“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a menacing voice whispered against my ear.
I struggled against Desmarc, but he’d grabbed the chain’s end and looped it around my body so that it pinioned my arm to my side. As we fought, he dragged me back a few steps, his arm looped around my middle. He opened a door with one hand and pushed against it with his back and we eased into a room. Desmarc spun around and leaned against it with his back before releasing me.
“Look at you, my feisty little fiancée.” He tsked and shook his head, but he gave me a small grin, almost as if he were proud of me.
“What do you want?” I glared at him, rubbing my side where the chain had cut into me, then I glanced to each side to take in the new room, which was similar to the one I’d just left.
“What do you think?” He gave me a cool smile. “I want to get married.”
“I’ll never marry you,” I hissed. “Not after what you’ve done.”
“I hardly think helping my fiancée, who unfortunately passed out on the airship, should count against me.”
I took a step back, but it only seemed to encourage him to take a step forward. He limped slightly from his injury, but otherwise moved fine. “You tried to kill Hiram!” My hand twitched to go for the knives that weren’t there.
Desmarc shrugged, though his sharp gaze tracked the movement as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. “He was getting too close.”
“Too close to what?” I waited, half-expecting him to say Hiram had gotten too close to me.
His expression hardened. “It doesn’t matter. We have wedding preparations to attend to.”
“Why? What benefit would you get from marrying me now that I know the truth?”
“Because I was ordered to join the Annandale family.”
He said it so simply, as though the answer itself didn’t open up a hundred new questions, like who had ordered him to marry me and why. There was clearly much more at play here than I’d realized.
“But I’m afraid there’s no time for chitchat,” he said. “We’ve got a room full of guests waiting on us, and I don’t want us to be late.”
“As soon as you let me out of these doors I’ll run and tell everyone exactly what you’ve done.” I dropped a hand into my pocket and wrapped it around my thimble.
“I don’t think you will,” he said far too calmly.
Goose bumps skittered across the back of my neck. Desmarc still had some hidden screw up his sleeve, or else he wouldn’t be so confident.
“And why wouldn’t I? You’ve broken at least three different laws, from kidnapping, to attempted murder, to actual murder—since I’m assuming it was you that killed Meridian Lambkins.”
“It was.”
I recoiled from his casual admittance. “How could you?”
“With Meridian Lambkins out of the way and dying by an aether weapon at that, it severely weakened Meridian Eliver’s platform while strengthening your father’s.”
His logical explanations brought me back to the day of the debate. And then I remembered how surprised Desmarc had looked. He’d been staring at the murderer like the rest of us, but there’d been something different in his expression. He wasn’t surprised the murderer had been there but that he’d been caught. Because, of course, he’d known the whole time what was about to happen.
“So Meridian Eliver had nothing to do with it?”
“Just another cog,” he said, mirroring my words from the engagement party that felt like a lifetime ago. His eyes narrowed and he approached slowly. “Now, I’m going to approach you and take that chain off your leg.”
“You are?” My heart skipped a beat. With the chain gone, that could be my chance to escape—not that there was really anywhere to go with the ship already in the air.
“Yes, I can’t have my fiancée walking around looking like that,” he said. “And if you know what’s good for you, you won’t try anything foolish.”
I held still as he approached, though every instinct screamed at me to move. To run. Maybe trying to escape was foolish with nowhere to go, but it couldn’t be more foolish than simply going along with Desmarc’s plans.
Desmarc knelt and put one hand on my ankle while his other fished a key from his pocket. I tried not to shudder under his touch, instead focusing all my energy on holding still and preparing for the moment the lock clicked open.
“Now remember,” he said as he tightened his grip and twisted the key in the lock, “don’t try anything—”
“Foolish, I know.” I brought my knee up to his face, and he groaned and fell back. At least my crimson skirt would hide the blood.
I jumped over his prone form and darted toward the door. I was free of him and of his chains. Now I just needed to get into the hall and find Papá and tell him what happened. No matter how much he wanted to be Prime Meridian, he’d never let me marry a murderer.
My gloved hand slid off the handle at first, but I grabbed it again and frantically pulled. Except it didn’t move. It was locked. With fumbling fingers, I reached for the lock just as a hand wrapped around my ankle and pulled.
My leg flew out from under me as my head smacked into the door. A sharp pain went through my forehead, and I groaned. Before I could climb back to my feet, Desmarc was on me.
“What did I tell you about behaving foolishly?” he breathed into my ear as his weight pressed down on my back, pinning me to the floor.
“Trying to get away from my kidnapper seems the opposite of foolish to me,” I grunted while trying to push his weight off. I focused my efforts on his injured leg—or supposedly injured leg—but couldn’t get much leverage from that angle.
Desmarc flipped me over so I was staring up at him, then he pinned my legs in place with his knees and held my hands above my head. “I haven’t worked this hard for you to ruin it now, Kyra. You will marry me.” A drop of warm blood fell from his mouth and splashed onto my cheek.
“You’re insane.” And he looked it too with his clothes a mess and bloody mouth. I shifted to try to work a leg free. “I’d rather die than marry you.”
“You won’t be the one who dies.”
I froze and looked up at him. “What do you mean?”
“If you don’t marry me, your dear detective is as good as dead.”