What happened to pretending everything was fine?
Edward flexed his hand. “He made you cry,” he explained.
Montgomery rushed through the crowd as the islanders erupted in a frenzy of excitement at the smell of the blood. Caesar raised his staff, the red robes sweeping out like a curtain. He seemed more refined, but even his nose flared at the smell.
Montgomery tackled Edward to the ground. They scuffled, kicking up clouds of dust. The python-woman threw herself in front of Father protectively. Several others followed her lead. At last Montgomery wrestled Edward to his knees and pinned his arms behind his back.
My skull pounded as if I were drunk. Montgomery was slave to my father’s will. Helping him with his terrible work, defending him, even at Edward’s expense. Montgomery wasn’t cruel, I knew that to my core. Father might have dragged him here as a child, raised him to do terrible things, but Montgomery wasn’t a monster. He shouldn’t act as Father’s puppet.
“Don’t listen to him!” I yelled, pounding my fist against Montgomery’s shoulder. The surprise made him hesitate. I dug my fingers into his hand, trying to pry his fingers off Edward. “Let him go!”
“Stop this!” Father’s voice was like the thunderous voice of God. Specks of blood spattered as he spoke.
A rough hand closed over my mouth. Lumpy scales grazed my lips—Puck. I recoiled in disgust, tasting the sweat on his palm. He wrapped his other arm around my chest and pulled me off Montgomery with the strength of two men.
My chest heaved. Tension still crackled in the air. The islanders fawned over Father, but he waved them away, rubbing at his split bottom lip. I stared at Montgomery. Don’t listen to him, my every thought urged. You know this is wrong.
Montgomery only looked away.
“Really, this is no way to act.” Father drew out his handkerchief and spit into it. Red blood flashed against the crisp white linen. “We must set a good example for them. You most of all, Juliet.”
“I know what you’re doing in that laboratory,” I spit. “You’re a monster.”
Father stared, his black eyes deep and unreadable. He tucked the handkerchief back into his vest pocket. “Release them. They won’t run again. They’ve no place to go.”
A low growl came from deep in Puck’s throat, but he released me. Montgomery slowly let go of Edward’s arms.
Father picked up the parasol, now broken and stained. “So you’ve found me out, have you? You saw what was on that table and you’ve seen my islanders. Of course you’ve reached the only logical conclusion. You’re smart, after all. Smarter than you should be.” His black eyes shone. “It’s a shame you weren’t a boy.”
“You’ve crossed the line,” I said. “This is God’s work, not ours.”
“You sound like your mother,” he said. It wasn’t a compliment. He walked among the beasts, picking clumps of dirt from their hair, straightening their ragged clothes, as a father might tend to a child. A shaggy man with sandy hair falling in his eyes stood straighter as Father approached. Father placed a friendly hand on his shoulder. “Juliet, dear, these animals have been given a great gift, made man by careful and studied science. They’re exceptional, don’t you see? Capable of human thought and action, but without mankind’s corruption.”
Anger seeped backward up my spine.
“You’ve been listening to this silly boy. He’s not one of us, I told you that from the beginning. Come back to the compound. You need an injection, and food and water. I shall explain my work to you. It’s only the shock of it that has you so tightly wound. Once you understand the science behind it, you’ll see things my way.”
My growing anger was overshadowed by an encroaching weakness in my legs. I could feel my illness’s cold grip on me tighten. I doubled over, bracing myself on my knees. As my legs faltered, Montgomery’s arms were suddenly around me, picking me up effortlessly. His heart beat wildly through his shirt.
“Get her back at once,” I heard Father say, though my senses were fading. “And you, Prince. When we return, you and I will need to reexamine the nature of our arrangement.”
If the arrangement had anything to do with Father’s plan to marry me off to Edward, I couldn’t imagine Father was still pleased with his choice for son-in-law.
The village spun as Montgomery carried me through the crowd. The python-woman pushed forward, grazing her fleshy fingers delicately against my cheek. Montgomery ordered her away. I grabbed at his biceps, feeling vertigo. His heart beat faster.
“I tried to warn you.” His voice was a fierce whisper.
I heard the big draft horse grunt, and then the rusty hinges of the wagon’s back gate. Suddenly Montgomery’s arms were gone, replaced by stiff wooden boards. Something was beside me in the wagon bed, something long and wrapped in cloth. The stench of congealed blood choked my throat. I twisted away from the smell, too weak to sit up.
“You insisted on coming here,” Montgomery whispered harshly. I couldn’t tell if he was mad at me or mad at himself. “I should have refused. I’d hoped . . . Blast, it doesn’t matter.”
Then he was gone and the wagon was moving. Each jostle felt like the tossing waves at sea. A sudden bump rolled me into the wrapped fabric. My hand fell into a sticky substance.
I looked down at my hand. Congealed blood clotted between my fingers. I’d rolled over onto a canvas shroud wrapped around what had to be a body. Blood soaked through the fabric in three red streaks across its chest. Another victim.