Mirror, page 16
This time.
Leroux would surely try again. Victor almost picked up the telephone to call Artemis back at the Cliftons' and demand that she come home, but he stopped himself. She would never forgive him if something happened to Phoebe because of it, and he would never forgive himself.
Feeling the beginnings of a severe headache coming on, he pinched the bridge of his nose. Was he ever going to shed this feeling of dread that seemed to permeate his every waking hour now?
There simply had to be more he could do. Something he could do. They’d lost track of Leroux, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t take action, if not to find him, then to at least prepare better defenses.
He would ask Miss Ashcroft to renew and enhance the wards around the house as he had intended, and possibly add some at the Cliftons’ if it could be done discreetly.
Yes, at least that was something. Feeling better with a purpose, he stood and left his study.
“I’m going out!” he called, hoping Mrs. Perry could hear him, and grabbed his hat and coat.
He yanked open the door and nearly bowled right into a young man standing on the others side, arm raised to ring the bell.
Victor’s expression soured at the sight of him, and he regarded him with narrowing eyes.
“Mr. Parker.”
The young man pulled off his hat and managed a nervous smile. “Doctor Schäfer.”
He waited for more, but the young man just stood there. Finally, Victor ground out an impatient. “Yes?”
That seemed to startle Parker from his thoughts. “Oh, right. I … um ….”
He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out an envelope. “I realize it’s last minute and all, but I wanted to invite Artemis and you, both of you, to a Guy Fawkes celebration that my father and Lord Melbourne are hosting. It’s nothing too elaborate, just a small party at Parliament.”
Tentatively, he held out the invitation.
A small party at Parliament?
Victor eyed it skeptically but accepted it.
“Very kind of you,” he managed, putting the envelope into his own pocket, unopened.
Parker smiled nervously, fidgeting a bit.
“Was there something else?” Victor asked as the boy lingered on the doorstep.
He swallowed hard, and Victor tried not to enjoy his discomfiture too openly.
“Y-yes, actually. There is.”
Victor waited again, now with growing impatience.
“I …” Parker licked his lips and swallowed again before clearing his throat and straightening his shoulders. “Perhaps we can discuss it inside?”
That is rather forward. “I’m not sure now is the—”
“I’d like to court your daughter. Artemis,” Parker clarified, as if it were needed.
His impatience hardened into something else. Something unpleasant. “Would you?”
“Yes, sir.”
Victor stared at him for a long moment, torn between shock and anger.
“I see,” he said, coolly. “Perhaps you should come in.”
Parker flashed a relieved smile and stepped in as Victor moved aside.
Victor put his hat and coat aside and gestured toward his office. Down the hall, Mrs. Perry had come out to see who he was talking to and eyed the boy curiously.
“Mr. Parker and I are not to be disturbed,” he told her.
At the mention of the name, the penny dropped, and her mouth rounded into a surprised “O.” Then she pursed her lips in silent solidarity and nodded once firmly.
Not that he required it, but he was pleased to have her on his side in this. Not that he expected anything else.
Victor joined Parker, who stood unsurely in the middle of the room.
“Sit,” he said, gesturing to a chair.
Parker sat down anxiously and waited for Victor to speak. Now that it was his turn to hold the moment, Victor did so with relish. As deeply shocked as he was at the temerity of the boy, he was glad of this. It would make things so much easier in the long run. He’d been struggling with how to sever ties between the boy and Artemis, and now Parker had presented the opportunity on a silver platter. He owed the boy a debt, actually.
With that pleasant thought he perched himself on the edge of his desk and looked down at the young man.
“I’ve heard a great many good things about you, Mr. Parker,” he began, earning a relieved and grateful nod from the boy.
“You’re bright, graduated university early, as I understand. You come from a good family. You have much to recommend you.”
The boy was obviously overjoyed at the unexpected kind words. “Thank you, sir.”
“You are, by all accounts, an upstanding young man.”
Feeling good about himself, the boy began to relax slightly.
Victor crossed his arms over his chest. “But I have to wonder if you’ve perhaps lost your mind.”
Parker laughed unsurely. “Sir?”
“Or perhaps you think I have.”
Worry tinged the edges of Parker’s eyes now.
Good. Ever since he’d seen Artemis in the boy’s arms at the horse races, he’d wanted to have a moment alone with him to make things clear between them. Now that he had that chance he was going to enjoy it.
“My daughter is just now sixteen years old. Far too young to be courted. Or do you make a habit of chasing after children?”
Indignation colored Parker’s cheeks as he rose out of his chair.
Victor stood as he did and fixed him with a stony expression. “Sit down, Mr. Parker.”
Upset at the turn things had taken when he’d clearly thought they were going so well, the young man was off-balance and did as Victor asked.
“You see, I want us to be honest with one another. Man to man,” Victor said. “My daughter is still a child.”
“She’s not—”
Anger flared in Victor’s chest and he silenced the coming protest with a quelling glare.
