to gather our things and dry off with the picnic blankets, working like automatons.
It was like losing Konrad all over again. I had killed him twice.
Only last night I’d dreamed we were to be reunited. The dream had had such substance, such certainty.
When we entered the chateau, Elizabeth immediately started up the stairs toward the library.
“I want to see them,” she said. “These monster bones.”
Henry and I followed. We found no sign of workers in the library, and as we made our way into the caverns, we found them empty too, though a few lanterns still flickered.
“Professor Neumeyer?” I called out, but heard no reply.
We ventured down the steep passageway to the burial chamber and walked to the edge of the pit. The ladder was still in place, but at the bottom all the skeletal fragments I’d seen earlier were gone.
I turned desperately to a tarpaulin where a few small bits of bone were laid out. I hurried over and knelt down, but these pieces were all so nondescript that they might have been from any creature.
“Is this all there is?” Elizabeth exclaimed, snatching up a shard of bone. “This is your monster?”
“They must’ve taken away the other pieces,” I murmured, feeling suddenly light-headed.
“If they were here at all.”
“They were here,” I said. “A bit of the giant skull, a clubbed foot. And the jawbone that bore the exact same teeth as Konrad’s!”
“A tooth!” She was shaking with anger now. “Is that all the proof you can muster? Admit it, Victor. From the moment you saw him growing as a baby, you didn’t want him back!”
My voice was hoarse with grief. “That’s a lie! You think you’re the only one who suffered today? I saw the hope of getting back my brother, my twin, sink! I want him back, Elizabeth, even more than you!”
She shook her head. “You were more interested in your stolen spirits and the power they gave you!”
“How can you say that, after all I’ve done-”
“With you, Victor, it’s never clear why you do things!”
I held up my maimed hand and shook it in her face. “I-gave-my-fingers!”
Dismissively she batted away my hand, and before I could check my rage, I smacked her face.
She flew at me, her fists battering my chest. I pushed her away so hard that she fell down.
“Victor!” Henry said sharply, his hand tightening around my arm.
“Take that hand off me,” I growled.
We held each other’s eyes for a moment before he released his grip.
There was a shuffling sound behind us, and I turned to see Gerard, one of the professor’s colleagues, emerge from the steep passageway.
“What’re you doing down here?” he asked.
“The pit remains, where have they gone?” I demanded.
“The professor’s taken them into Geneva not an hour ago,” he said.
“Why?”
“He was concerned they be preserved properly.”
“The body,” said Elizabeth, “was it truly of giant proportions?”
“Indeed it was, miss.”
“You saw its teeth?”
“They were unusually sharp.” He nodded at the tarpaulin. “I’m just here to gather up the last bits of bone.”
“Thank you,” said Elizabeth, walking out of the chamber. Henry and I followed.
As we made our way back through the vaulted galleries, I said, “You see, I didn’t imagine any of this.”
Elizabeth ignored me.
“Whatever that thing was, or is, it wants a body born, and not for Konrad-for itself. You can’t blame me for what happened at the lake.”
“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “Worry about your brother when you tell him tonight.”
When he sees the three of us, Konrad beams. He’s in the library with Analiese, who is carefully reading aloud to him when we enter. Arranged on the tables is an arsenal of weapons from the armory, as if he’s expecting to be attacked at any moment.
“Are we ready?” he asks, leaping up. “This is the night, is it not?”
“Konrad-,” I begin.
His face falls. “What’s happened?”
My voice is a defeated croak. “Your body… There’s been an accident.”
Analiese gasps. Konrad sinks down in his chair. “What kind of accident?”
I swallow, struggling to govern myself. “It drowned.”
“How?”
Before I can assemble the words, Elizabeth says, “Victor fought with him and they fell into the water, and he didn’t know how to swim.”
Konrad looks at me, his eyes dark with reproach.
“Listen to me,” I say. “You must believe me. The body was corrupted. It was violent. It tried to rape Elizabeth!”
“No!” she objects. “That wasn’t the case. It kissed me and became enflamed, as any young man might’ve done. It had no conscience yet to-”
“The body was not yours, Konrad!” I shout over her. “It was meant for another.”
“What do you mean?” Konrad demands, standing now, pacing like a tiger caged.
“That creature in the pit, your body was meant for it!”
“How can this be?” exclaims Analiese.
I see how, even now, Elizabeth looks at her, with suspicion and barely veiled hostility.
“The spirit that animated your body comes from that creature!” I tell Konrad. “And all of these,” I add, looking nervously at the black butterflies that circle overhead. “Don’t let them land! They’ve been feeding on us whenever we come here, especially me, taking our life energy back to the creature and gradually waking it. When I last saw it, it had changed yet again. It was like some vast embryo.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this last night?” Konrad demands.
“My time was up. I… I had to leave,” I tell him, unable to meet his gaze.
Konrad’s voice is irate. “You take time to do your reading and collect your specimens-but not enough to warn me about this thing!”
“I still wasn’t sure what it was,” I tell him. “Or how dangerous it might be. It wasn’t until this morning, when the professor dug up the remains in the real world. It’s some kind of monstrosity, maybe not even human. Some of its features were exactly the same as the body we’ve been growing for you!”
“One!” protests Elizabeth. “A single sharp tooth! That’s Victor’s lonely bit of evidence.”
“No. There were other moments when you-the body — became strange and frightening. It bit. It growled. Its face changed into something brutal.”
“Victor has become addicted to the spirit butterflies,” says Elizabeth, “and they’ve clouded his judgment. He sees all manner of things.”
Konrad looks at me long and hard, then turns in Henry’s direction.
“Henry, you’ve always had a level head. Tell me what you know.”
“The body we grew for you did have a strange tooth, it’s true.” He sighs and looks ruefully at Elizabeth. “And today I did see those features Victor mentioned. They were like a shadow crossing its face.”
I feel a rush of gratitude for Henry. “I swear to you, Konrad, there is some infernal design at work. The professor thinks this pit creature may have been considered some kind of god, and maybe he’s right. How else to explain the fact that it created these butterflies from its own dead body?”
Analiese is shaking her head, frightened. “But the butterflies have always been here. And I’ve never sensed any evil purpose in them.”
“Until they have living souls to feed upon,” I reply. “Look how the little parasites hover, wanting to steal more from us.”
Overhead they flutter closer, darting toward Henry, Elizabeth, and me, wanting to touch us. I shoo them
