The Conspiracy of Us (The Conspiracy of Us 1)

I twisted too far and the knife in my bodice pierced my side. I bit back a whimper and dropped back to the chair, panting. It was too high. I’d never be able to reach, and probably wouldn’t be able to get through the bars, anyway. What else?

Wait.

I jumped off the chair. Inside the confessional booth, behind where this chair had been, there was another tiny door.

Voices outside the room got louder. The guards were coming back.

I sprinted into the confessional and shoved against the little door. Nothing. I jiggled the handle, pulled. It stayed firmly shut. A loud knock came at the door. I lowered my shoulder, ran into the door, and it flew open. Inside was pitch black.

The outer doorknob rattled.

I stepped inside carefully—and my feet found stairs. I reached back out to pull shut first the door of the confessional, then the inner door, and fumbled my way up the steps.

I could feel cool, rain-scented air coming through tiny holes carved in the wall, but there was no way out of the dark, so I hurried up and up and up, as fast as I could, really glad now that Elodie had loosened my corset. I hoped beyond hope that this would somehow lead to an exit. Strangely, no one was following me yet.

Finally, an outline of a door. I held my breath and eased it open, not sure what I’d find. Empty.

I stepped out cautiously, and only then did I realize I wasn’t in a room. I’d only made it to the balcony that surrounded the center of the nave, on level with the colorful stained-glass windows.

I stood behind a pillar, breathing hard, and peered down to see Monsieur Dauphin and Luc at the altar that had been closed off yesterday. After a few seconds, a guard approached. He whispered something to Monsieur Dauphin, who stiffened. He glanced up, almost at me, and around the rest of the balcony.

He said something to the guard, and the guard disappeared.

How was I going to get out of here?

I kicked out of my too-loud heels and tried not to trip on the heavy, soaked hem of my dress as I hurried down the balcony, sticking as close as I could to the wall, trying every door I came across. There had to be another stairway. I kept expecting to hear the clomp of guards’ boots, but the balcony was eerily quiet.

The clearing of a throat directed my attention downstairs. Then, the sound of Monsieur Dauphin’s voice.

“Thank you all for coming this evening. As you all know, our family’s tragedy is just the latest in our adversaries’ plan to take down the Circle, family by family.” Murmurs went up in the crowd. “I know some of you suspect, as I do, that the Order’s information about us is too detailed to be coincidence. I am happy to report that we have caught the traitor who has been passing information to the enemy for months.”

What?

A roar went up from the crowd.

“Bring him,” Monsieur Dauphin said, and I had to peek out from my hiding place.

Below me, a guard dragged a prisoner to the front of the cathedral. All eyes were on him as he passed, handcuffed and bound at the ankles, a dark hood obscuring his face.

When he got to the front, Monsieur Dauphin yanked off his hood.

The whole audience gasped.

I gasped with them.

The man the guards were holding was Jack.

CHAPTER 41

This boy has been using his status as a Keeper to betray us.” As Monsieur Dauphin said it, he glanced up to the balcony surrounding the nave. “And now, all of you will watch as his crimes are punished.”

A guard drew a huge knife. Monsieur Dauphin threw Jack to the ground, then looked up again.

He knew I was up here. He was using Jack to draw me out. Oh no. Oh no no no. If I showed myself now, we’d never get out of here.

But I thought of Jack, saying that the Saxons and Mr. Emerson were all he had in the world. The only people who cared about him.

It wasn’t true, not anymore. They weren’t all he had, and Monsieur Dauphin knew it.

He raised a hand to the guard.

“Stop!” I screamed.

The guard paused. The whole congregation whipped around to stare up at the balcony. I made my way to the railing.

“I’m here.” My voice, so small, echoed through the now-silent cathedral.

Monsieur Dauphin waved his hand, and a group of guards ran off. I stayed exactly where I was, staring at Jack. He held my gaze, and it helped calm the desperate thoughts running through my head. We’d find another way. We’d have to find another way. No more than a minute later, the guards burst through a door on the other side of the balcony.

They bundled me back down the stairs. One of them pulled the veil over my face, and another tossed my abandoned shoes at my feet, and I slipped back into them. We emerged into the nave. My heels clicked loudly on the black-and-white marble floor. A small bloodstain from the knife was spreading on my side, staining the wedding dress. The congregation stared.

“I’m sorry,” Jack mouthed as I got closer. I shook my head.

“Let him go,” I murmured to Monsieur Dauphin. “That’s the only way I’ll do this.”

Monsieur Dauphin glanced around at the dozens of guests—the president of France a few rows away, glowering at Jack. Padraig Harrington, the golfer, wearing an amused grin, like this was the most fun thing that could have happened today. “You have my word,” he said.

He pulled Jack to his feet and propelled me toward Luc, who stood at the altar, looking nearly as lost as I felt. But to him, the mandate was fate. Destinée. Especially since they’d lost his baby sister. I knew that, as much as he might want to, he wouldn’t stop it.

Luc steadied me with a hand on my elbow, and I spun to watch Jack stumble away down the aisle, his ankles still restrained. Not twenty feet away, a pair of guards jumped up and caught him, and a man in a white turban gestured with a flick of his wrist for them to hold him to the side.

“Wait—” I cried.

Monsieur Dauphin leaned in close beside me. “I said we wouldn’t catch him. I didn’t promise no one would.”

I choked back a whimper. I’d thought maybe he wouldn’t kill me if I exposed what he was doing in front of all these people, but suddenly, I wasn’t so sure. But even if it was ridiculous—me against the whole Circle—I was going to have to try, and not just for myself now. We were in a semi-open space. It was possible one of these doors led to the outside. If I caused enough of an uproar, I could try to free Jack and run.

Monsieur Dauphin stood in front of us. “I do apologize for the dramatics,” he said. “We’ll now move on to the purpose of the day. The marriage of my son, Lucien.”