The Collector of Dying Breaths

Chapter 28

Jac closed her phone. Pushing Griffin away was the last thing she wanted to do, even though she knew she had to. Overwhelmed with sadness, she sat down on the stone steps of the folly. Was she making a mistake? There was no one to ask.

A text came through.

It won’t work… I know what you’re doing. I’m coming back the day after tomorrow. It’s the soonest I can manage. Be careful till I get there.

The reassurance that he was returning was almost strong enough to wipe out the fear that he was returning.

Suddenly in the distance she could see someone approaching. Even from this far away she could tell it was too large to be Melinoe. It was Serge.

“Jac?”

She slipped the phone into her pocket, not wanting to alert him that she’d come outside to take a call.

“What are you doing out here so late?” he asked.

“I was restless.”

“You’re upset about what happened today, aren’t you?” he asked.

Was this why he’d come looking for her? Were he and Melinoe worried that she was going to walk away now-or, worse, go to the police?

“Yes.” She nodded. “Upset and worried.”

“Don’t be. It was harmless. We left something of equal value.”

“But Melinoe-”

“You can’t blame Melinoe,” he interrupted. “She’s spent so many years working on this… buying the breaths… the château… She is obsessed.”

Jac was worried that she was beginning to share the same obsession. Hadn’t she just ignored Griffin’s warnings? Her own desire to re-create the formula for the dying breaths was so strong… she was now under the same spell Melinoe was. Jac felt a sudden wave of compassion for the enigmatic and curious woman.

“How can you just accept what happened today?” Jac asked. “It was wrong.”

She’d liked Serge from the moment she’d met him. There was something solid and reliable about him. Something that suggested he would be a ballast in a storm. Was that what Melinoe saw in him too?

“When you truly understand someone’s psyche, it’s far easier to excuse their excesses or their faults,” he said.

They were walking around the folly now, having fallen into a stroll without articulating that was what they were going to do.

“And you understand her psyche?”

“I’m part of it. She and I share a history. We lost everything together on the same day. We were all we each had. We’ve tried to live separate lives, but something connects us.”

“Grief,” Jac said. She and Robbie shared a similar pain. “I felt that kind of bond with my brother too.” Except for one part of it, she thought.

Serge nodded in understanding. “He was a special person and you were lucky to have him.”

Jac heard something in Serge’s voice. Jealousy?

“Sometimes I wish that Melinoe and I were able to stay close, the way you two did, but still have our own lives, our own selves.”

“Why can’t you?”

Jac was certain Melinoe would be furious if she knew they were talking about her behind her back. The fact that Serge was exhibiting nervousness now, looking to the right and left before he answered, proved it.

“She saved my life…” Serge said. “I was stabbed. Lying there dying. Melinoe called the ambulances, stayed with me in the hospital, nursed me back to life. All that despite what my life cost her. She loved me that much.” He paused. “I owe her everything,” he said simply, without emotion.

“And she demands everything.” Jac should have not said such a thing. It wasn’t her place. It wasn’t her business. But it had slipped out.

Jac watched his face and the play of passion and pain she saw there. She knew their relationship was far too complicated for her to understand.

“You shouldn’t judge her,” Serge said.

Jac thought about what Griffin had said about Melinoe. About how Malachai had spoken of her. She’d enchanted him and then damaged him. Malachai! A pillar of emotional reserve and cool calm. How powerful Melinoe must really be.

Maybe Serge was wrong; maybe she should judge this woman who she had agreed to help, a collector so obsessed with their goal that she had stolen something from a museum, who used people with a finesse they were oblivious to. Made them love her despite her power over them. Maybe she should judge Melinoe even more harshly. But if she did, it would mean she’d have to give up their shared goal. Because it was her goal now too. And she couldn’t imagine giving up.