“She is a child,” he repeated, more firmly. “Far too young for such things. Additionally, on not one but several occasions, I have found your attentions toward her to be more than they should.”
Parker opened his mouth to protest again, but at least had the good sense not to do so.
“As a gentleman, they are offensive. As a father, they are unacceptable.”
“Those … moments were not as they appeared,” Parker replied.
Of course he would say that, but a niggling voice in the back of Victor’s mind knew they could not have been as horrid as they seemed. Artemis was no fool and would not stand for someone treating her disrespectfully. However, she was still just a girl, and infatuation made people do things they should not.
“I have only respect and admiration for your daughter.”
He sounded sincere, and perhaps he was, but it made no difference in the end.
“Be that as it may. Artemis is simply too young. There will be no courtship, official or otherwise,” he added meaningfully, “until she is of age.”
Parker looked stricken.
“I do not want to find you alone with her again under any circumstances. If I do, I will be quite put out.”
The boy had the sense to nod.
“I hope you’ll show the good sense others seem to think you possess and not try me on this matter. My daughter means everything to me and I will not hesitate to do what is necessary to protect her.”
Parker’s jaw set but he did not speak. Despite that, Victor could sense mild antagonism in his posture.
“I hope I’ve made myself clear,” he added. “It would be unfortunate for there to be another misunderstanding.”
Parker’s eyes met his, and for a moment Victor thought he saw a challenge in them, but then the boy merely inclined his head in assent. “Yes, sir.”
“Good,” he said and held out his hand. Parker took it and Victor held it briefly. “I’m glad we’ve reached an understanding. Man to man, as it were.”
Parker was visibly displeased with the outcome of the conversation, but Victor didn’t care as long as he stayed away from his daughter. The man’s emotional distress was not his concern. His one and only concern was for his daughter. And that seemed better assured now, at least on this front.
“Thank you for your time, sir,” Parker said before showing himself out.
Victor watched him go, feeling a sense of satisfaction that he was still capable of protecting his daughter in at least one way.
He took the invitation Parker had given him out of his pocket and tossed it onto his desk.
Mrs. Perry rapped on the door and poked her head in.
“Over already?” she asked, making a show of looking at the floor. “No blood?”
Victor snorted.
“Artemis is fond of him; I hope you weren’t too hard on him.”
“All the more reason to be. The sooner she forgets him the better.”
Mrs. Perry didn’t seem convinced, and that was curious. He’d told her all he’d known about the boy and the instances he’d run across him with Artemis. She’d agreed with him wholeheartedly that the situations were untenable and that Artemis was too young to even consider such things. But now it seemed as though she thought he’d done something wrong.
“I thought you were on my side in this,” he said. “Surely, you can’t think—”
“Oh, no, you did the right thing. The only thing you could. But,” she added, “that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.”
He knew Artemis would be upset, but she would get over it. Besides, they had far more important things to worry about than Liam Parker.
“A small pain to save a greater one down the line,” he said.
Mrs. Perry hmm’d thoughtfully in reply. “Let us hope so.”
Artemis woke with a groan. Her eyes slowly opened, gauzy with sleep. The room was dark save for the dim light of a small lamp in the corner that Phoebe had insisted they leave on.
Artemis reached up to rub her eyes and realized she’d fallen asleep on top of the covers and still in her clothes. Only half-awake, a cold shiver overtook her. The curtains by the window gave a soft flutter and, still groggy, she rolled off the bed to shut it. By the time she reached it, the cold night air forced her to near-full wakefulness.
Reaching up to close the sash, she shivered again, although this one was different from the first. They hadn’t left the window open. They wouldn’t have because—
Swiftly, she spun back toward the bed where Phoebe slept and saw him.
William was just as Phoebe described him—seven or eight years old and wearing the children’s version of a blue and white sailor suit. Except there was one significant difference. This wasn’t just a little boy, this was something more. He shimmered and glowed, and she realized why as she stepped closer to him standing at the bed watching Phoebe as she slept.
He was covered in water. Like a thick layer of clear jelly, it enveloped him from head to toe, shimmering and moving of its own accord.
Artemis swallowed and reached for her sword. But it seemed wrong. The idea of using it on a boy, even a ghost like this, wasn’t right somehow, and she pushed it back into its sheath.
“Phoebe,” she whispered.
Her friend slept blissfully on, ignoring her whispered plea, but the boy didn’t. His head turned slowly to look at her. His face was ghostly pale beneath the water and his eyes were just as Phoebe had said, huge and brown and pleading.
He stared at her, his expression worried and frightened, and somehow terribly insistent. Then he took a step toward her and Artemis's heart raced. He wasn’t a horror, nothing like the other nightmares she’d fought, and that made him all the more unnerving. He looked so human. He is human, or was, she reminded herself.
Don’t let looks fool you.
She’d seen what some demons could do, the way they could change themselves. The one she’d encountered in her personal Hell had taken on many guises. Who was to say this was any different?
But it felt different.
He took another measured step toward her. Let him come. At least he was moving farther away from Phoebe.
