“This is Hedra, my new assistant,” Pryce said, introducing the creature nuzzling her nose against his arm, and digging her nails into his sweater like a cat. “Hedra, this is Asenath Hayes. Doctor Asenath Hayes,” he said proudly. “This whole thing was her idea.”
“Hmm,” was the creature’s only reply. She glared at me, but said nothing, continuing to preen herself on Pryce’s shirt.
“She’s been my only companion since Jakob and the others left.”
“Jakob’s gone?” I asked, relieved.
“Not gone gone. But he needed the money, so I sent him to intern for Dublin University. It’ll do the boy good.”
Jakob is no boy, I thought. Still, he was safe, and I was grateful.
“But Hedra here,” he said, planting a kiss on her fiery hair, “she’s been doing all this just for the simple reward of knowledge.”
I’ll bet.
I didn’t know how to act, for fear of recognition—which was silly. She wouldn’t recognize me, only my husband. I didn’t like her looking at me. I felt that she would peer into my soul and find Quintus there. Running wasn’t an option. Was staying? She did not act as if she understood that I knew her for what she was. I was not a threat, just a nuisance. Not appreciating my paralyzing fear of her, she did her utmost to make me uncomfortable in her and Pryce’s presence, to let me know where I stood. He was drawn to her—she touched and kissed him coyly, directing his thoughts and movements, and he scarcely knew it. I understood what Quintus had described to me as her “double” face—her features were in turn beautiful and hideous depending on the angle. From certain perspectives I saw both simultaneously, which jarred me, spurring me to avoid her face altogether.
Her skin was so pale and stretched so thin in places it appeared translucent—the veins underneath gave her a sickly blue complexion. She had a smooth forehead, marred by thick, pronounced eyebrows, hovering wildly over eyes as large and sinister as an owl’s, set too far apart. Her pallid flesh sloped between them, ending abruptly in a nose that hooked at the end. Thin, colorless lips were disproportionately long when she smiled. I saw all the way back to her molars. It was like a shark smiling, the whole lower half of her jaw gaping open. When she laughed tartly, she made a shrill twinkling nose, like a tormented crane in its death throes.
I kept myself as occupied as my tortured mind would allow, following Pryce around limply as he showed me what they had already done. I trusted nothing he said, knowing that the course of his analysis had been maligned. As we moved about the lab, Hedra took little notice of me. She did not perceive herself to be discovered. I immediately realized that this was an advantage. And whatever allure she possessed for Dr. Pryce, (and for Quintus, I remembered darkly), had no effect on me. Another advantage. Though she’d done nothing but stare oddly and smile condescendingly at me, I understood with perfect clarity that we were at war.
This bizarre situation eroded my calm and left me entirely vulnerable when they brought out one of the remaining bog bodies. I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat and took mercilessly deep breaths to stop my inclination to hyperventilate.
A large patch of its neck and chest were missing, along with the right leg up to the hip.
“The wounds on his neck are likely animal bites,” Pryce pointed out. “As we can find no other cause, we presume he was mauled to death, the leg most likely carried away after.”
I was fairly certain that no animal extant on Britain was large enough to butcher a man thusly, but I continued to observe silently.
“His heart and lungs are not present, but MRI tests indicated that his left kidney and the small and large intestines are still there, badly corroded,” he continued.
Just inside my field of vision, I saw a deepened recess, a sunken hole large enough for a hefty oaken stake. Pryce made no note of it as he continued remarking upon the body. In fact, I was positive from his claim that that particular area of the skin was perfect that he did not see it. My suspicion of this was goaded by the she-devil, whose lips contorted into a smug pucker as his eyes passed unseeing over it. I had to follow suit and ignore it. For now.
“It’s a shame Anglesey Man got away from you,” Hedra purred. “Were you able to determine anything?”
“Not really,” I answered. “He was gone almost as soon as he was placed in our lab.”
“Any ideas where he’s gone to?”
“Nope.”
“You gleaned enough to earn your doctorate—that must be worth something, surely?”
Damn. It detailed the pieces we had extracted from Quintus’s chest, and my supposition about the mingling of practices of bog sacrifice and wicker men.
