Montgomery stopped the horses outside a tavern. He came to the carriage door, opening it just
a crack to keep the rain from drenching us. “I’m going to ask directions. We can’t be far now.”
We watched him saunter over the muddy street as though he didn’t even feel the bite of
freezing rain. A face appeared in the tavern window. The door opened and he spoke to a
woman in a wool dress for a few moments, then stomped back through the mud. “This village is
called Quick,” he told us. “The manor’s only five miles from here.”
“Did you hear that?” Lucy murmured to Edward, still stroking his hair. “We’re almost there. Just
hold on. Everything will be all right once we arrive.”
Montgomery’s eyes shifted to me. Neither of us wanted to remind Lucy that the prospect of
Edward’s fever breaking—and the Beast’s reappearance—was almost more frightening than
the fever itself. Delirious, he was less of a threat.
“Let’s go then,” I whispered to Montgomery. “And quickly.”
He closed the door and in another moment we were moving again, passing through the rest of
Quick. Then all too soon the village was nothing but fading lights. The storm grew and the road
became rougher, and all the while Edward’s eyes rolled back and forth beneath shuttered lids.
Thunder struck close by, and Lucy shrieked. Montgomery whipped the horses harder, pulling us
along the uneven road impossibly fast, trying to outrun the storm. I twisted in the seat to look
out the back window at the pelting rain. A stone fence ran alongside us.
“We must be getting close,” I said.
“Not soon enough,” Lucy breathed. “We’re going to crash if he keeps driving like this!”
The road widened, straightening, letting us travel even faster. Lightning struck close by, blinding
me. The horses bolted. Lucy screamed and covered her eyes, but I couldn’t tear mine away. The
lightning had struck an enormous oak tree, twisted from centuries of wind. The oak took flame,
blazing despite the rain. A smoking gash ran down the trunk—the lightning’s death mark. I
watched until the rain put out most of the flames, but it still smoldered, billowing hot ash into
The horses pawed the earth, and I grabbed the window to steady myself. At this wild speed,
just hitting a single rock at the wrong angle would send the carriage shattering to the ground. It
was madness to go so fast. Couldn’t Montgomery calm the horses?
Just when I feared the carriage would careen out of control, it stopped short, throwing me
against the opposite wall. I tangled in Lucy’s limbs as the chains around Edward’s body clinked.
Balthazar grunted, jerking awake at last. We scrambled in the bottom of the carriage until the
Montgomery stood in the pelting rain. I feared he’d say we’d broken another strut or the
horses had gone lame or we’d have to spend the night in the harsh storm.
But then I saw the lights behind him, and the night took shape into a turreted stone manor with
bright lamps blazing and gargoyles on the roof vomiting rain into a stone courtyard.
Montgomery’s eyes met mine beneath the low brim of his hat.
“We’ve arrived,” he said.
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