Artemis stood on the opposite side of the room and let him walk toward her. As he did, his big eyes searched hers for something. What was it?
Finally, he stood only a few feet away from her and stopped to look at her with those demanding, almost begging eyes. There was a hint of something else in them. Anger? Resentment? She wasn’t sure.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Ten more minutes,” Phoebe grumbled in her sleep and rolled over.
“Your name is William, isn’t it?” Artemis asked.
Very slowly, almost imperceptibly, the boy nodded.
“I want to help you, but I don’t know how.”
The boy raised one of his arms and reached out toward her. His small hand, covered in that sheen of water, hovered between them.
He looked so sad, so pitiful, so hurt. All she wanted to do was comfort him.
Without knowing she was doing it, she lifted her hand to take his. The moment their fingers touched she knew it was the wrong thing to do, although she wasn’t sure she could have resisted the urge even with that knowledge.
The water that surrounded him crept from his hand to hers and then began to crawl its way up her arm.
She tried to pull away, but she was rooted to the spot. She couldn’t move.
This is what happened to that woman, she realized as the water moved past her elbow now. This is how she drowned.
A primal sort of panic rose up inside her. She wanted to call out to Phoebe, but she was there to protect her. Although, she thought as the water crept farther up her arm, she wouldn’t be much help if she was dead.
The boy seemed even sadder than before, as if he didn’t want this either, but could not stop it any more than she could. All she knew was that if she didn’t do something, the water would cover her and she would surely die.
“Phoebe?” she said again, softly at first, trying not to frighten her, and then louder. “Phoebe?”
The water, cold and slippery, engulfed her arm now and was just reaching her shoulder when she heard Phoebe gasp.
“’Strewth!” Phoebe said, as she sat upright in bed. “William?”
Her eyes filled with pain and alarm, and Artemis could see her chest rising and falling rapidly.
“No, no, no,” she chanted under her breath.
“Phoebe!”
Phoebe’s eyes snapped to her and went wider still with fright and recognition.
“Artemis?” she said breathlessly. Slowly, as if she were mesmerized, she got out of bed. Her hands trembled and she shook them violently as if to try to dislodge some of the fear coursing through her body.
“It’s him, isn’t it?” she said, her voice quavering with emotion.
“Yes. Don’t frighten him,” Artemis said.
“Frighten him?” she asked with near-hysterical laughter before she got control of herself.
She swallowed anxiously and then edged her way closer to them.
“What does he want?” she asked, her terrified expression showing that she knew the answer.
“Not too close,” Artemis cautioned.
“It’s me, isn’t it?” Phoebe said. “It’s me.”
Even as the water crept farther up her arm, threatening to overtake her, Artemis's heart twisted at the thought. She had to find a way out of this. She had to get free.
Tears spilled out of Phoebe’s eyes and ran down her cheeks. “Oh, William.”
Suddenly, the boy turned toward her and the water that had reached Artemis's shoulder began to slowly recede. Phoebe took a half-step back. She let out a shuddering breath but then stood firm, seeing that pulling his attention away caused the water to draw away as well.
“Keep talking to him,” Artemis urged.
If she could get free, she could save them both.
“William,” Phoebe said again, stepping to the side, causing the boy’s neck to crane backwards if he wanted to both keep ahold of Artemis and watch Phoebe.
Slowly, his fingers released her hand and the water slithered back down her arm to rejoin the boy as he faced Phoebe.
“Oh God,” Phoebe cried as he now focused solely on her.
Once the last bit of water released her, Artemis fell to her knees. It was as if she was a puppet and someone had cut her strings.
“Artemis?”
She caught her breath and pushed herself up onto her feet, hurrying to Phoebe’s side.
“What does he want?” Phoebe asked, the words tumbling out of her like rocks down a hillside. “What do you want?”
William reached his hand out toward Phoebe, and she gave a quick gasp.
“It’s me. It’s me.”
Artemis tried to move Phoebe back, away from William. “Don’t touch him.”
“He wants to kill me,” she said. “Doesn’t he? So that I’ll drown like him. Like I should have that day.”
Artemis didn’t believe it. Not just because she didn’t want to believe it, but because there was something else going on here. He wanted something else; she was sure of it.
What would someone like William want?
She’d read about ghosts before. Some were malevolent, but most were just restless souls, unable to find peace because something in life or death had eluded them.
He’s a restless soul. What does he need?
She searched the room as if it held the answer, turning back just in time to see Phoebe reaching for William’s hand, just as she had done.
“Phoebe, don’t!” she cried and tried to pull her hand away, but it was too late.
“I couldn’t help myself, I swear. I tried, but ….” The water was already crawling up her skin. “Artemis? Oh, God, Artemis.”
“William,” Artemis said, trying to draw his attention away the same way Phoebe had. “William!”
But he wouldn’t look at her. His focus was locked on Phoebe.
Artemis reached for her sword, ready to use it, ready to cut him in half if it would save Phoebe. The darkness inside her whispered for her to do it.