She interrupted my mental list of all the compromising facts my thesis contained by asking to see it one day. At least, I thought gratefully, Magnusson hadn’t passed a copy along to Pryce. If he had, Hedra would have implied its contents with more force. I was beginning to understand her character enough to know that she was overconfident and did not shy away from tipping her hand. Another tick in my corner. She had been allowed to move and operate in this lab unchecked, manipulating the evidence and the data derived from it. Why she did so, I could not yet tell.
She kept me occupied with busy work. I complied, not wanting to disillusion her, if she did in fact believe I was incapable of disobeying. She didn’t bother with excuses to be constantly over my shoulder. I tolerated it in silence, my hatred forming a palpable lump in my throat. Aarhaus had not only kept the lion’s share of the bodies, but also of the votives and other offerings found on or near them. Even the cataloguing had not been completed yet. When I made my way over to the computer to pick up the abandoned work, Dr. Pryce’s cheeks reddened.
“We should be a lot further along than we are, I know,” he said apologetically. “But with the budget cuts, it’s been only me and Hedra here.” I really didn’t wonder why nothing got done.
I was rewarded for my obedience by a lazy neglect. I wanted to believe what Pryce had told me, but I couldn’t take his word for it. Not now. Not under the circumstances. With his back turned to me, I took my phone out of my back pocket, and pulled up Jakob’s number.
Are you in Dublin now?
There was no immediate answer. I tried not to jump out of my skin with worry, not to consider the possibility that Jakob never made it to Dublin.
Hedra left the room only long enough to relieve herself. With Pryce’s back turned, I peered into the opening in the bog body’s chest. With tweezers at the ready, I withdrew a minute splinter embedded in the chest wall. As I angled myself to collect it noiselessly, an amber speck glittered mischievously at me. I snatched the speck, shoving it into the tissue holding the splinter and wadded them into the pocket of my jeans.
I darted behind Pryce and spun him around by the shoulders to face me. I shuddered at how easy it was—the bear of a man I had known was barely there at all.
“Miss Hayes?” he asked, stunned.
“Pryce. Pryce, where did she come from?”
“Who?”
“Hedra!” I hissed. “How did you find her?”
“Find her? Well, she…” He scratched his head, and his eyes stared off into the distance. “You met her before,” he insisted, not even sounding sure himself. “She’s been here the whole time.”
“No,” I said firmly. “I’ve never seen her before. Where did she come from? When?”
“I’m sorry, Miss Hayes. I—”
“Think, goddammit! Who is she? What does she want with you?”
He continued to gape at me like a frightened deer. I lowered my voice.
“What did she do to the bodies, Pryce?”
“Do?”
“What did she take?”
Those words seemed to strike a chord deep within his psyche. The light behind his eyes flickered on.
“Asenath…”
“Pryce. Talk to me!”
He opened his mouth to speak again but was silenced by the terse clacking of Hedra’s high-heeled shoes on the linoleum floor, coming closer.
“Help me,” he whispered.
I nodded and backed away. I was back to cataloguing clay shards when Hedra returned. I turned away from Pryce—I couldn’t stand to watch the light fade from his eyes once more as Hedra’s hold over him tightened.
My phone buzzed. It was Jakob.
I’m home now. Come over for dinner?
I let out a sigh of relief, my heart only beating half as fast as it was before. Whatever else had happened, Jakob was safe, and I was grateful.
My lips puckered with a tinge of regret as I tapped a reply.
Thanks, but can’t. Not a free woman anymore.
He sent back a frowning emoji. I was in the middle of typing a sympathetic reply when he sent me another smiley-face, this one with its tongue sticking out.
Come over anyway.
I smirked, like he probably knew I would. That was the thing with Jakob. He made me laugh and never took anything too seriously. I shot back a face covering its mouth in shock, which earned a laugh from his end. I can’t explain why, but the banter lifted my spirits. Joking about something, anything, kept my mind off my day with a demon, and the tension between me and Quintus that just would not go away. The pull I had first felt months ago to share my secret with Jakob came back with all its vigor. But it was more impossible now than it had ever been, the dangers even more real.
So, of course, I spoiled the moment.
Jakob—what happened in the lab? Did Pryce let you go?
I was beginning to worry I’d put my foot in my mouth, when the answer finally came.
*shrug* Ask the red-headed harpy. She’s got him wrapped around her finger.
I noticed, I texted back.
Something’s off about that one.
