I was sitting in a chair holding a teacup in the conservatory at the duke’s residence. For a moment, I thought I had dreamed everything at the Nightingale until the thing that wore Gabrielle’s body addressed me.
“I am so glad we could meet in a more pleasant location.”
Beyond the glass panes was a fog of white. Nothing outside of the conservatory existed except the void. I wasn’t at the duke’s home; the ghost-dragon had brought me to the Beyond and created a reality from an image it took from my mind.
Shocked, I barely took in what the creature had said. My frantic mind raced hither and thither, closing access, as I tried to remain calm.
“It’s always best to have serious conversations in a neutral place. Much like negotiating a peace treaty or a ceasefire.” At least my voice was steady. The teacup in my hand felt real under my fingers, but it was empty of anything to drink. It seemed the creature had a limited imagination.
How the creature brought me here I did not know. But any member of the Morpheus Society knew staying in the Beyond tempted madness. The Beyond rejected the living, and it dealt with us unkindly if we lingered too long.
Gabrielle looked ghastly. Her red eyes, pale death-like complexion, and the thinness of her body made her seem a walking ghoul. If my guess was correct, the creature was using Gabrielle’s life to power this elaborate illusion and keep me imprisoned here, something unnatural since the Beyond rejects life. I couldn’t image the energy that would take; she’d be dead soon.
Her body prowled around the octagonal room like a wild thing in a cage. She stopped behind my chair and, leaning over the back, said, “You aren't like the others. You’re special.”
I forced a smile. “You probably say that to everyone you terrorize.”
It laughed, throwing itself away from me, and went back to pacing. “I like you. Smart and funny. A delicious treat.”
As it circled, coming back into view, it now wore the face and body of Enzo. Only the bulging, glass-red, insect-like eyes remained the same.
“You must be ancient. King Guénard said the tiara has been in his family for some time.”
“King Guénard!” The thing snarled, displaying unnaturally pointed teeth inside Enzo’s mouth, showing some hybrid mix of its selves. It took all my will not to shrink back into my chair.
“You don’t like His Majesty?”
Enzo flung himself into the only other chair in the place with such violence that it rocked back temporarily on its back two feet. “Guénard’s ancestors took me from the Perino people. Stole me from a shrine where they venerated me as a god!”
“Worshiped as a dragon? Or as a tiara?” I asked, my curiosity aroused.
“In Perino, they imprisoned me in this bauble.” It pointed a finger at its head, but there was no physical tiara there. I imagine it was still sitting on my head back in the Earthly plane. “Still, in Perino, they at least gave me my due. I was worshiped as national treasure and given sacrifices to survive.”
“Then why not let the king return you to Perino? That was his intent. Don’t you long to go back to being worshiped?”
Enzo hissed. “That is not the freedom I crave, Elinor. I hope you will let me call you Elinor. I feel we will be great friends.”
“Of course. After all, you are in my head now, aren’t you? Trying to find a way in to control me?”
It leaned forward, a nictitating membrane flashing over its human eyes, wetting them with moisture. Another sign that the thing blended itself with its human host.
“You keep so much locked away from me. Give me the key to your mind and I can make your dreams come true. How can you resist me?”
For a moment, wanting the answer to my father’s murder flashed into my head. I locked that errant thought down; no way was this thing going to give me what my heart desired. I shrugged and said, “I’m sorry, but my training sealed off parts of my mind. My mentor, Leona Granger, gave me protections I cannot remove.”
It leaned back in the chair, and Gabrielle's figure and face replaced Enzo's. They were both looking worse for the wearing, like a shabby winter coat you kept despite lost buttons. It had to draw on them both to keep itself and this illusion intact. It would soon run out of power. What then, Elinor?
“I think the last dragon sighting was at least five hundred years. I wonder how old you are?”
“Six hundred fifty-eight years ago is when the last dragon flew.”
“Oh, were you the last one?”
It made a disgusted sneer with Gabrielle’s borrowed mouth. “No. I died seven hundred eighty-six years ago.”
“By humans?”
"No. Natural causes. From wounds I gained in a mating fight."
“That’s too bad—” It cut me off with a roar of rage, leaping from the chair to return to its maniac pacing. “My body could not lie in peace. No! Humans came and harvested my hide, my bones, and even, yes, my blood to make these so-called rubies.”
The glass in the window frames shook and, and the entire image of the conservatory faded. I felt the chair drop from under me as the ghost-dragon struggled to maintain its illusion as reality. While it was distracted, I tried to make the teacup in my hand disappear. Yes! It faded away until finally vanishing. A minor victory for me proving I could influence this environment.
After the storm quieted, the thing begged me. “Free me, Elinor. Let me have access to your mind.”
“Perhaps if you tell me more, I could help?”
“I want out of this ruby prison! Out of the tiara, and be returned to the skies in my dragon form.”
The dead wanting life again wasn’t a new idea. It’s part of why they possess the living.
“I'd recommend possessing a bird with wings since dragons are no longer around.”
“Birds are too primitive a mind to serve my needs. Humans are better hosts, for they help me keep my mind, my thoughts intact, even though you are lesser beings than dragons.”
