The Poisoner's Game

Chapter 46

M.

The priest droned on. I stared at Miriam, who stared back, with a small smile that could barely hold onto her lips. The disarray of her blonde hair around her shoulders framed her red-rimmed eyes. Dust motes floated languidly through the air, the floorboards creaked, and the priest droned on. I looked around sightless, voiceless, and soundless. Stillness echoed through me in a haunting refrain. I had to think of something, but I found my mind stuck in a dark and twisting maze.

"Does anyone object to this marriage?" the priest said. A finite end crashed around my shoulders and sucked the air from my lungs. Tears welled in the corners of my eyes as the severity of my new life mantled me with dread. I searched the room again through clouded vision, looking for anything. Anything.

"Bloody hell, why did you say that? I paid you a pretty sum of cash, so no one could object," Doctor Francis bellowed at the diminutive man. "Continue to the end, and be quick about it, you blasted fool."

"Apologies, sir. Force of habit. I'll get to it right away, sorry." The priest trembled, trying to right himself.

The door slammed open again. We all turned around, Miriam was the first to see. Her gasp echoed through the church. I opened my eyes expecting to see the rotund figure of my uncle bearing down on me to enact some further cruelty of fate.

"Alexander," I inhaled, my voice barely reaching a whisper as if it were painful to utter a single word. My lungs fought for air. I could only breathe him in. Alexander's eyes locked onto mine as he walked down the aisle, his gun securely fixed on Doctor Francis. Behind him, stood Captain Trent.

"Release her, now." Alexander moved closer, ever so slightly. As if assessing a battlefield, Alexander's eyes traveled the small church, every step he took a calculated move. Cold metal pressed firmly against the back of my neck, shuttering any amount of hope that threatened to well within me. Alexander stopped, and the barrel of the gun remained fixed to my neck.

"Come any closer, and they both die." Doctor Francis pushed me forward with the barrel of the gun, only a step or so, but enough to prove his veracity. Miriam yelped as she came under the same treatment by the brute that held her captive. I realized the warning was for my sake, Doctor Francis needed me alive, but he didn't need Miriam. "My men will be here in a matter of moments, and you will be dead, too."

"Your men are dead, Doctor Francis," Alexander said.

I was surprised he knew the Poisoner's identity. Doctor Francis must have been too, for his breath rushed against my neck.

"Police officers surround us. You kill her, and you won't walk out of here alive. The game's up," Captain Trent spoke inching closer.

"The game's never up." Doctor Francis's voice told me he smiled, but I could feel him tense. His hand faltered on the gun, the barrel shaking slightly on my neck.

Alexander glared at the doctor, before turning his gaze toward me. "Margaret, stay calm. Everything will be all right."

"How touching," Doctor Francis said, malice filtering through every syllable. The cold touch of the barrel left my neck, moving toward Alexander.

My heart rushed forward before my mind could catch up. I fell into Doctor Francis, who wavered with the sudden weight of my limp body. His arm loosened just enough for me to slide out from his grasp around my waist. I turned around under his arm, elbowing him in the ribs and stomping on his foot with my heel, remembering Alexander's advice. With both of my hands, I pushed his wrist inward, causing the gun to point toward him. He came at me with his other hand, the one that held me up, but my strength shocked both of us. Our eyes locked. The gun blasted.