His response made my hands shake until the words in front of me devolved into a jittery blur.
What do you mean? I managed.
Idk. Call it a spidey-sense. Just keep your distance. Promise?
I was growing incrementally more terrified about going against Quintus’s counsel, and now Jakob’s. But, how could I?
I felt a cold breath of wind crawl down my neck, and on instinct secreted my phone away back into my jeans.
Hedra caught the quick movement and arched a thick eyebrow. The result was unsettling.
“Missing you already, is he? And it’s only the first day.”
My cheeks reddened—it wasn’t Quintus that I was texting. I had no idea what I’d say to him when I got back to the house. If I got back.
She smiled her hideous smile again. It may have been she was taking a different tack, making an alternative attempt at sympathy based on some unspoken bond between females. I was having none of it. When I didn’t respond with a kind look or word, she turned away from me again.
By midday, the multiple layers I had worn to brave the bitter wind outside became a burden, and I stopped to remove a thick pullover sweater. As I did so, my necklace dangled about. Hedra jumped away from me, swallowing a shriek. But she wasn’t fast enough to mask her reaction—her whole face contorted in terror before she sprinted out of the room, shouting a flimsy pretext at Dr. Pryce that I didn’t even hear. The Eye of Ra had fallen on her, and she ran from it as a vampire does a cross. I grinned widely, thumbing the back of the charm in thanks. I had begun the day with small advantages. Now I had an arsenal.
I walked home in a fuddle. If someone or something was following me, I was too absorbed in my own thoughts to care. I had survived today, but could I bear another day, let alone four months?
I was undecided about telling Quintus. What good would it do? Maybe if I could understand what she was doing with Dr. Pryce, what she still hoped to gain from the bodies, I could stop her from harming us, or anybody else. The things I’d collected didn’t prove anything other than that Pryce’s bodies had at least some of the same ritual performed on them. But the chain of artifacts had been compromised. One thing was for certain—she would know Quintus if she saw him, and she knew where we were staying.
Quintus smothered me as soon as I walked in the door.
“Are you all right? How did it go?” he demanded.
“Fine,” I said, cursing myself the minute the answer left my mouth. I felt like a coward. My heart hit the floor when Quintus accepted it without question. Utter relief washed over his face, and he hugged me again.
“And the others?” he asked.
“They’re dead now,” I murmured into his shoulder, gripping him tightly. “That’s all I know.”
He nodded, his eyes meeting mine. I nearly blurted it out right then. But I didn’t. When he released me, I swayed in place, almost collapsing. I had to put my hand on the kitchen counter behind me to find my bearings again.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Sure,” I answered, trying to pretend everything was normal “What do you want?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“There’s an Indian joint up the road. It’s not Ravi’s, but—”
“Fine. Come.” He sighed, beckoning me to his side as he returned to the couch. “I can watch my show in peace now. You know this one, The Throne’s Game?”
“Game of Thrones?” I corrected, resting my head on his shoulder and tucking my legs up behind me. I immediately unfurled again at the sight of Robb eating salt under Walder Frey’s roof, and headed for the bathroom.
“Sure you won’t watch? It’s quite good,” he insisted.
“Once was enough for me, thanks,” I retorted, locking the door as I sat on the closed toilet seat. I took the wadded-up tissue out of my pocket and uncovered what I’d stolen from the lab. The amber was but a speck, the wooden shard little more than an oversized splinter. I’d felt compelled to take them, to save them from whatever destruction Hedra had intended, though I knew I could do nothing with them myself. I dreaded to think of what else might have been destroyed or tampered with. The entire collection, everything I had left behind for Aarhaus, was tainted. No matter how hard I worked, with Hedra there or not, I’d never be sure my conclusions were without influence. Self-doubt reigned, and there was nothing I could do to shake it.
Dejected, I stood up, stuffing the scraps back in my pocket and turning to face the mirror. I flushed the unused toilet and stared hard at myself. I’d never been prone to lying before. But they’d become a necessity when Quintus had awoken. I’d done with without hesitation, to protect him. Now I was lying to him, and I hated myself. The blood-curdled screams of House Stark soaked through the door and mingled with my own dark thoughts. My stomach churned. I splashed my face with water to conceal the redness around my eyes and opened the door.
