
When it was finished, a circlet of small holes had been drilled into the skull, revealing glimpses of slick white brain tissue. Before I bandaged the area with cotton gauze, I inspected the clean edges of my work.
My insides struggled between pride and utter revulsion.
Had it worked? Was it enough to break the deathshead and save him? A long moment of cowardice ticked by. I could not bring myself to check.
I was tying off the ends of the bandages when I sensed the change of pressure in the air and knew Merrick had come.
I turned with a smile but immediately stopped short.
Tangible waves of fury radiated off him. Still, I faltered forward, playing innocent.
“I did it,” I said, pushing back a lock of hair. “My first trepanning. Do you want to see the holes? None of the skull splintered off at all—and on my first attempt! It was—”
“You stupid, stupid girl.” He strode forward, peering down at the supine form spread across the table. “What were you thinking?”
