“Don’t ever do that to me again,” he muttered. “Don’t ever do something like that again.”
Marshall’s arms tightened. “Once is plenty, Ben.”
He’s alive, Benedikt thought, pulling back with a thin smile. That’s all that matters.
Roma awoke with a deep cough, rolling onto his side and wheezing for breath. By the time he came to, the moon was directly above him, shining into his bleary eyes. His neck was in pain. His back was in pain. Even his ankles were in pain.
But the vaccine still lay beside him, the bag untouched. So too did the papers, tucked inside.
“What the hell?” Over his head, the birds perched on the electric lines flew off at once, startled by Roma’s shout. He hadn’t seen who had knocked him out. Juliette was gone too, but there was no sign of a struggle, no blood in the alley or even a sequin fallen from her dress.
Roma got to his feet. He could only assume that it had been a Scarlet, and Juliette had either dealt with the situation or was off elsewhere leading them away. There was nothing he could do now except take the vaccine to Lourens as he had planned.
Roma trudged off.
In that alley, the birds did not come back in his absence. They knew to flee as something else stirred in Chenghuangmiao, lumbering in on two upright feet. If the people in the market had paid attention, they might have known to go too. Instead, not a soul in Chenghuangmiao thought to move until the screaming started and they looked up, finding five monstrous creatures tearing a path into the clearing.
Juliette came in through the front door of her house, shrugging her coat off when one of the maids gestured to take it. There was still activity in the kitchen, some aunt making a late-night snack, the warm glow of light crossing into the otherwise dark living room.
“Go to bed,” Juliette told the maid after she hung up the coat. “It’s late.”
“I’ll fetch you some slippers first,” the maid said. She was on the older side, likely a mother by the way she was frowning disapprovingly as Juliette rolled off her sharp and impractical heels.
Juliette sighed and collapsed sideways into the couch. “Xiè xiè!”
“āiyā,” the maid chided, already marching out of the living room. “Bù yào shǎ.”
The maid disappeared into the hallway. If only the people of the vast and expansive Scarlet empire could see Juliette now. She looked like a paper doll more than she looked an heiress with blades for teeth.
Then the front door burst open, and Juliette jolted to her bare feet immediately, braced for war. A gust of cold came blowing in, then Tyler, dragging someone behind him. When Tyler came closer, he pulled his hostage forward too, and it was Kathleen who came into the light, stumbling to a stop in front of Juliette.
“What is the meaning of this?” Juliette demanded. She reached for Kathleen’s shoulders, giving her a cursory pat. “Are you hurt?”
“No. I’m fine,” Kathleen said, shooting Tyler a deathly glare. She rubbed her arm harshly. “Your cousin just has barnacles for brains.”
“I know you did it, Juliette,” Tyler spat. “I could smell your perfume everywhere. What was in it for you? Power? Money?”
Juliette exchanged a glance with Kathleen, who shrugged, seeming flabbergasted as well.
“What are you talking about?” Juliette asked.
Tyler’s expression turned livid. “Why are you feigning ignorance?”
“I am ignorant—what are you accusing me of?”
“The monsters, Juliette! Monsters stormed the lab and took every bit of the vaccine.”
Horrified, Juliette staggered a step back, her legs hitting the couch. She tried to school her expression, but she doubted it worked, not when a cold sweat had broken out from head to toe.
Monsters? Right after Juliette’s heist? On the same night? How could this possibly be a coincidence?
The maid returned with Juliette’s slippers then, but she took one look at the scene before her and set the slippers down by the kitchen, making a quick exit. A click echoed through the living room, the hallway door closing. Above, the chandelier gave a single chime, picking up that faint whisper of the wind.
“Did you see anything?” Juliette asked. “Was it all of them?”
“All five of them,” Kathleen answered. “We caught the last glimpse of the monsters disappearing, and yet Tyler still thinks I had a hand in it despite catching up to me from three streets away before the monsters attacked.”
Kathleen must have done as she said, distracting Tyler so Roma and Juliette could get away without being caught. But who was to know that monsters would suddenly add themselves into the equation too?