Quintus sat before the muted screen, his face pale. His head turned absently in my direction. When it came, his voice was a hoarse whisper.
“I’ve lost my appetite.”
“Me too.”
I watched his restful face while he slept, staining my own pillow with tears. I couldn’t let it revert back to that state in which he’d first captivated me. I pulled my chain off my neck and slipped it around his without disturbing him. He was still asleep when I readied to leave the next morning.
Locking the door to leave, I was struck by a sudden, almost insane idea, if my circumstances weren’t already insane. There were traditions in most magical systems for protection, or to guard entryways. Even if I thought there was nothing to them, even if my Eye of Ra had been peddled in a corner stall on a dirt-lined street, a golden trinket bought to placate an excitable daughter, the symbol had resonated with Hedra. So, I made my offering to the only gods I knew. I grabbed a charcoal pencil from my art sack and pulled threads of warnings from memory, scratching them over the lintel: “For all who enter this room to do wickedness, there will be judgment. The wrath of Thoth will seize her neck, and an end be made for her that no priest or doctor can cure.” If I believed this woman was truly a witch, then I had to believe that she might behave as certain witches were reported to do, which included appearing in more than one place at the same time. Her being up my ass all day didn’t guarantee she wouldn’t also be elsewhere. When I was finished, I added a cross in the center. Just in case.
Hedra was warier of me today, unsure if I still had Ra’s protection over my heart. She spent the entire day sulking in a corner, complaining of a headache.
“Go home, dear. Azi and I can handle this,” Pryce offered multiple times.
“No,” Hedra insisted, her eyes flaring. “I’ll be fine here, next to you.”
Pryce smiled and went about his day, happy as a teenager.
“Look here,” he said, splaying out the carbon tests before me for his three bodies. “There’s a few hundred years between each of these, even accounting for the range and the margin of error.”
“But all were murdered?” I asked.
“Yes, I believe so. This one had his throat slit,” he said, pointing to the report on the far left. “This one, head trauma.”
“You said this one was likely killed by an animal.” I played along, gesturing toward the specimen on the opposite table.
“Yes, but see,” he replied, leading me to the far side of the room and pointing with his pinky finger, “this pattern around his wrist and neck. He was bound, then had the animal deliberately set upon him.”
That I absolutely believed. Hedra hissed under her breath in her corner, uncrossing and re-crossing her legs. If it bothered her, why didn’t she make those clues invisible too? Where did she draw the line between what Dr. Pryce could and could not examine? I wondered about that.
“It’s confounding,” Pryce said after a pause.
“Not really,” I answered, testing the waters. “The place was used by multiple generations. It demonstrates that the place had a deeper meaning, one that was passed down. If there is a religious context behind these deaths, then we’re looking at more than just one ritual.”
“The signs of a tradition,” Pryce concluded, catching my train of thought. He put his hand to his forehead, and his eyebrows stretched up into his receding hairline. “How did I miss that?” he gasped, shocked at his own obliviousness.
One guess. But was that the point? Did Hedra want us to understand, to appreciate a lost culture and present it to the world? Then why hinder him at all? It was baffling.
“If we look hard enough, we may be able to see how that ritual evolved over this extended period,” I said, my eyes shifting back to the reports. “See what changed, what essential elements remained the same.”
Pryce’s look of stupefaction changed to a wide grin.
“Here only two days and making a fool out of an old hand like me.”
“Doctor Pryce, I—”
“Bup! Good for you. Isn’t she something, Hedra? We’ll really get some work done now.”
Pryce may not have been in love with me, but he admired me. That was why Hedra hated me, and she didn’t want me getting too close to her secrets. She raked her gaze over me like burning coals and lowered it to my left hand.
“Married already, Dr. Hayes? At such a tender age,” she mused, lifting an eyebrow.
“Married?!” Dr. Pryce cried. “You weren’t even engaged the last time I saw you!”
“Some things you just know,” I answered, warming to the thought of Quintus while fearing for him in the same heartbeat.
“Right indeed. Congratulations!” Pryce shouted in my ear as he pressed me to him. Feeling his ribs through his once-hefty frame sickened me.
“What’s the lucky groom’s name?” Hedra asked.
My mind went blank. It only took a few seconds for my lips to pick up the slack. “Alex.”