Absentmindedly, it started picking at the flesh on Gabrielle’s hand, peeling the skin back to expose bone, throwing the discards on the floor. Strangely enough, Gabrielle’s hand didn’t bleed even though the exposed flesh was raw, exposing sinew and muscle.
As its gaze grew abstract, I feared for Jacques and Archambeau. Enzo and Gabrielle were dying or already dead; this mind-place in the Beyond was already fading and would need more fuel to keep it in place. Fuel from the living.
“I think I know a way you can gain your happiness.”
Its head swiveled on its neck with a distinct reptilian movement. “Tell me!”
“Locked away from the world, perhaps you don’t know that medical science has made strides in helping people solve these types of problems.”
When I paused, it demanded again. “Tell me! Now. I want my freedom.”
“Alienists use something they call a talking cure.”
“Talking? Haven’t we been talking already?”
“This is a specialized talking. You must peel back all the layers, be totally honest, bare yourself, and bring down all the barriers if you wish to obtain true happiness.” I gave a heavy sigh, shaking my head. “But I don’t think you’re ready, for only the strongest and bravest can make such strong magic work.”
“A dragon is the strongest and bravest thing on earth.”
“But you’re not a dragon anymore. Not really. For hundreds of years, you’ve let yourself become polluted by us human chickens.”
“What do you mean?” In its irritation, the thing scraped a deep gouge down Gabrielle’s cheek, exposing the bone of her jaw.
“You’ve polluted your dragon-ness with human thoughts and desires. No wonder you haven't become free in six hundred years. You don't really want that; you enjoy being human.”
“Liar! I am nothing but a dragon!”
“Really? How many humans have you possessed and devoured? Gabrielle, a poor dancing girl; Enzo, some gutter thief? Giles Monet, some princesses and servant girls. What are you now but a messy mixing pot of their desires? You wear their faces and identities.”
In a split second, its face was nose to nose with mine. The shock of it made my heart bolt, but I kept my face calm.
“I am a dragon, no matter what form I wear!”
“Prove it. Let go of your human memories and show me your true self. Release Gabrielle and Enzo.”
“Why should I?”
“Possession mixes the spirit with the living. No matter what you think, the living will dominate the twinning: our life-force makes it so. Our desires and needs will always rule over the dead. When I last saw Gabrielle, she couldn’t stop herself from dancing, although you controlled her. How many times has she expressed desires you thought were your own?”
“Fine. I shall release her. She is dying anyway.”
Quickly, Gabrielle’s face disappeared, and the creature was now Enzo. At least he didn’t have hands showing bone and raw muscle.
“You must release Enzo as well. He is hiding your dragon-ness.”
The creature gave me a mock bow before Enzo vanished to be replaced with the face and form of Giles Monet. It was strange seeing him animated. “Part of the talking cure includes telling the alienist the ‘why’? Why make Mysir Monet take you? Or did he steal you?”
Monet’s face held a cast of cruelty to it, that I hoped wasn’t his real expression because it was vastly unpleasant. “Giles was easy to corrupt. Do not think he went to me unwillingly. He was unhappy, begging for scraps, and I offered him much more than your weak king ever did.”
“Maybe not as willing as you believe. Didn’t he try to use drugs to stop from hearing you in his mind? The same reason a girl threw herself from a tower. To stop you?”
Mad with rage, the creature seized a chair and threw it against the walls. Shattering the glass panes, the chair spun away into the void. Then the creature turned to me, its stolen face inflamed with violence.
“Yes! He refused my command to hand the crown to the dancer. Said he would destroy me instead! But I had my revenge. I made his lover kill him. A rock to the back of the head during a romantic stroll along the canal.”
He started laughing hysterically.
Remain calm, Elinor.
“But your satisfaction at being revenged didn’t last long, did it? You were soon hungry again. Giles, Gabrielle, Enzo. None really gave you what you craved, did they? Your freedom.”
“No,” it agreed in a sulky tone that I might have expected to come from Marcus. Thinking of my interactions with the boy, I tried to strike an encouraging tone instead of one of authority.
“You must release your hold on Giles and go back even further. Only by casting away the human souls contaminating your thoughts can you return to your pure dragon state. And therein find true freedom.”
It paced, hands behind its back, talking to itself in a rapid-fire and disturbing litany. “She cannot be right. I need them all. I’ve kept their memories. Lived their thoughts. They are me. Me. I am them? Aren’t I? I could eat this one, gain the knowledge I need. No. She might die, her mind-doors closed to me. I need to be me. A dragon. Pure dragon. I cannot dilute my essence with the foulness of my prey.”
While it fretted, distracted, I drew on my memories, imagining the smooth pearl handle of my man-stopper, the coolness of the barrel resting in the palm of my hand. If I could unmake in this strange place, I could make.
“I do not want these humans contaminating me! I shall eliminate them!”
Monet’s face vanished, replaced by a disturbing sequence of forms— men, women, and even children. The creature’s pacing took it in front of the broken glass where it had thrown the chair.
Formed by my will and imagination, I felt the hardness of the mans-stopper in my hand. I brought it up, and taking aim, fired the pistol.
The creature staggered, screaming as it tried to grab my mind. Springing from my chair, I closed the distance between us and fired again in rapid succession. It fell backward, falling into the white void of the Beyond.