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I wrinkled my nose. “You heard nothing at all?”

He shook his head. “Not until von Keller arrived. I noticed it the first time I saw him and wondered on it, but I don’t always hear people … so I put it out of mind. Tonight though—tonight I heard you. Then von Keller’s distress. The priest. The poor lads he brought back to fetch the bodies.”

I twisted in the tub yet again, sloshing the water over the side as I struggled to get a better look at him without leaving my small puddle of warmth. “Has that happened before, where you haven’t been able to hear someone?”

“No. Never. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

I caught my lip between my teeth, not liking the sound of it. I had sensed something out there. “He must be, don’t you think? You said you’d never met another in your life—I can scarcely find anything at all about pellars. What if the abilities your kind possesses are as different as the person that carries them?”

Ruan blew out a breath. “I don’t know. I’ve never met another. Never heard of any other still living. Witches yes, the old ones? The fair folk, of course. But a pellar?”

I started to tease him about his mention of fairies, but then I realized the seriousness of our situation. Tonight, we had encountered something Ruan had never seen before, and I would stake my life it had something to do with what was happening here and the bodies in the lake. It would certainly explain why von Keller was so adamant about protecting Félix and keeping him out of sight of the authorities. We were never going to get any more information from von Keller, not while he worked to protect Félix from the outside world.

I swallowed hard. “I think we need to go to the morgue. Go see the bodies, see what we can learn.”

Ruan’s uncertain gaze dropped to my bare skin where I remained awkwardly perched in the hip bath. Neither of us caring to dig too much into the fact we may have just discovered Ruan was not as alone in this world as we had believed. He struggled to keep his gaze fixed upon my eyes. “Very well. But you might want to get dressed first.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONEA Midnight Rendezvous

THE water had not cooled in the hip bath before I was once again dressed and the two of us had slipped out of the boardinghouse and returned to the priory grounds. It had been a good two hours since we left von Keller and I hoped whatever examination he’d intended was long completed.

It ought to be a simple task to let ourselves in, try to figure out what killed the men then leave without anyone the wiser. The night remained clear and bright, with that odd purple hue casting a haze over the night sky. Somewhere in the distance an owl cried out—cutting the silence. It was late. Later than I’d realized. That was good.

At least I hoped.

Thanks to Dr. Peterson’s excruciatingly long tour of the grounds I knew precisely where I was headed. Good God, had that only been this morning?

I led Ruan around to the back side of the hospital, pausing in the moonlight to take the measure of the modern window that had been fit inside the medieval opening. My breath was visible in the night air as I debated how best to get myself in said window.

“Shall we see what there is to find?” I cast Ruan a mischievous grin over my shoulder.

He was decidedly unamused by our situation. “When you said you wanted to see the bodies, I presumed you meant you were coming to ask von Keller to let you see them. Von Keller was genuine in his distress. I do not think he’s our killer.”

“When has something being a bad idea stopped us before?” I laid my hands on the carved black limestone sill, testing it to be sure it was sturdy. The place was old, and the last thing I needed were another dozen stitches. My head still ached from where I’d struck the table this afternoon. “Besides, I don’t believe Félix trusts him. And if Félix doesn’t, then I don’t either.”

Ruan raised a skeptical brow. “And how do you know that?”

I stared at him dumbfounded. Did he not hear us at the lake? I dropped my voice to just over a whisper. “He told me at the lake my mother lived, and yet he told von Keller he saw her death. Both things cannot be true at the same time.”

Ruan’s eyes widened as he grabbed me by the elbow tugging me closer. “He what? When were you going to tell me that?”

“It isn’t as if you tell me everything either,” I snapped back. Truthfully, I’d simply not thought to tell him—there had been so much that occurred tonight and I’d grown accustomed to Ruan hearing my thoughts. It was increasingly difficult to know what he did and did not overhear.

He stared at me, unmoving for several seconds before he gave his head a low shake, pulling me closer to him, his hands firmly on my hips. I furrowed my brow not comprehending what he was after, until he adjusted his stance and hoisted me bodily up into the window. My palms hit the rough stone hard, abrading the flesh. I let out a startled gasp. You might have given a girl a bit of warning.

“Let’s get on with it.” He grunted, his hand flatly supporting my rump as I shoved the darkened window open and threw my left leg over. I dusted my palms on my trousers as Ruan pulled himself up and in the window. In another time I might have been intrigued by such a feat of masculine strength but at present my concerns lay with what we would find inside the morgue.

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dark. I could make out the two tables. Shadowy outlines of bodies covered by white sheets. The air inside was still and cool. Despite being dead for several hours neither body had begun to smell. A small mercy, that. But when did they die, that was the real question? And which to begin with?

I cast Ruan a glance over my shoulder. “You don’t happen to know anything about decomposition, do you?”

He let out a disgruntled sound that I took as a no.

I reached into my pocket for my flashlight and flicked it on, running the electric glow over the walls. All dark, smooth limestone. The stone floor of the room sloped down to the center toward a drain, putting me in mind of an abattoir. A wave of nausea came over me. It was there to capture the blood. Blood like was used on the warning painted on the back of Mrs. Wauters’s home. Had this been the origin of the substance? If so, that would certainly point to someone in the hospital. Someone with access and means.

I swallowed hard, turning to the lifeless silhouette of Narcisse, the orderly. Every sign brought me back to this place.

Every. Single. One.