Such Wicked Intent Read Online Free Page A

idea so incredible?” she asked.
    “Well, it’s just…” Henry cleared his throat. “You’re very, um, young to make such a drastic decision—and have you thought about the family? They’ve just lost a son. If you entered a convent, it would be like losing a daughter, too. They’d be devastated.”
    “Of course I’ve thought of that! Which is why I wasn’t planning on doing it right away.”
    “Well, that’s some comfort,” murmured Henry. “Still, it would just be such a terrible loss to, well, everyone.”
    “She has no intention of becoming a nun,” I said impatiently. “Anyway, she wouldn’t last two days.”
    “I resent that very much!” Elizabeth said.
    I held up two fingers. “ Two days before the mother superior throws herself from the bell tower.”
    Elizabeth bit at her lips, and by the light in her eyes, I knew she was suppressing a giggle.
    But now Henry leveled his gaze at me. “You, Victor, are just trying to change the subject. What exactly are you planning? You used to joke about being a god. But this is taking things too far, don’t you think?”
    I rubbed at my temples, impatient. “I tell you, I want to see my twin again!”
    “But how?” Henry demanded.
    I sighed. “I’ve no idea, not yet. Here’s all I know: that the world is uncontrollable. Chaos reigns. That anything and everything might be possible. I won’t subscribe to any rational system again. Nothing will bind me.”
    “That is the way to madness,” said Elizabeth.
    “If it makes me mad, so be it. But leave me to my method, because without it I’ll fall into a despair so deep, I’ll never claw my way back out. I’ll see him, damn it! As far as I’m concerned, he asked for my help. ‘Come raise me.’ Over and over he said it. Wherever he is, he’s not happy.”
    “Stop,” Elizabeth said.
    “He’s suffering,” I persisted.
    “Stop it, Victor!” Her eyes were wet.
    “Victor, you’re upsetting her,” Henry said, softly but firmly.
    “You two don’t need to have any part of this. I’ve bullied you enough—you especially, Henry.”
    I was startled to see anger animate his face. “I’m not quite so easily bullied, Victor. I may not be the bravest of men, but I’m not the weakling you suggest.”
    “I wasn’t suggesting any such—”
    “I was with you when Polidori amputated your fingers and tried to kill us all. I fought then, and I fought that wretched lynx alongside the rest of you.”
    “Absolutely you did, Henry, and—”
    But he was no longer listening to my reassurances. His eyes had strayed to the red metal book.
    “I’ve seen that before,” he said.
    “Possibly in the Dark Library,” I told him. “We spent enough time looking through the shelves—”
    “No. Not there.”
    Purposefully he walked past me, opened the door, and left the music room. Elizabeth and I looked at each other in puzzlement, then followed. We found him in the great hallway, standing before the huge portrait of Wilhelm Frankenstein, our notorious ancestor who’d built this château some three hundred years before.
    His face was handsome and pale, unblemished except for a mole on his left cheek. His full mouth was well-molded, almost feminine. His eyes were a piercing blue, with a curious speck of brown in the lower part of each iris. Eerily he stared out at me, meeting my gaze directly, his right eyebrow lifted slightly, conveying a hint of mockery.
    “There,” Henry said, pointing.
    I looked and shook my head in amazement. “How is it possible I’ve lived here my entire life and—”
    “Precisely for that reason,” Henry said. “We stop seeing what’s before our eyes every day.”
    “Incredible,” I murmured. One of Wilhelm’s hands held a slim book. There could be no mistaking its color, nor the elaborate decoration on the cover. “The metal book.”
    I heard Elizabeth give a small gasp. “And that’s not all. Around his neck, look.”
    Wilhelm wore a black doublet with a ruffled collar