Bettie gave me a hard look, only slightly spoiled by her pouting mouth. “Yes, very nice, darling, very dramatic. But what does that mean?”
“It means, I know what mirror this came from,” I said, pulling a handkerchief from my pocket and carefully wrapping up the vicious-edged shard before tucking it very carefully into my coat pocket. “This is a sliver of glass from the infamous Mirror of Dorian Gray. You must have heard of it. It was up for sale at an auction-house here in the Nightside, not so long ago. Think of it: the mirror that reflected a man soaked in temporal magic. If a crazy magical man stares into you long enough, you become crazy and magical, too. This mirror soaked up Time, leaching the life from anyone who looked into it, and stored it. The perfect murder weapon because who’d ever suspect a mirror. The last I heard, the Mirror of Dorian Gray belonged to the Family of Immortals . . .”
We both turned to look at Rogue, standing on his own, glaring at anyone who even glanced in his direction.
“He said . . . he and his fellow surviving immortals grabbed a few things of value from the Family Vaults, before they escaped,” I said slowly. “I suppose in the haste of getting away from the Droods, they must have dropped the mirror. All Rogue got away with, was a single shard. Still powerful enough to steal someone’s years if you thrust it right into them.”
“A weapon that eats Time,” said Bettie. “The perfect weapon for killing immortals, darling, if you wanted to steal all their years and keep them for yourself. But why would Rogue need more years? He’s already immortal!”
“Good question,” I said. “I must be sure to ask him.”
“Are you sure it’s him?” said Bettie anxiously. “To accuse an immortal, among a gathering of his fellow immortals, you need to be really
“Good point,” I said. “But now I’ve got the weapon, I can use it to focus my gift and get it to show me exactly what happened. Make sure no-one interrupts me.”
“You got it, sweetie.”
I concentrated hard, and my gift manifested again. My head ached, resenting the strain. Time fled backwards before me, right back to the moment of the murder. I could See King of Skin standing before me, a thin and wispy artefact of Time Past, pawing through the snacks with grubby fingers and a disdainful sneer. I Saw the Lord Orlando approach King of Skin, with his usual simpering smile. King of Skin growled at him and deliberately turned his back on Orlando. And that was when the Lord Orlando’s face slipped and changed as he became the Rogue Immortal. He took the mirror shard out of the wine jug and stabbed King of Skin in the back. King tried to cry out and couldn’t. I could See the temporal energies swirling and spiralling around him as the shard sucked his future right out of him —all the years, all the life he would have had. And then King of Skin collapsed, measuring his length on the floor. Rogue tugged the weapon out of his back, flicked a few drops of blood away, and slipped the shard neatly back into the wine jug. The whole thing had only taken a few moments. Rogue became Orlando again and wandered off.
And no-one noticed his movements because no-one cared where he went. He was the only person the immortals would turn their backs on because no-one ever wanted to talk to him.
I followed him until he turned back into Rogue, unnoticed in the crush of bodies. His face was calm and unconcerned, untouched by what he’d done. No trace of anger or regret. Only the hint of someone who’d performed a distasteful but necessary task—a small smile, typical of a teenager who has got away with something. I shut down my gift and looked at the expectant Bettie Divine, all but dancing with impatience before me.
“Well?” she said squeakily. “Well?”
“Got him,” I said. “Rogue killed King of Skin.”
“And the Bride?”
“I didn’t hang around long enough to See it; but since they were both killed with the same weapon, it had to be him again.”
Bettie frowned. “Then why didn’t the mirror shard shrivel her up the way it did King of Skin?”
I thought about it. “Because . . . the Bride was made of dead parts, then brought to life. She only has a human lifetime; but when she dies, she can be brought back again, for another life. Thanks to the Baron’s handiwork, she’s basically . . . rechargeable. Technically immortal, but only one life at a time.”
“Gosh, you are clever, John darling,” said Bettie.
“Flattery . . . will get you an exclusive interview. Later. For now, do me a favour and round up Dead Boy and Razor Eddie. Have them stand by in case it all goes pear-shaped when I accuse Rogue . . .”
“On it, sweetie.”
She blew me a quick kiss and disappeared into the crowd. I moved over to join Rogue, taking my time. I didn’t want to spook him. Chases are so undignified. I was almost upon him when he turned suddenly and smiled coldly at me.
“So,” he said, “you worked it out. You really are as good as some people say you are.”
“Only some ?” I said. “I must be slipping. So you admit to the murders?”
“Admit to them? I’m proud of them!” Rogue laughed softly. “I am of the Family of Immortals, the only true immortal here!”
His voice rose loudly across a growing silence as everyone in the ballroom realised what was happening and shushed each other. By the time he’d stopped speaking, everyone was looking at us, drinking in every word. I kept my gaze fixed on Rogue. I couldn’t afford to give him the slightest advantage.
“I killed King of Skin and loved it,” said Rogue. “I gloried in it! Spreading a little fear and horror in the night . . . is what my family have always done best. I killed the Bride, too; but unfortunately, she got over it. I’ll have to try harder next time.” He smiled around him, and hardened immortals actually flinched back from him. “You call yourselves immortals; you’re nothing but food to me.”
“I know how you did it,” I said. “I even have the weapon, which explains what happened to King of Skin’s body. Now tell me why you did it. Come on; you know you want to.”
“King of Skin was an offspring of my family,” said Rogue, apparently entirely at his ease. “A half-caste. Only potentially immortal. He found a way to extend his life by killing people and wrapping himself in their skins, their lives. Harvesting their stolen years. He’s been at it for well over a century, to my certain knowledge. You saw all those skins . . . And you had no idea what he really was, did you? No idea at all that you had a serial killer as part of your precious Authorities.”
“You knew about him; but you never did anything about him, till now,” I said. “Why now?”
“I didn’t care what he did. He only killed mortals; and that’s what they’re for. I only killed him now because I had a use for him. You should be grateful, Walker. I’ve done you a positive favour. He would have had to come after you eventually, you and all the other Authorities. He couldn’t risk your finding out the truth about him. And then . . . he would have been the Authorities and ruled the Nightside. The wolf in charge of the sheep.”
“You still haven’t said why you killed him.”
“I killed him first because he was so full of life. And I wanted it.”
“And the Bride?” I said.
Rogue sniffed. “I shouldn’t have, but I never could resist temptation. She wasn’t really suitable for what I was after, but . . . she led the Spawn of Frankenstein when they fought alongside the Droods to invade my family estate! The Spawn live there now, in what used to be my home! She wasn’t on my list; but when I saw her standing there, I couldn’t hold back. She deserved to die for what she did to my family.”
“You weren’t going to stop with King of Skin,” I said. “He was only the first . . . You said you had a list?”
“Of course,” said Rogue. “I only came here to make my mark, with these so-called immortals. I came here to identify them all, so I could track them down afterwards and steal their lives. It’s not like they were doing anything important with them. I would have used the mirror shard to take their future years, store them, then use them to create a new Family of Immortals! We don’t breed true, you see. Never have; or the world would be hip-deep in immortals by now. We breed slow and rarely, and the offspring are only ever long-lived. But with so many stolen years at my disposal, what a family I could have made! We would have moved into all the important places and positions, here in the Nightside, and taken control. And then we would have used the Nightside as a base, from which to re-establish the family’s power in the world! Become what we once were, what we were meant to be! Then, let all the peoples of the world tremble and despair!”
“You had it all thought out,” I said.
He looked at me sharply, annoyed at having his ranting interrupted. “Thought out in every detail. When you’re an immortal, you get used to planning for the long term. King of Skin was just the beginning. I had a reign of terror
