"She laughed at you, didn't she?" Most people would have been surprised by the gentleness of Jack's tone. She wasn't the sort of person who seemed inclined to gentleness.
Christopher nodded. "She said I was a cute little boy, but that she couldn't lower herself to be seen with me. Like, that was her opening statement. Not ‘thanks, no thanks,' not ‘my name's Jill.' Just straight to ‘you're a cute little boy.' I stopped trying after that."
"She was trying to save you, in her way," said Jack. "Her Master was the jealous sort. She used to try to make friends with the kids from the village below his castle. Jill liked having a lot of friends around. Believe it or not, she used to be the gregarious one, even if it was a nerdy sort of friendly. She'd run you to ground to tell you about the latest episode of Doctor Who. This was early on, before she'd embraced the lacy dresses and the iron-rich diet. Back then, she thought we were just having an adventure. She was the one who thought we were going to go home someday and wanted to learn as much as she could."
"And you?" asked Kade.
"I gave up on wanting to go home the second Dr. Bleak put a bone saw in my hand and told me he would teach me anything I wanted to know," said Jack. "For a while, Jill was opening doors and looking for a road home, and I was the one who never wanted to leave."
"What happened to the kids from the village?" asked Christopher. "The ones she tried to make friends with?"
Jack's expression went blank. It wasn't coldness, exactly, more a means of distancing herself from what she was about to say. "We lived in the grace and at the sufferance of a vampire lord. What do you think happened to the kids from the village? Her Master didn't want her talking to anyone he couldn't control. I think he only spared me because Dr. Bleak begged, and because he pointed out the wisdom in keeping a self-replenishing source of blood transfusions for Jill. We're twins. If anything happened to her, I could be used for spare parts."
Nancy's mouth dropped open. "That's horrible," she squeaked.
"That was the Moors." Jack shook her head. "It was cruel and cold and brutal and beautiful, and I would give anything to go back there. Maybe it broke me in some deep, intrinsic way that I am incapable of seeing, just like Jill can't understand that she's not a normal girl anymore. I don't care. It was my home, and it finally let me be myself, and I hate it here."
"We pretty much all hate it here," said Kade. "Even me. That's why we're at this school. Now think. Your sister isn't in the basement, so where would she go?"
"She might still be in the dining hall, since it's harder to pick on her when there's supervision around," said Jack. "Or she could have gone out to sit in the trees and pretend that she's back at home. We spent a lot of time outside there, for one reason or another."
"We saw her there yesterday," said Kade. "Nancy and I will go check the trees; you and Christopher check the dining hall. We'll meet back at the attic no matter what we find."
"Why the attic?" asked Christopher.
But Jack was nodding. "Good call. We can go through your books while Loriel finishes stewing. Maybe there's something in there about why someone would be harvesting parts from world-walkers. It's a long shot. At this point, I'll take it. Come on, bone boy." She turned and strode down the hall, every inch the confident mad scientist's protégée once again. Any vulnerability she had shown was gone, tamped down and covered over by the mask she wore.
"Thanks for sticking me with the scary girl," said Christopher to Kade, and ran after her, pulling the bone flute from his pocket.
"You're welcome," Kade called after him. He offered his arm to Nancy, grinning. "C'mon. Let's go see if we can't find ourselves an Addams." His drawl grew thicker, dripping from his words like sweet and tempting honey.
Nancy set her hand in the crook of his elbow, feeling the traitorous red creeping back into her cheeks. This was always the difficult part, back when she'd been at her old school: explaining that "asexual" and "aromantic" were different things. She liked holding hands and trading kisses. She'd had several boyfriends in elementary school, just like most of the other girls, and she had always found those practice relationships completely satisfying. It wasn't until puberty had come along and changed the rules that she'd started pulling away in confusion and disinterest. Kade was possibly the most beautiful boy she'd ever seen. She wanted to spend hours sitting with him and talking about pointless things. She wanted to feel his hand against her skin, to know that his presence was absolute and focused entirely on her. The trouble was, it never seemed to end there, and that was as far as she was willing to go.
Kade must have read her discomfort, because he flashed her a smile and said, "I promise I'm a gentleman. You're as safe with me as you are with anyone who's not the murderer."
"And see, I was just trying to decide whether I thought you might be the killer," said Nancy. "I'm really relieved to hear that you're not. I'm not either, just for the record."
"That's good to know," said Kade.
They walked together through the deserted manor. Whispers sometimes drifted from the rooms they passed, indicating the presence of their fellow students. They didn't stop. Everyone had their own concerns, and Nancy had an uneasy feeling that by helping Jack destroy Loriel's body, she had just placed herself firmly in the "enemy" camp for anyone who had been a friend of Loriel's when she was alive. Nancy had never made so many enemies before, or so quickly. She didn't like it. She just didn't see a way to undo it.
There was no one outside. The lawn was empty as she and Kade walked toward the trees; even the crows had flown away, off to look for some richer pickings. Everything was silent, eerily so.
Jill wasn't in the trees. That was almost a disappointment: Nancy had been fully expecting to step into the sheltered grove and see the other girl sitting on a root, posed like something out of a gothic novel, with her parasol blocking out any stray sunbeams that had dared to come too close. Instead, the sun shone down undisturbed, and Nancy and Kade were alone.
"Well, that's one down," said Nancy, suddenly nervous. What if Kade wanted to kiss her? What if Kade didn't want to kiss her? There was no good answer, and so she did what she always did when she was confused or frightened: she froze, becoming a girl-shaped statue.
"Whoa," said Kade. He sounded genuinely impressed. "That's some trick. Do you actually turn into stone, or does it only seem like you do?" He prodded her gently in the arm with one finger. "Nope, still flesh. You're holding really, really still, but you're not inanimate. How are you doing that? Are you even breathing? I can't do that."
"The Lady of Shadows required that everyone who served her be able to hold properly still," said Nancy, releasing her pose. Her cheeks reddened again. This was all going so wrong. "I'm sorry. I tend to freeze up when I get nervous."
"Don't worry, you're safe with me," said Kade. "Whoever the killer is, they're only striking when people are alone. We'll stick together, and we'll be fine."
But you're what I'm nervous about, thought Nancy. She forced a wan smile. "If you really think so," she said. "Jill isn't here. We should get back to the attic before Jack and Christopher start to worry about us."
They walked side by side back the way that they had come, Nancy's fingers resting on Kade's arm and her eyes scanning the grassy expanse of the lawn, looking for some clue as to what had happened. There had to be something that would bring all this together, that would force it to make sense. They couldn't just be at the mercy of an unseen killer, who slaughtered them for no apparent reason.
"Hands," she murmured.
"What's that?" asked Kade.
"I was just thinking about Sumi's hands," she said. "She was really good with her hands, you know? Like they were the most important thing about her. Maybe someone is trying to take away the things we treasure the most. I don't know why, though, or how they'd know."
"It makes sense," said Kade. They had reached the porch steps. As they started up, he said, "Most of the students lost the things that were most precious to them when their doors closed. Maybe someone's so heartbroken that they're trying to make sure nobody gets to be happy. If they have to be miserable, so does everyone else."
"But you're not miserable when you're dead," said Nancy.
"I sure do hope not," said Kade, and reached for the doorknob.
The door opened before he touched it.
7
COCOA
LUNDY STOOD IN the doorway, eyeing the pair suspiciously. "Where were you?"
"Morning to you, too, ma'am," said Kade. "We got Loriel sorted, just like Miss Eleanor asked us to, and then we went to find Jill. Jack and Christopher are looking inside; we went to look outside. Since she's not out here, do you mind if we come back in?"