I woke with a start.
My eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness before I could take in the room around me. A bookshelf filled with books and tiny gadgets took up most of the space on one wall, while the other had a desk and an armoire. The large curtain covering the wall opposite the door and the curving walls told me I was still in the aircraft.
I sat up on the bed and held a hand to my spinning head. A chain clanked around my ankle with the movement.
Alarm spiked through me, and my breathing quickened. Memories of Desmarc came rushing back, and I blinked back tears as a shudder of revulsion rippled through me. Whatever he’d done to me had knocked me out, then he must’ve put me in one of the little side rooms on the aircraft. But it didn’t make sense that he hadn’t killed me like the other victims. Maybe he was hoping to blackmail Papá.
Why in the blighted aether had Desmarc tried to kill Hiram and, besides their scythe rings, how was he connected to the man who had committed the other murders?
“It’ll be all right, Kyra. You can handle this. Do not panic,” I mumbled to myself, even though my hand automatically went to check on my knives. They weren’t there. Both sheaths were empty. My breath hitched as I imagined Desmarc finding them and taking them. He must’ve seen me use them at the debate, otherwise he wouldn’t have even thought to check.
Pushing away my rising panic, I tried to still my trembling hands. I glanced at the closed door across the room, then turned my attention to the chain clasped around my leather boot. I had to get out of here before Desmarc came back to finish the job. If I could make it out of here and back to Papá, I’d be safe. It didn’t matter that we’d ended things on a bad note. Surely he’d be looking for me since I never came back this morning. I just needed to get off the airship before it left the ground.
Now that my eyes were fully adjusted, I could better see how Desmarc had looped one end of the chain around my ankle and the other around the foot of the bed. I was worse off without my knives, but not totally without options. I pulled the hairpin from my bun, grateful I still had it at least, and stuck it into the keyhole, trying to pick the lock. The tip scraped against something, but after a few fruitless minutes, I swore and lowered the hairpin. Maybe if it was a rope, I could’ve cut through it with the hairpin’s sharp edge—and that was a strong maybe—but this wasn’t going to work.
Trying to keep the chain from making too much noise, I slid awkwardly off the bed and onto the floor to study it more closely, shoving the pin in my pocket. The chain was snapped shut around the narrow part of the bed’s leg, so there was no way to push it up, and no way to push it down since the leg ended on a brass ball.
I braced my shoulder under the bed frame and lifted it, gritting my teeth as the metal dug into my skin. I couldn’t hold it for long, but a quick check of the foot of the bed proved it could be twisted. Heart pounding, I lowered the bed back to the floor with a quiet thump and glanced over my shoulder toward the door, waiting a beat to make sure no one outside would come in. I pulled my skirt up to provide extra padding for my neck and shoulders—no time for propriety now—and bent to put the foot of the bed back over one shoulder.
With a strained grunt, I lifted it a few inches from the floor and set to work unscrewing the brass knob at the foot. At first it was reluctant and screeched loudly as I twisted it, but it slowly loosened. The bed seemed to grow heavier with each passing moment, but I finally got the brass ball off and slipped the chain loose. As quietly as I could, I lowered the bed back to the ground.
I was free...in a manner of speaking. I hefted the heavy chain off the ground and wrapped it around one arm to keep it from dragging as I walked. My fingers itched for a weapon of some sort, but all I had was the chain.
As I crept to the exit, my gaze snagged on the armoire. Something gleamed at me from inside the partially open door. Though I shouldn’t waste time, I walked over and pulled it open all the way. Inside, my wedding dress winked back at me.
I gasped and stumbled back, almost tripping with the unexpected weight of the chain. There was no way that Desmarc was still planning on going through with the wedding. It was preposterous. Even he couldn’t believe I’d still agree to this after everything he’d done.
Leaving the dress behind, I cracked the door to the hall open, blinking in the sudden light. Lanterns, attached to the wood walls with brass fixtures, lit the narrow space.
Easing the door open wider, I slipped into the hall, grateful for the carpet muffling my footsteps. Voices drifted to me from one end, so I went the other way. I couldn’t risk running into Desmarc, not like this. My best chance was to get off the airship.
I walked carefully and slowly to keep the chain from making any noise. My right footstep was heavy, but at least my boot protected me from the shackle cutting into my skin.