“I think,” Adam said, his deep voice like rocks scraping together, “I can give him a trail to follow. I am memorable.”

What a strange company we were! But I was gladder than I could say that I would not do this alone. “Trying to follow us will keep him moving, prevent him from being able to set up another laboratory. We can save others in that way. But we need to lure him as far away from people as we can. In case things do not go as planned.” After all, the three of us had failed once at killing him. “He hates the cold. So I say we move north as quickly as possible.”

“Oh, we three fugitives will make this hell for dear Victor.” Mary rubbed her hands together in delight.

I laughed, and Mary joined in, the noise brighter than the fire raging in front of us. Something in Adam seemed to release. He stood straighter, no longer turning his face from us. His black lips parted in a smile, and at last I saw the soul he carried. Victor had not made that. It was entirely Adam’s.

We settled into silence, listening to the rain sizzle as it hit the flames, the heat so intense that our clothes dried as fast as they got wet.

This house had been a refuge, and it had been a prison. But even watching it burn, I was not free. Victor was out there. He would follow me. I knew his singular intensity and devotion to a goal better than anyone. He would find me.

I would let him.

Chapter Twenty-seven: That Must Be Our Cure: To Be No More

I ALWAYS KNEW I would see the world because of Victor.

I had never imagined it would be because I was running away from him.

We stood on a plain outside Saint Petersburg. It had been a long, frigid journey. And we had yet more long and even colder journeys ahead of us. But as we looked on the onion domes of that glittering, frosted city, I finally felt something like peace.

“It is beautiful,” I said.

“It is freezing,” Mary said.

“It is both,” Adam said.

I laughed, linking arms with Mary. And then, ever tentative, I reached out and linked my other arm through Adam’s. He flinched at the touch—he always did—but then he softened. I did not look up to see whether he was smiling. I was trying to do things simply because I wanted to, or because they felt right, rather than because I was trying to elicit a certain reaction for my own purposes.

“You two should go into the city,” Adam said. “Spend a few nights warm and cozy. I will wander the countryside and let people catch glimpses of me.”