Dance of the Red Death (Masque of the Red Death) by Griffin Bethany

Author:Griffin, Bethany [Griffin, Bethany]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

I CAN’T BREATHE. SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED to April, and in the days we’ve been in the city, I’ve come no closer to finding Father. We don’t even know if he’s alive. I watch the progress of the ship. What if April is dead?

“So you’ve been checking the roof?” Elliott asks Will.

“On and off. Tonight is the first night I thought their arrival might be a possibility.”

There’s nothing we can do but wait. Half an hour passes. We don’t speak. We don’t assure one another that nothing is wrong. We simply wait, the three of us, standing together, but not close enough that I could reach out to either of them.

The ship is mostly obscured by clouds, but when it emerges from cloud cover, it’s magical. Like something from a children’s story.

Kent guides the ship in, and Will and Elliott begin tying it down as Kent leaps to the roof to help them.

The wooden stairs lower, and even as the boys work to secure the ship, Henry and Elise descend, hugging me and inadvertently pulling my hair. Something sticky smears from my cheek to my forehead. Before I can wipe it away, Mina is approaching.

“April’s gotten worse,” she begins. But she doesn’t have to say anything. April is right behind her. I gasp. She looks awful. Exhausted, her skin deathly pale and her eyes sunken. I’m careful not to be too obvious about adjusting my mask before I reach to embrace her, but then Elliott is there, picking her up in his arms.

“I’ll take her downstairs,” he says. Kent follows.

The balloon is deflating, and they’ve completely covered the ship with gray fabric. Unless you were standing on the roof looking for it, I doubt you would pay it any attention.

Will stops in front of me. “Elliott has asked me to take something across town for him tonight,” he says. “Some message for one of his officers. Could the children sleep in your room?”

I rub at whatever sticky residue Henry smeared across the side of my face. “Of course,” I say. “I’ve missed them.”

In the light of a lantern, Will’s smile is sudden and radiant.

“Where is Thom?” I ask, turning to Kent.

“He didn’t want to come in this far. Not with his very obvious illness. We set him down on the outskirts of the lower city.”

April’s room is in the same corridor as mine and Elliott’s. Kent tucks her into bed; Mina goes to a cot in her dressing room. After I’m sure April is comfortable, I retire to my room. Elliott grimaces when he sees the children following me.

But I’m relieved. There can be no repeat of what happened this afternoon. I never wanted to share anything like that with Elliott. I’ve always known better.

I lie awake for a long time. I can’t even toss and turn because Henry is curled up on one side, Elise on the other. I can’t get the image of April, and her pallor, from my mind. If I can’t find my father very soon, then I must go to hers, as Thom suggested.

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