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Back Dangerous Remedy
Chapters (86)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Contents
  7. Paris, June 1794
  8. PART ONE
  9. 1
  10. 2
  11. 3
  12. 4
  13. 5
  14. 6
  15. 7
  16. PART TWO
  17. 1
  18. 2
  19. 3
  20. 4
  21. 5
  22. 6
  23. 7
  24. 8
  25. 9
  26. 10
  27. 11
  28. 12
  29. PART THREE
  30. 1
  31. 2
  32. 3
  33. 4
  34. 5
  35. 6
  36. 7
  37. 8
  38. 9
  39. 10
  40. 11
  41. 12
  42. 13
  43. 14
  44. 15
  45. 16
  46. 17
  47. PART FOUR
  48. 1
  49. 2
  50. 3
  51. 4
  52. 5
  53. 6
  54. 7
  55. 8
  56. 9
  57. 10
  58. 11
  59. PART FIVE
  60. 1
  61. 2
  62. 3
  63. 4
  64. 5
  65. 6
  66. 7
  67. PART SIX
  68. 1
  69. 2
  70. 3
  71. 4
  72. 5
  73. 6
  74. 7
  75. 8
  76. 9
  77. 10
  78. 11
  79. 12
  80. 13
  81. 14
  82. Postscript
  83. A Ship in Le Havre Port
  84. Acknowledgements
  85. About the Author
  86. About Zephyr

‘It’s my fault.’ Olympe had stopped pacing and was staring at Guil transfixed. The make-up had faded around her temples and eyes where she kept rubbing them. ‘I did this.’

A dart of blue lightning snaked down her hand.

‘Just stay calm.’ Ada couldn’t look up from the wound for long or risk holding it crooked. ‘This isn’t your fault.’

‘It is. All of it is. They wouldn’t be coming after you if they weren’t coming after me. You were only trying to help me and I did this to you.’

‘No—’

‘I hurt people. The bodies … all those bodies in the street.’

Ada saw another spark crackle between Olympe’s fingers.

‘Al – take her upstairs. And for god’s sake don’t let anyone see you.’

He nodded, leaving the candle balanced on the lid of the stone casket, and led her, weeping, up to the abandoned church.

In the fetid silence, Ada and James worked quickly. Blood covered everything. It congealed under her fingernails and gathered in the wrinkles of her knuckles.

At last James knotted the thread and dropped the needle. He closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath.

‘There. The rest is out of our hands.’

Ada carefully sponged the blood from Guil’s side. The stitches had soaked through dark red against his ashen skin, cutting a puckered line across muscle.

They had the information they’d been hunting for.

She wasn’t sure it was worth the price they’d paid.

2

The Charnel House at the Saints-Innocents Safe House

‘Well, congratulations, everyone, on a job well done.’ Al took a cup of coffee, giving Camille a meaningful look.

They’d moved Guil into the drier, warmer charnel house above, after checking it was secure. It was less dank than the crypt but just as morbid. A crumbling fresco of the Danse Macabre wound its way round the walls showing Death leading beggars and kings alike to their end. The Saints-Innocents cemetery had been stripped of its dead ten years before when the overflowing graveyards of Paris had been emptied into the old mines; now a herb and vegetable market took its place. It did a good job of hiding their presence: a cacophony of sellers hawking, horseshoes on flagstones and street performers singing drowned any noise they might make inside the forgotten building. The smell of the herbs hanging in dried bundles and heaped fresh on the ground outside was overwhelming, mint and thyme and rosemary and basil and sage twisting together in a sickly mess. But at least it would mask the smell of blood.