"Come, Eve," Adam said. "Come sit at my feet."
Celia obliged, putting her knees on the floor near the glass throne, and he moved her arms up to drape across his knees, pushing her head down onto his lap. She supposed it made her look like she had thrown herself onto his lap, limply. Adam adjusted her head so that he could see her face, and patted her cheek.
"Tell Echo the story of Beauty and the Beast," he said. Echo clapped her hands together, excitedly. Adam stared at Celia.
"Once upon a time," she began, careful to use her normal storytelling mannerisms, "there was a merchant who had fallen on hard times..."
When she was younger, her favorite was Sleeping Beauty. She wished she had three good fairies, right now.
" 'I will not kill you,' the Beast said. 'But you must bring this daughter who so desired the rose, to live with me in this castle. I will treat her kindly, and she will never want for anything.' "
Lionel...
She felt her heart beating so fast in her chest, it might explode. She couldn't slip up. It wasn't an option. She must survive. Adam put a hand on her shoulder under her clothes, idly running his hands along her skin.
" 'Am I very ugly?' he asked of her."
Adam cackled at this part. He always did. Echo echoed, and Celia wondered why the ghoul was building the array, why he wanted to control people. Was he compensating for the negative attention to ghouls, in general? Controlling others so they wouldn't think him repulsive?
" 'Yes, you are. But I am fond of you.'
" 'If that is so, will you marry me?' he asked.
" 'Do not ask me this,' Beauty said."
Echo always breathed a little faster when Celia told the part of the Beast dying. Her eyes would open wider, and she would look genuinely scared. Celia could hear her starting up as she said each word, closer to the end.
"He was withered, unable to speak. She held his head and he opened his eyes to see her face one last time.
" 'Oh!' cried Beauty. 'Please do not die! I did not know it, but I love you!' "
Adam made a disgusting noise in his throat. She had to watch him, watching her, hoping he wouldn't see the emotion in her eyes or hear the faint wobbling of her voice. She was afraid he would find she wasn't in his thrall, but she was not scared of him. The hammer weighed down her pocket, pressing against her leg as a firm reminder of what she needed to do.
"Beauty's love had freed the prince. They were soon married, and lived happily ever after, in the enchanted castle."
Echo gave a satisfied sigh. Adam turned his head away from Celia, looking over her at something in his view. He frowned, and his hand on her shoulder grew a little tighter.
"I have come to be judged," Lionel said.
"Who is this, to speak to me so boldly?"
Bradley knelt before the throne, and Jesse followed suit, awkwardly. Lionel stared. He wasn't even trying to be intimidating, he was just damn surprised at who the High Ferrule was. He'd expected someone more like himself.
The bower was warm, uncomfortably so. On a throne of soldered metal and multicolored glass, a shriveled ghoul sat. He must have been very close to turning feral, Lionel thought, because he had lost all visible skin and looked browner than even Celia's eyes, that rich baked-in look that all feral ghouls had. His face was gaunt and his eyes completely white, though it appeared he could still see them. Lionel stared at him, and he knew he should be cautious, but he was too angry to care.
To his left, a tiny girl in white clothing stared at them curiously. Lionel ignored her, and slid his eyes onto the ghoul's lap. A familiar mess of brassy curls, arms flung out over the ghoul's knees, her own on the floor near his feet. She was looking away from them. His heart lurched. He forced the feeling away.
"Sir," Bradley said, "you gave me a chance to track down the terrorist. I have."
The ghoul turned white eyes onto Lionel. He glared back, as hard as he could. His eyes wanted to go somewhere else; he wouldn't let them. "Phaeton," the ghoul hissed.
"Yes, sir," Bradley said, and stood. Jesse followed suit. "I have brought him here, to you, for judgement."
The High Ferrule laughed cruelly. The little girl laughed along with him. "Congratulations, Bradley," he said. "You are officially the best soldier I have ever had."
