House of Salt and Sorrows - Erin A. Craig Page 0,118

remember Cassius?” She shook her head. “What about the balls? The dancing? Did I make that up too? You were with me at nearly all of them.”

She opened her mouth, looking as if she was about to deny the memories, but paused. She shook her head once, twice, as though clearing it from a fog. For the first time since the funeral, she spoke. “I do remember dancing, but—”

Another crash of thunder interrupted her train of thought, then a pair of shrill screeches.

“Go. I’ll stay here, I promise.”

She turned and raced down the hall after the girls.

Lightning danced dangerously close to the window, and the responding boom was so loud, I ducked, covering my ears. The glass panes rattled in their casings. Had that bolt struck the house?

An unearthly howl came from upstairs. Memories of Mama’s labors sprang to mind, but it was far too early for Morella, wasn’t it? Even if the twins were conceived before she’d married Papa, as Camille was so very certain, she was only six months along. Maybe. It was too soon. Far too soon.

I paced the room, feeling like a caged animal.

Morella’s cries of anguish grew louder and louder, spilling into my mind as pervasively as Kosamaras’s laughter. Were the twins part of the bargain? Was Morella? How many people were fated to die today?

One loud, long scream rang through the house before it fell into an eerie stillness. The storm raged on, with flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder, but there was only silence from the fourth floor. I dared to cross into the hallway, straining my ears for the sound of a baby’s cry.

Only silence.

Then Camille. “Annaleigh? Annaleigh, we need you now!”

Rushing into the bedchamber, I was struck by a wall of iron-tainted air. The sheets were a tangled horror of blood and viscera. The babies had come.

Morella sprawled back into a pile of pillows, dozing or unconscious, I couldn’t say for certain. For a moment, I worried she was dead, but even from across the room, I could see her chest heaving. Papa knelt at the side of the bed, his hands enveloping hers as he whispered a silent prayer.

“The babies?” I asked stupidly, struck by how silent the room was.

Camille turned, holding out a blanket-covered bundle. I feared she’d cringe from me, as Honor and Mercy had. Tears streamed down her face, and I knew my math was right. It was too soon.

Wordlessly, she offered me the baby. Peeking inside the stained swaddling clothes, I spotted a beautiful tiny face, eyes closed. They would never open. He was a boy. Papa’s only son. Stillborn.

“What happened?” I kept my voice low. There was no other bundle in the room. This boy had been the first. Morella needed all the rest she could get if she was to deliver another child on this hellish day.

Camille glanced uneasily at the bed, then beckoned me into the hallway. I couldn’t bear to leave my brother, however small, however dead, by himself, so I took him with us. I rubbed his back, wishing that could return him to us.

“She was already in labor when we got here. She said the contractions came on fast and horribly strong. She’d been fine at breakfast, but then…She was bleeding so much. I didn’t know if that was normal. I can’t imagine that it was.” She nudged back a lock of hair with her wrist. I’d never seen her look so exhausted. “She started pushing, and he just came out in a rush of fluids and more blood. Papa caught him and…he never made a sound. He tried hitting him on the back, but he never woke up. I can’t do that again, not by myself. I know you’re not wholly well right now, Annaleigh, but I need you to be. I need my sister.” She held back a sob.

“Oh, Camille.” I threw my arms around her, not caring about her blood-soaked clothing, not caring about her accusations or the bargain. Relief raced through my body as she hugged me back.

“What is happening to our family?” I could barely hear the question with her face buried in my neck. “What were you talking about downstairs? A bargain?”

“Cassius…” She jerked away and I trailed off, seeing the nervous glint in her eyes. “I think someone in this house made a bargain with one of the Tricksters, Viscardi. I thought it was Papa, maybe. So he could have the twins. Then Sterland. But now I don’t know what