For a moment Jacob had the faint hope that Clara’s kiss would not only wake Will, but also remind him of the boy he had been before he had gone through the mirror, of the love he had felt for Clara…
Who knows? Maybe it would have been that way if Clara had been the first thing Will saw when he opened his eyes. But the Fairy made sure it was her. She caught him with a smile, like a fly entangled in her amber hair, and Jacob watched the jade erase the last traces of human skin as Will rose from the bed, his golden eyes on the Fairy, as if only she made him live and breathe.
Clara called his name, but what could a human voice do against the magic of a Fairy? Will could hear neither Clara’s nor Jacob’s voice. He only saw and heard what the Dark Fairy allowed him to see and hear, and all he felt was the skin she had given him. This wonderful skin of jade, that made him so strong and so happy.
Jacob kept his eyes on Will, as he followed the Fairy into the corridor. He knew far too well what his brother felt. Hadn’t he fallen under the same spell once? There was only her, nothing else. The pain Jacob felt was also far too familiar. It cut as deep as the pain he had felt after their father had disappeared. The same void opened in his heart, so wide and dark and empty that no word could describe the feeling. It was so much more than pain. It was a black ocean swallowing everything—who he was, what he cared and lived for… Will followed the Dark Fairy and Jacob felt as lost as he had last felt at the age of twelve, lost and helplessly angry, at himself, at the world… and at his brother for bringing back that pain.
Where was Fox? That was all he now still cared about. The vixen… he needed her by his side. She was the only one who could fill the abyss. The only one who never forgot who he was, even when he himself couldn’t remember. But she was gone, like his brother.
Clara turned around and looked at him. What have I done? her eyes asked him. Why didn’t you stop me? But maybe he was just reading his own thoughts into her stare.
“What about this one? Shall we shoot him?” one of Hentzau’s guards asked, pointing his rifle at Jacob.
“No, not yet.”
The pistol Hentzau drew from his belt was Jacob’s own. The Goyl opened the chamber and scrutinized it as though it was the core of a foreign fruit.
“This is an interesting weapon,” he said. “Where did you get it?”
Jacob turned his back on him. Just shoot me, he thought. The cell, the Goyl, the Hanging Palace. Everything around him seemed so unreal. The Fairies, and the enchanted forests, even the vixen—all nothing but the feverish dreams of a twelve-year-old. Jacob saw himself standing in the doorway of his father’s study, Will inquisitively staring past him at the dusty model planes, the antique revolvers. And the mirror.
“Turn around.” Hentzau’s voice was impatient. The Goyl rage was so easily stirred, constantly burning just beneath their stone skin. Will had been one of them for quite a while. One day Clara would realize that it hadn’t been her who had made his brother a Goyl.
Jacob still didn’t move.
He heard the Goyl laugh behind him.
“The same arrogance as your father, but his was shaken so much more easily, and he isn’t half as good at hiding his fear. Your brother doesn’t look like him at all; that’s why I didn’t realize right away whose sons you are, although your face seemed so familiar.”
Oh, he was such an idiot. The Goyl have better engineers. How often had Jacob heard that behind the mirror—be it in Schwanstein or from the lips of a despairing imperial officer—and he had never thought twice about it.
He turned around.
“Where did you meet him? Is he here?”
Hentzau twisted his narrow lips into a mocking smile. “Here? No. Not anymore. I’d hoped you’d tell me where he is. John Reckless… We caught him five years ago in Blenheim. As far as I remember he’d been hired to build a bridge because the townspeople had grown tired of being eaten by the Lorelei. The river has always been teeming with them, although the Slugskins in Blenheim claim that the Dark Fairy put them in there. Funny. Your father always carried a photo of his sons, but I never looked at it. Kami’en had him build a camera after he saw the picture, long before the Empress’s engineers came up with a similar device. John Reckless taught us many things. But who would’ve thought that a son of his would one day grow a skin of jade.”
The Goyl ran his fingers along the barrel of the pistol. “As I said, he wasn’t half as stubborn as you when it came to answering our questions. What he taught us turned out to be very useful in the war. And then he escaped. We searched for him for months. We still do, but no trace of him. What does it matter? Now we have caught his sons.”
He turned to the guards. “Keep him alive until I get back from the wedding. There are a lot of questions I want to ask him.”
“And the girl?” The guard pointing at Clara had a carnelian skin like his King.
“Keep her alive as well,” Hentzau replied. “And the fox girl too. They will loosen his tongue much faster than the scorpions.”
The fox girl too… Jacob felt nauseous with relief. She was alive.
Hentzau’s steps died away down the corridor and through the barred windows came the sounds of the underground city.
Fox was alive.
And his brother was gone.