"Thank you, sir," Bradley said. Lionel's mouth twitched.
"...Weren't there three members of Sigma?" the ghoul said.
Bradley nodded. "Angus was set upon by the one you see before you, sir." Lionel's opinion of Bradley rose by some small bit.
"Since you have done so well, pleased me greatly..." The ghoul smiled a sickening glimmer of rotted teeth. "I will reward you." He wiggled his fingers in the air like he was debating something, then laughed and pushed Celia off his lap roughly. She bounced to the wooden floor, landing with an audible thump. She did not move, other than to breathe.
And she did not look at Lionel, or Bradley, or Jesse; she only stared into the air with a strange look on her face, which had been mashed into a pulp at some recent point. A rainbow of colors ran across her entire head and neck, with small cuts and swelling defining her features. Lionel's knees felt weak, his legs faltered. Jesse bumped him gently with the lens of the gatling laser that Mayer had carried.
"Thank you, sir. I am honored," Bradley said.
"Why has he not been bound?" the ghoul asked, gesturing to Lionel.
"I cannot deny him the right to be judged, sir." Why had Bradley not shot the bastard yet? Lionel breathed evenly, and was patient.
"How delightful." With a lazy motion, the High Ferrule sat forward and curled a finger at Lionel. "Come closer."
Lionel's hand twitched at his side, and he walked forward, trying not to glance down at Celia. The ghoul motioned him even closer. He stepped forward once.
"I can't see that well," the ghoul sneered. "You've murdered so many, stolen from my people, and blown up my radio towers, yet you're afraid to get up close?" He chuckled, and it felt like someone was rubbing petroleum jelly in Lionel's ears. A disgusting feeling, and he pressed his teeth together."You've turned yourself in so passively... Surely, you expect to be judged defiled."
"Yes," Lionel said. "I do." He kept his eyes on the ghoul. A weird vomit-like smell came from the throne.
"Well," the ghoul said, "I suppose it can't be helped. What is your proper name?"
"Lionel," he said.
"Your full name," the other said, putting his chin in his hand.
Lionel smiled his own terrible smile. "Lionel Elisha Meisburg."
The High Ferrule laughed, an honestly amused one. "A Jew," he murmured. "Haven't seen one of your kind for almost one hundred years." He stood, and moved closer to Lionel. "Of course, there never were that ma―"
Movement to Lionel's left caught his attention, and fluttering robes came into view as Celia flung herself at the High Ferrule, landing a sickening squish on the mad ghoul's eye with a hammer.
Everyone was startled, and the High Ferrule grabbed the girl by her hands, a guttural sound coming from his throat. His eyes rolled in their sockets, one completely ruined by a hammer.
"You have disappointed me, Eve!" he thundered, and struck her across the face. Lionel's arm shot out with his revolver aimed high, but the ghoul moved the girl to use as a shield. He pulled back, lowered the weapon.
The High Ferrule stood there with Celia, holding her with one arm wrapped around her chest and rubbing his hand in a circle, and Lionel's blood boiled. He fought the urge to shoot the son of a bitch, but the other hand was on Celia's throat, and he could see how tight it was on her skin. A low, painful chuckle came from the High Ferrule. He pressed his forehead to Celia's, hiding his head behind hers.
"So, that is why you came to Detroit?" he rasped, and the hammer slowly slid out of his eye socket to the floor with a dull sound. "How droll."
Lionel stared at the back of her head, his hand gripping his revolver shakily.
"Fuck you, Adam," she said to him, blankly. Her hands jerked up and she went for his throat.
The High Ferrule's hand on her neck grew tighter, and she made choking noises. Lionel stepped forward, reaching out. With a hard shove and a sweeping motion, the mad ghoul tossed Celia back onto Lionel and held out the metal box that had started the whole thing.
The world turned into slow motion. In one moment he was reaching out to catch her as she fell, and in the next he was falling himself. The world blurred around him and his mind went comfortably blank.