after my brother had died.
Even though it was the last thing I wished to do, I brought myself back to that fateful November night when I’d confronted my brother with the crimes I thought he’d committed, replaying each detail as if it were a moving picture.
I’d claimed Nathaniel was the Ripper.
I’d accused him of committing such violent acts. But, like Mephistopheles had warned me time and again during that hellish carnival, I needed to beware of my mind conjuring its own tale. I knew now that it had been creating stories, but why hadn’t my brother confessed the truth?
I closed my eyes, seeing that night clearer. At first Nathaniel seemed surprised, but then he’d recovered quickly. He’d fed me line after line, almost as if he’d made it up on the go. But why? Why lay claim to something so unspeakably horrid if he was innocent? Had he been coerced? What on earth would possess him to—The answer hit me so swiftly, I gasped. It was so simple, yet I couldn’t process it. There was only one force on earth with that power.
Love.
Not necessarily romantic love. My brother likely felt so deprived of true companionship that he’d been led onto a dark, twisted path. I imagined the murderer had seen the hunger in him for the love and acceptance of a friend and exploited it. After my mother’s death, Nathaniel was emotionally broken in so many ways I hadn’t seen, but someone else did.
And used it against him.
My brother was mad about science and Frankenstein and reanimating the dead; perhaps carrying that dark secret had been a much bigger burden than I’d imagined. He could have shared those desires with someone who he thought understood. Who didn’t judge him. Who encouraged his mad beliefs. All the while hiding the dagger behind his back.
If that were true… hatred coiled in my core. I would take pleasure in killing this devil not only for Thomas, but for my brother as well. Nathaniel had never been Dr. Frankenstein; he’d been twisted into the creature. One who’d taken the blame for his creator.
I was unsure how Nathaniel had managed to do so, but he’d tricked Thomas with his lies as well. In my mind’s eye, I relived Thomas stumbling down those laboratory stairs, his expression frantic, until his attention landed on me. Back then I didn’t recognize the depth of his fear—how his own emotions had interfered.
I was both Thomas Cresswell’s weakness and his strength.
When he feared for my safety, his deductions were rushed, less razor-edged than when he had no emotional ties. He’d claimed cuts on Nathaniel’s fingertips had indicated he was the Ripper, but what if there was another reason for those? My brother had been handling sharp bits of metal, fusing them into his contraptions. Those actions could produce the same wounds. I opened my eyes, seeing the clues in an entirely new light.
“Dear God above.” Terror, I soon realized, had its own taste. It was sharp and coppery, much like blood. Each hair raised itself from my body as if it hoped to sprout wings and take flight. If Nathaniel had help with creating his laboratory, then any deficiencies in the design had most certainly been worked out. This house was a weapon itself, ready to destroy those who dared cross its threshold.
My home was the prototype. This was the grand masterpiece.
I glanced at the skulls and poor Minnie’s body, which had been partially skinned. If this chamber was located under the hotel—then I was only in one small portion of the underground maze. The hotel took up an entire city block. I almost sank to my knees. Getting out with my life would be nearly impossible. Maybe this was always how my story was supposed to end, in this earthly version of Hell. Perhaps if I let him have me, his murderous rampage would come to a close.
I stopped looking at the mangled corpse that used to be the bright and cheerful Minnie. Would her fate soon be my own? A cadaver ripped apart into something hardly recognizable as human? A flash of Thomas’s body crumpled with poison battled against my fear. I promised I’d make it home to him. I would not let this murderous castle or its owner win.
This time when I scanned the chamber, I was searching for items to assist with my escape. Much to my surprise, my dragon cane lay against a barrel. I retrieved it, not looking any closer at the skeletal remains