Page 85 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

When she knocked, the sound reverberated through the empty hallway. No answer came from within. But then, what had she been expecting? No doubt Ludwig had drifted back to sleep. Johann kept him well sedated. Lorelei curled her fingers around the knob and carefully eased it open. She was met with the sweet, rich smell of growingthings—anddecay. Inside, it was dark, but the narrow window behind the headboard let in the faintest wash of moonlight. A silhouetted figure stood in front of the glass.

Lorelei stumbled backward in surprise. “Fuck.”

At first, she could only make out the hulking shape of its shoulders. Then, blink by blink, her eyes adjusted. Johann inclined his head toward her, his medical case open at his feet and a syringe in hand.

“Kaskel,” he said, a wary edge to his voice. “What are you doing here?”

When her heart stopped trying to launch itself from her rib cage, she replied, “I thought I would come see him. I heard he sat up.”

“He did. But he’s sleeping now.”

A thin blade of moonlight fell across Ludwig’s pallid face. She could still see the faint green lines creeping up his neck. Despite the stubble on his jawline, he still looked boyish and fragile in slumber. Lorelei tore her eyes from him and studied Johann. In truth, he did not look well himself. Exhaustion carved hollows beneath his eyes. Belatedly, it occurred to her that he had not lit any candles. He only leered out of the dark at her, looking for all the world like a child caught with his hand in a biscuit jar.

Her stomach twisted into a knot of dread. “What areyoudoing here?”

Johann flicked his syringe. “I’m administering his pain medication.”

“In the pitch-dark?”

“I don’t need much light,” he replied. “When you’ve done this as often as I have, it becomes second nature.”

As a strange pressure built in her skull, chills erupted across her arms. It was an instinct far beyondrationality—oneshe had relied on many times before.Danger. Looking at Johann now, she could not help thinking of the tale of Godfather Death.

Back in the days when wishes still held power, there was a poor man who searched high and low for a godfather deserving of his son. After rejecting all hisfamily—andGodhimself—heat last settled on Death, who promised to make his son a rich and powerful man. When the boy came of age, Death came to him in the dead of night and led him into the woods. Eventually, they arrived on the banks of a spring, one that granted the ability to mend any wound or cure any disease.

Once you drink from this spring, you are destined to become the most renowned physician in the world, said Death.But in exchange, you must grant me my due. I shall appear at your patients’ bedsides. If I stand at the head of their bed, you may save them. But if I stand at the foot, their soul belongs to me.

As Death promised, the boy grew up to be a famousphysician—anda scheming, ambitious man who believed he could cheat his godfather. Whenever he wished to save a patient fated to die, he would simply turn them around in their bed so that Death stood at their head. Death, believing his godson no longer worthy of the power he’d been granted, collected his due in the end. The magic turned sour within the physician and rotted him from the inside out.

Lorelei had always thought it a strange tale. The Yevanisch God admired such craftiness in finding loopholes in his laws, and their folklore reflected it. Now, it struck her cold. She swore she could see Death standing dutifully at the head of Ludwig’s bed, regarding Johann with his twinkling, familiar eyes. Here was the godson Death deserved: a man willing and eager to cut souls loose too soon.

Frowning, Johann followed Lorelei’s gaze to the dark corner of the room. When he saw nothing, his cold blue eyes snapped back to her face.

“I just can’t help noticing it’s early for his medication.”

Johann’s expression turned flinty. “I suppose it is.”

“What were you going to give him, then?”

“A fatal dose of morphine,” he said with unsettling calm. “What do you intend to do now?”

So he wasn’t denying it. Her every sense feltalive—sharpened.She’d been so certain he hadn’t done it, but she could not bring herself to feel much of anything at all.

“I don’t know yet,” she said. “I could scream.”

“You’re welcome to.” He set aside the syringe. “Perhaps Sylvia will believe you, but Adelheid certainly won’t. Heike already thinks you killed Ziegler. I’m only doing my job. You came in spoutingaccusations—orperhaps to finish him off yourself.”

Cold rage tore through her veins. It took every ounce of strength she possessed to root herself in place. “So it was you. You tried to kill him.”

“Not exactly. If I had wanted to kill him, I would have.” His spectacles glinted in the moonlight. “I couldn’t allow him to lead us out of the woods. This seemed a good way to delay him.”

Lorelei let out a humorless laugh. “Why bother? Sentimentality?”

“Something like that,” he said flatly. “Unfortunately, he’s proven more resilient than I’d expected. It’s too much of a risk to let him live any longer. The same goes for you.”

Lorelei took a reflexive step backward and hit the door. Slowly, the weight of the situation sank in. Johann was a soldier, easily twice her size in weight. She could not hope to survive against him. Perhaps she could appeal to his prejudices. Play the role he expected: the cowardly, conniving Yeva. “I can keep quiet. Just let me go.”

“I don’t believe you.” Johann smiled ruefully. “You’re likeSylvia—arare example of your kind. Neither of you ever learned when to stay down or mind your own business.”