I knew was the unease and terror that lay beneath everything as I stared at her—a sense of foreboding that I couldn’t explain to myself.
Her eyes were large in her narrow, heart-shaped face—haunting me. “I’ll tell you my story, of how I came to be here. Perhaps, in time, you’ll remember me.” Her eyelashes drifted down and her thin chest heaved. “But I don’t have long.”
Her head bowed. “I was at home, in my bedroom, asleep. I woke as Henry Batiste entered my room. He summoned a shadow and took me inside it. I was taken from my world to yours, taken to the dollhouse. Missouri was just thirteen then. She told me that Jessamine was a ghost, but I already knew. I knew the first time I looked at Jessamine. Another girl came down there—a girl Jessamine called Lilith. I pleaded with her to tell me how to get out of there. She said that it was my destiny to stay there forever. For days, I scrawled pictures and poetry, trying to purge my mind, trying to save my sanity. But I didn’t succeed. One night, in the bed chamber, I cut my wrists and waited to die. The shadow came, just before the moment of death. It told me it would harm my family if I didn’t do as it wanted, if I didn’t agree to serve it.” She paused for a moment. “I told it yes.”
Her gray-blue eyes stared into mine. “But you don’t die if you agree to go into the service of the serpent—you are spirited away and will remain between life and death. For eternity. You can never die.”
The weight of her words settled on me like a shroud. “In the tunnels of the dollhouse... I found your drawings and poems. And I found... you . You were.... dead.” The memory of seeing Prudence’s skeleton cut through me.
Her eyelashes grew wet. “The tunnels of the dollhouse belong to another realm—the world of the serpent. They are a portal. You could have been wandering any world in any universe—a world in which I died. I know that you know about the other worlds. You and I exist many times over. Please don’t grieve for one who has died—they’ve gone on to live again.”
I couldn’t speak. What she spoke of was the unimaginable.
“I tried to warn you and Missouri, about the shadow,” she said. “But from here in the tower, I am only able to send a pale shadow of myself, and only fleetingly. Before I am called back.”
A question burned in my mind. “What does the serpent want from you?” The words fell leaden from my lips.
Her gaze grew distant. “Sight.” She drew the symbol of infinity in the air and sketched two eyes in each of the loops. The image burned like cold fire in the air. “They use humans to see into other worlds.”
I drew back, not comprehending her words.
She closed her eyes. “They use us to see into other worlds, to find their prey. They roam from world to world through the universe.”
I eyed the crystalline object suspended in the air.
She followed my gaze. “That belongs to the serpent empress—the leader of the serpents. It’s a crystal with the highest vibration of any in the universe. It can transfer images from mind to mind. Each day, when I look into the crystal, I can see other worlds. My memories of those worlds are stored within the crystal. When the serpent looks into the images I have seen, she directs her species from planet to planet.”
“How does she see through it—the eye?”
“Francoeur—one of the servants of the castle—takes it to her each day.”
I stiffened. “She’s here? The serpent is here?”
“Yes.”
“I saw her... I saw her weeks ago, and I thought I was imagining her.”
“You weren’t imagining her. Her cave lies beneath the ocean, at the bottom of the cliff. The castle fountain—the one with the ugly gargoyles—is a deep well that draws water from her cave.”
I remembered the great spout of water that rose from the fountain on the day of the couplings, the day I was betrothed to Zach.
Her expression softened. “The serpent empress’s cave
Her eyes were large in her narrow, heart-shaped face—haunting me. “I’ll tell you my story, of how I came to be here. Perhaps, in time, you’ll remember me.” Her eyelashes drifted down and her thin chest heaved. “But I don’t have long.”
Her head bowed. “I was at home, in my bedroom, asleep. I woke as Henry Batiste entered my room. He summoned a shadow and took me inside it. I was taken from my world to yours, taken to the dollhouse. Missouri was just thirteen then. She told me that Jessamine was a ghost, but I already knew. I knew the first time I looked at Jessamine. Another girl came down there—a girl Jessamine called Lilith. I pleaded with her to tell me how to get out of there. She said that it was my destiny to stay there forever. For days, I scrawled pictures and poetry, trying to purge my mind, trying to save my sanity. But I didn’t succeed. One night, in the bed chamber, I cut my wrists and waited to die. The shadow came, just before the moment of death. It told me it would harm my family if I didn’t do as it wanted, if I didn’t agree to serve it.” She paused for a moment. “I told it yes.”
Her gray-blue eyes stared into mine. “But you don’t die if you agree to go into the service of the serpent—you are spirited away and will remain between life and death. For eternity. You can never die.”
The weight of her words settled on me like a shroud. “In the tunnels of the dollhouse... I found your drawings and poems. And I found... you . You were.... dead.” The memory of seeing Prudence’s skeleton cut through me.
Her eyelashes grew wet. “The tunnels of the dollhouse belong to another realm—the world of the serpent. They are a portal. You could have been wandering any world in any universe—a world in which I died. I know that you know about the other worlds. You and I exist many times over. Please don’t grieve for one who has died—they’ve gone on to live again.”
I couldn’t speak. What she spoke of was the unimaginable.
“I tried to warn you and Missouri, about the shadow,” she said. “But from here in the tower, I am only able to send a pale shadow of myself, and only fleetingly. Before I am called back.”
A question burned in my mind. “What does the serpent want from you?” The words fell leaden from my lips.
Her gaze grew distant. “Sight.” She drew the symbol of infinity in the air and sketched two eyes in each of the loops. The image burned like cold fire in the air. “They use humans to see into other worlds.”
I drew back, not comprehending her words.
She closed her eyes. “They use us to see into other worlds, to find their prey. They roam from world to world through the universe.”
I eyed the crystalline object suspended in the air.
She followed my gaze. “That belongs to the serpent empress—the leader of the serpents. It’s a crystal with the highest vibration of any in the universe. It can transfer images from mind to mind. Each day, when I look into the crystal, I can see other worlds. My memories of those worlds are stored within the crystal. When the serpent looks into the images I have seen, she directs her species from planet to planet.”
“How does she see through it—the eye?”
“Francoeur—one of the servants of the castle—takes it to her each day.”
I stiffened. “She’s here? The serpent is here?”
“Yes.”
“I saw her... I saw her weeks ago, and I thought I was imagining her.”
“You weren’t imagining her. Her cave lies beneath the ocean, at the bottom of the cliff. The castle fountain—the one with the ugly gargoyles—is a deep well that draws water from her cave.”
I remembered the great spout of water that rose from the fountain on the day of the couplings, the day I was betrothed to Zach.
Her expression softened. “The serpent empress’s cave
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