“Is he with you, then? We should all have dinner together,” she said. I think she saw me squirm in my own skin, for her shark smile widened.
“Yes, I insist!” Pryce turned to me with a mock stern face.
“I would, but he hasn’t been very well. It’ll take him some time to have an appetite.”
“Our fine weather dus naught agree with ’im, then?” The boast, the type made by locals used to the unwelcoming climate, carried a hint more Gaelic than her normal voice let on.
“Shame. Rain check, then,” Pryce replied.
The clock was ticking.
I came home not knowing much more than I had the day before and feeling the worse for it. My conversation with Pryce about the bodies had not been stymied, but how long would that last? The ball was in my court, and I had to figure out how to dodge a meeting with Quintus until I could discover more. The warning I’d etched out this morning was undisturbed. I breathed a sigh of relief as I opened the door, sucked right out of me again by Quintus’s harsh stare as he sat with his fists on his knees, waiting for me.
“Doing a little dabbling, I see?”
I closed the door behind me slowly, taking the time to choose my words carefully.
“You weren’t meant to see that.” Those were not the right words, from the way he fumed.
“Oh, I see. We’ve only been married a few weeks, but already the deception begins. What does that say?!” he shouted at me.
“It’s nothing bad! It’s a warning,” I insisted, holding up my hands in front of myself to defend against Quintus’s booming voice. There was no use now. “Quintus,” I said, stopping more words from forming on his lips. I swallowed my fear and braced myself for his reaction. “Hedra is now assistant to Dr. Pryce. The lab is hers.”
His mouth and eyes gaped. I took a step back as he started toward me, but I was caught up in his arms before I could even blink. He shook me hard, his voice lambasting my face until I cried.
“You know what could have happened, what could still happen, and you went?!”
I sobbed.
“She’s taken everything from me,” he said, ceasing his rampage and pulling me close. “I won’t let her take you. I forbid you to go back there. I mean it this time.”
“I can’t. It’s too suspicious,” I said. I wasn’t very convincing, even in my own ears.
“Then we’ll leave this place. Right now!”
“No.” The wave of my emotions passed over me at last. “We might be safe, but who else will she hurt?”
“My only care is for your safety. I vowed to protect you until my last drop of blood, and that’s what I will do.”
“She’ll overpower you again,” I cried, holding on to him for dear life and preventing him from breaking our embrace.
“I won’t be caught by her wiles,” Quintus argued. Jealousy burned in my chest, and I had to fight to stomach it. It was a supernatural pull; one he couldn’t control.
“It’s more than surprise, Quintus. It’s power. She has Pryce wrapped around her finger, and she made him fire his staff. They’ve barely touched their findings. She doesn’t want the work to be completed, and she’s stealing the amber off the other bodies. I think they bind her victims to her.”
“Mine is far away from here.”
“That doesn’t make you safe!”
He lifted me up and kissed me like he might never again. “I love you, Asenath. I’ll love you forever.” He spun me around in his arms, tossed me on the couch, and raced for the door.
I scrambled to my feet and gave chase. The doorknob wouldn’t turn. He’d jammed it from the other side. I screamed as I tore at the door, trying to rip it off its hinges.
“This goddamn motherfucking stupid machismo bullshit is gonna get you killed! Make me a widow at twenty-four? Fuck that shit!” I screamed. The door was implacable. I was wasting precious minutes like this and turned my attention to the window. The frames were the kind that didn’t open, to keep overworked, cracked-out grad students from jumping out. I was in no mood to be delicate about it, so I picked up the chair nearest me and hurled it out of the window.
I stared several stories straight down the flat face of the building—I would be as flat as that if I fell. Quintus was nowhere to be seen, and his head start was growing as I shimmied down the drainpipe. Impatient, I jumped the last few feet. My ankle burned, but I could run on it.
I sprinted through the open courtyards bridging the academic buildings to the student housing. An incoming fog bank on the horizon hastened my steps. I needed to catch up to Quintus before needing to shout his name.
Thin wisps of vapor snuck onto campus like grasping fingers tightening their grip as I bounded toward the lab. The waterlogged air was already draining the color from all things as I raced by, obscuring the face of the figure emerging from the doors until I careened headlong into him.
“Watch where you’re going!” he snapped. Then he recognized me, too. “Well, if it isn’t the little girl that cost me everything.”
