“I am not sorry,” she said. “I am furious. And you should not be sorry, either. He has taken too much from both of us. From the world. He cannot be allowed to win. Will you help me?”

I laughed bleakly, looking around the box that held me. “I cannot even help myself.”

She reached under her skirts and removed a second nurse’s uniform hidden there. Nurses always left in pairs. The two of us could walk out of this nightmare.

“Elizabeth Lavenza.” Her black eyes narrowed with intensity. “It is time to kill your husband.”

Chapter Twenty-four: And Study of Revenge, Immortal Hate

THE MOON HERSELF HID her face from our violent intent, shrouded in clouds as though ready for burial. The gates of Geneva were closed, but we had no use for the city, no desire for witnesses.

Mary and I sat side by side, rowing our way across the lake that long had been the border of my home. Now it carried me to my dark purpose: to end the boy who had brought me there. Waves blacker than the night slapped at the sides of our boat, gusts of wind carrying spray to our faces. I imagined the lake baptizing us, consecrating us for our unholy task.

Surely nature abhorred Victor.

A low rumble of thunder passed through the valley, echoing off the mountains in the distance. The waves grew choppier, the wind stronger. Hanging on the gusts was the distant, lonesome cry of some beast in agony.

My heart had made the same cry too many times. I turned my face from the unseen creature’s pain. I could not shoulder anyone else’s, not even that of a poor dumb beast.

Tonight, I would kill Victor. Tonight, I would destroy the last remnants of the foundation I had spent my entire life building. Would I be left to sift through the rubble, to see whether anything I was, was worth salvaging? Or would I fall, too?

A brilliant streak of lightning illuminated us in the center of the lake. We were in the midst of a rising maelstrom. Rain slashed down with cutting force, soaking us in seconds. Still we pulled on the oars, undeterred from our deadly design.

“The pistols will not work!” Mary shouted. I could barely hear her over the storm. “They have gotten too wet!”

I nodded. We each had a knife, though we had hoped to be able to use the pistols. I remembered the ease with which Victor had overpowered me. It filled me with shame. Had I fought harder, or faster…But if the bodies found in the river were any indication, Victor had had a good deal of experience capturing and subduing people.