Fury gripped me, and I snarled at him. A bestial, mad sound. My father’s eyes widened in terror, and he started back as I threw myself forward and was caught by the chains.
“Let me go!” I screamed.
“I can’t, Thea,” said Valentin. “I can’t. Not yet. Look at you.”
“And Dominic?” I cried. “Do you have him chained to a bed as well? What have you done to us?”
“Nothing!” Valentin exclaimed. “You begged me to restrain you. If I hadn’t, you would have murdered yourself!”
I remembered this as well now. I remembered tearing at my own skin, screaming that I could not escape my own body. I shuddered. Horror beckoned to me. I hadn’t really escaped, not yet. I was only holding on to the ledge of my sanity by a few slipping fingers.
“The Stone,” I whispered. It was my only hope. “Is it…”
“It’s in the ovum,” said Valentin. “Just as it was when you left. Dominic broke the code, repeated the process. I was able to help him a little. I had watched your steps carefully.”
“How many days has it been sealed in the ovum?”
“Six tomorrow,” said my father.
Tomorrow. All I had to do was cling to the edge of sanity until tomorrow, and complete the process. One last step …
“Thea,” said my father. “Meg’s code changed. We haven’t been able to discern the end. We don’t know what to do tomorrow.”
I laughed, but the sound came out wrong. I could see from the looks on my father’s and Valentin’s faces. Yes, Mother’s code changed on the last step. She had reverted to one of ours, one that we had made together. It was based on the letters of my name. I stopped laughing for a moment to wonder why. Perhaps she wanted me to finish, if she was not able to. A small, warm feeling stirred in me, which I quickly squashed. More likely, she had already begun to go mad, and had reverted to an earlier code without meaning to.
“Thea,” said my father again. He was working to something, I could tell by the cowardly twitch of his mouth. I glared at it and wondered, did mine do that, when I was about to ask for something I shouldn’t? “Thea, we must know the end of the process. If you go again, before it is time…”
“I won’t.” Panic gripped me at the thought. He wouldn’t say it like that, not if he knew.
“But if you do,” he persisted. “Then we would miss our chance to save you and Dominic.”
“And Will,” I said. “Where is Will?”
I looked around the room, as though he might be hidden in one of the dark corners. It occurred to me that this room was unfamiliar. Valentin had kept me out of his Ada’s room for my descent into hell.
“He is as he was,” said Valentin. “Perhaps a little worse. I moved him to a warmer room, as you wished.”
“Thea—” began my father again.
“Enough begging,” I snapped. “I’ll tell Will. Not you.”
My father and Valentin exchanged another glance. I wondered when they had become so cozy. When had they aligned themselves against me? But Valentin nodded and went out.
Vellacott and I were alone in the room, and suddenly I wasn’t quite mad enough not to feel the awkwardness of his discomfort. He looked at his hands, then at me, then back at his hands.
“Thea,” he said. Again.
“Thea,” I mimicked in an unkindly nasal imitation of his voice. “Much more of that and you’ll make me hate the sound of my own name.”
My father looked stricken for half a moment, then laughed. I watched him with curiosity. His face changed when he laughed, even when it was a wry laugh like this one, without much happiness in it. He was warmer. More sincere. Harder to hate. When he stopped, he smiled sadly and fondly at me, and something twisted deep in my belly.
“If I ever doubted you were Meg’s daughter, five minutes’ conversation with you would be all the convincing I needed.”
I had nothing to say to that. A wave of exhaustion crashed over me. I was dizzy with it.
“Why are you here?” I whispered.
“I came for you, Thea,” my father said. “I should have listened to you.”
I heard his words, but not the meaning of them, not at first. I was slipping.
No.
I held on to his voice, the pleasant timbre, the possible sincerity.
“I behaved terribly,” he was saying. “I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness. All I can hope is that I can somehow make amends to you. You were right. You were right about Bentivoglio, and you were right to protect Dominic as you did. I feel such shame when I think of my actions then, even my thoughts.”
I hit my head against the headboard behind me, and the sharp pain cleared my mind.
“Thea?” My father half rose from his chair at the foot of my bed. He came closer, along the side. “Stay, Thea,” he said. There was such desperation in his voice. Did he really want the Stone so much? He leaned over me, pressed a hand to my forehead.
“I’m here,” I said.
The door opened, and in a moment Will was at my side, pushing my father away.
“Oh God, Bee,” said Will. There were tears in his deep, shadowed eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I should never have asked this of you.”
“Leave us alone,” I said to my father and Valentin, standing at the foot of my bed. When they didn’t move, I threw myself forward, despite the pain that shot through my wrists. “Get out!”
They obeyed, and Will sat beside me. His hands were on my face, pushing back my damp hair. I closed my eyes for a moment, letting his touch draw out the tension.
“When it burns red,” I said, reciting my mother’s last line. “Apply three minims of stibnite. When it fuses, the Stone will be complete.”
I opened my eyes, and saw Will staring
