A J nother ekyll A H nother yde AANNOOTTHHEERRJJEEKKYYLLLL__BBGGII__UUSS..iinndddd ii 88//1166//1111 1111::4499 AAMM AANNOOTTHHEERRJJEEKKYYLLLL__BBGGII__UUSS..iinndddd iiii 88//1166//1111 1111::4499 AAMM The third of Another Series A J nother ekyll A H nother yde Daniel & Dina N ayeri AANNOOTTHHEERRJJEEKKYYLLLL__BBGGII__UUSS..iinndddd iiiiii 88//1166//1111 1111::4499 AAMM This is a work of fi ction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fi ctitiously. Copyright © 2012 by D aniel N ayeri and Dina N ayeri All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher. First edition 2012 Library of C ongress C ataloging- i n- Publication Data 11 12 13 14 15 16 TK 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in TK, TK, U.S.A. This book was typeset in Slimbach. Candlewick P ress 99 D over S treet Somerville, Massachusetts 02144 visit us at www.candlewick.com AANNOOTTHHEERRJJEEKKYYLLLL__BBGGII__UUSS..iinndddd iivv 88//1166//1111 1111::4499 AAMM “We should do J ekyll and Hyde for the last book.” “Mic check. H ello? H ello?” “Yeah.” “ Hellllloooooooo?” “Yes, I’m here!” “Cool. I had to get a sandwich, but I’m back. J ekyll and Hyde sounds good.” “Wow, o kay . . . g reat. I didn’t think you’d go for it so easily.” “Sure.” “It’s just like you and me.” “ Exactly!” “I’m Jekyll and you’re Hyde.” “ Wait. . . . N o. Hyde is the evil one, right?” “Yes. I’m the good one. And you’re evil and u npredictable.” “That’s preposterous.” “No, it’s what we just agreed. You’re the Hyde of the family.” “I quit.” “See what I mean? T otally u npredictable.” 9 To our editor, who deals with two J ekylls and two H ydes AANNOOTTHHEERRJJEEKKYYLLLL__BBGGII__UUSS..iinndddd vv 88//1166//1111 1111::4499 AAMM AANNOOTTHHEERRJJEEKKYYLLLL__BBGGII__UUSS..iinndddd vvii 88//1166//1111 1111::4499 AAMM PROLOGUE PRISON A two- f aced moon hung over the b lack- a nd- white city, in turns shin- ing as bold as the sun and hiding, shamed, behind the veil of cirrus clouds. The stars were either i nvisible or as obvious as pinpricks. Beside the city ran the Hudson River estuary, where fresh water crashed into the salty ocean and made a new mixture. The windows of the skyline alternated on and off. The people inside were some- times both. On the streets of the U pper East Side (where it was crowded and lonely at the same time), a mousy, unkempt school nurse scuttled across an avenue unnoticed. With one hand, she held a tissue in front of her mouth, to catch the occasional sickly cough. When a poodle barked at her, she shrank back, as though it might attack her. The owner of the poodle waved a casual apology and went back to his phone call. He couldn’t have seen the hate in her right eye. Or the branded cross in her left. AANNOOTTHHEERRJJEEKKYYLLLL__BBGGII__UUSS..iinndddd 11 88//1166//1111 1111::4499 AAMM As she turned the corner on a wealthy residential block, her stride began to steady, her posture to straighten. She looked to her left and right, then pulled the clips from her blond hair, which became more lustrous as it fell over her shoulders. The nurse ascended the stairs of a historical brownstone, and with each step, her form seemed to alter. Her indistinct features became more pro- nounced, elegant and classic. All except the burn of her left eye. She swept past the vestibule and the mailbox that said FAUST RESIDENCE. The doors retreated as she approached. The viscous gloom within the house threatened to ooze out into the world. The space inside did not match the shape of the building from the outside. T hrough a silent hall, a center room appeared, and from there, a dozen other halls branched out, like the spokes of a torture wheel. In the central chamber, a wooden t able sat heavily on dead- legs. A bove it, a chandelier made of a thousand t angled stalks held candles as varied in size and color as all the fi ngers in the world. As she stepped into the center of the room, the nurse didn’t seem to notice the two fi gures, standing with their backs pressed to the wall on either side of the