“That’s Doctor Hayes to you!” I spat, rounding Alex’s shoulder to shoot past him into the building. He grabbed me hard by the arm and swung me around to face him.
“Is that all you have to say for yourself? You cost me my position, and Rachael’s divorcing me! You ruined my life.”
I struggled to break free. I didn’t have time for this, but he had stoked a long-burning fire, and I couldn’t help myself.
“Serves you right, for trying to steal mine.”
He snarled, his tight nails digging into my skin.
“All that was yours should have been mine. The house, and everything in it—all my hard work.”
A cloud bearing my laughter blasted his face in short white puffs. “You’re a joke, and everybody knows it—you’ll never step out of my father’s shadow.”
His iron grip on my arm sped to my throat. I tried to rip his fingers away from my neck, but he shoved me hard against the brick exterior, and my vision swam.
“The hell I won’t. How does it live, Azi?!” he demanded. Even if I had understood his crazed words, my voice box was being crushed, so I couldn’t have answered. “The insect in the amber,” he shouted, spit flicking my ear. “I know you know. Tell me!”
I spat in his face. It stunned him enough to make him stagger backwards, wiping the hate from his eyes. I reached for the knife in my pocket. I’d be goddamned if I was going to let him kill me. I gave him one warning.
“Stop, Alex!”
He charged at me, and my grip tensed in my pocket.
“A lover’s quarrel already?”
Alex’s advance on me fell on the empty air between us, and he stumbled at me, the murder in his eyes arrested by the coy shrillness of the interloper’s voice. Her eyes locked on Alex as her words fell into place in my head.
Lover’s quarrel. She thinks he’s my husband.
His hands went lax at his side for a moment, his eyes cloudy, like a robot whose battery had run down. The next instant, he was fumbling over his words, introducing himself. She batted her eyes at him, appearing flattered by his clumsiness.
“No wonder you’ve been keeping him to yourself,” she said, baring her teeth.
“What are you doing here so late?” I managed.
She glared at me but ignored the question, turning back instead to Alex, her eyes boring a hole into the pocket of his tweed coat.
“I believe that’s mine,” she cooed.
He obediently dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out the amber that had been pinned to Quintus. My eyes grew wide. I started for it, but Hedra was standing closer, and she snatched it from Alex with ease. My heart stopped as she set her eyes on me, not bothering to mask their demonic aspect.
“So, you were keeping something useful to yourself. Clever girl.”
I stayed silent, not knowing what was going to happen next. Hedra also seemed to consider this a moment, rolling the amber carelessly in her hand like a long-lost toy. Then came her answer.
“Your wife is a little too clever, don’t you think?” she asked Alex, looking up at him through veiled eyelids.
“She’s not my wife,” he promptly answered. “She means nothing to me.”
It was unclear whether my “husband” Alex was unmasking my lie or simply disowning me. I kept it that way. Hedra pouted.
“She bothers me,” she pleaded, her eyes twinkling darkly.
“Do you want me to get rid of her?” Alex offered, seeming eager to ingratiate himself. I tried to remember he was not his own man now and pushed the other possibility away.
“Would you, please?” she said, her tone detached, cold.
He made a grand bow, then turned to me. I set my feet apart and planted them, feeling the sweat creeping down on my spine. He lumbered toward me, his hands outstretched like Boris Karloff, giving me all the room I needed to bury my knife, up and in, right to the hilt.
I shuddered at the sudden rush of warm blood on my wind-chilled hand, and my stomach churned at the soft pressure of flesh as my blade ripped through it. Alex coughed in numb surprise, spraying blood on my face and in my hair. The fog bank in his eyes cleared, showing an even purer malice underneath, before he sank like a stone at my feet. I don’t know why, and hadn’t noticed when it started, but I was crying.
“I’m sorry, Alex,” I whispered, stepping over him. I looked up, expecting a second assailant, but there was none. The campus was deserted in every direction. As I spun around, the lampposts dotting the campus flickered on, but they gave no sign of the witch. She had the amber that tethered Quintus to her, and she would take him from me if I didn’t reach him first. I returned the bloodied dagger to my pocket, staining the front of my hoodie as I ran back to the Fellow house and jumped into our rental car just as the fog rolled in from the coast. I could only think of one place she would go.