entrance. The light of the c andles fl ick- ered on their faces, both in a grimace, as though it were painful to exist in such a place. When the nurse reached the t able, she began to peel away her jacket and said, “C hildren? W here are you, darlings?” The two fi gures, one a boy and one a girl, stiffened in their hid- ing places. They had the rabid look of prisoners, victims of countless harms. The girl was squinting, either because of the swollen bruises on her cheeks or because she needed glasses. She held a shard of mirror like a knife, though it cut into her palm. If you listened very closely, you could hear the drops drip onto the ground. The boy’s 2 AANNOOTTHHEERRJJEEKKYYLLLL__BBGGII__UUSS..iinndddd 22 88//1166//1111 1111::4499 AAMM blond curls were matted to his head with sweat and scabbing cuts. If he continued gnashing his teeth, the nurse would easily hear them. She kept her back to the entrance as she continued to put on a long black dress. As soon as she lifted her arms and let the fabric fall over her face, the children s prang — not toward their nurse but away. They swung around the corner and sprinted, both of them limping, back toward the entrance of the house. The noise of their escape didn’t bother the nurse. The two ran, with bare feet, on a fl oor that seemed to break into jagged gravel with every step. The walls stretched to keep the exit from their reach, but fi nally, the girl collided with the door and began yanking on the doorknob. When the boy reached her, he tried to help, both of them frantic. The voice of the nurse in the center room was calm, even pleas- ant, as she said, “How was your day?” Finally, the door relented and swung open. B ehind it was a brick wall. The girl was tempted to stab at it with her jagged shard of glass or smash into it with her shoulder, in the hope that she could crash through to the other side. But she knew there was no other side. There was no escape. The boy turned and slunk back to the room. By then, the nurse had fully transformed into the beautiful governess she once was. Her blond hair was pinned up with a broach the shape of a moth. “H ello, Madame V ileroy,” said the boy, leaning on the wall. He winced and stepped away, as if the wall had pierced his shoulder. “What was that, V alentin?” “I mean . . . h ello, Mother,” said Valentin as he d oubled over in pain. 3 AANNOOTTHHEERRJJEEKKYYLLLL__BBGGII__UUSS..iinndddd 33 88//1166//1111 1111::4499 AAMM The governess’s gaze moved to the girl. “V ictoria, come here and help.” Begrudgingly, V ictoria limped toward M adame V ileroy and held up the broken mirror, streaked with blood. M adame V ileroy looked into the mirror and pulled a stray hair behind her ear. With a pinky, she perfected the outline of her lipstick. V ictoria’s arm shook with the exertion of holding the glass out straight, but she didn’t dare bring it down. Madame Vileroy straightened and patted down the creases of her dress. “T here,” she said. “T hank you, sweetheart.” V ictoria dropped the mirror and let her arm fall to her side in exhaustion. “Now,” said M adame V ileroy, “how was your day?” Valentin couldn’t hide his disgust. He was never very good at making stuff up. “How was our day?” he said. “Are you joking?” “Shut up, Valentin,” Victoria warned. Even in their constant punishment, Victoria managed to keep a cool exterior, or at least a superior one. “What do you want us to say?” said V alentin. Madame V ileroy raised a bemused eyebrow. “You think I don’t love you anymore?” “Love us?” said V alentin. “We’re prisoners.” Madame Vileroy turned and walked to a f ull- length mirror mounted on the wall between two hallways. She was already bored. Somehow, she hoped V alentin could have come up with some- thing better than the obvious. Ever since the other three children had escaped, the Faust family had had to contrive a plausible story for New York society. C urrently, they were the envy of the M arlowe 4 AANNOOTTHHEERRJJEEKKYYLLLL__BBGGII__UUSS..iinndddd 44 88//1166//1111 1111::4499 AAMM