Madame never stopped singing. Not until the wolf had ripped her throat out.
The wolf held fast to Madame, growling low. Madame did not fight or struggle at all.
“Get a stick or something! Can’t you stop it?” I cried, scrambling backward out of the room on my hands and knees. “Kill it! Hurry!”
Sucre shook his head. “It’s too late to save her, Duchess.” He held out his hand to me but I pushed it away.
I heard a sickening crunch as the wolf’s jaws clamped down on Madame’s neck. My stomach heaved. Danilo pulled me up and curved me toward him so I wouldn’t see.
“I wish I could throw a glamour over all of this for you,” Sucre said, “but it’s taking everything I have to keep the noise from reaching the other rooms.”
I shook my head, not even caring that I was sobbing into the crown prince’s shoulder. “It’s all my fault. I brought Madame back with my horrible curse. She deserved so much better than this.”
The bookcase stopped shaking, and the ghost stopped wailing too. I did not know if the wolf had scared off the ghost or not. But the wolf’s terrible business was finished. It let go of Madame’s neck, her spine completely severed. There was no blood since she had already been dead, but there was a terrible stench. I could not hold my stomach contents in anymore. I pushed away from the crown prince and retched in the corner.
The wolf rocked back on its haunches, preparing to leap. It stared at me with its yellow eyes and I felt a shiver run down my spine. It was as if the wolf knew me.
“Get out of the way!” Sucre said, as the wolf leapt over us and ran down the hallway. With a loud crash, it broke through the large window at the stairwell landing. It was a long drop to the snow-covered ground below.
We ran to the end of the hallway and looked out. “Careful of the glass, Duchess,” Sucre warned. The wolf was nowhere to be seen. It had landed on all four paws below us, then run off into the woods.
I looked around and back down the hall, toward the library. “What a mess!”
“No one will see it. I will make sure of it.” Sucre looked me up and down. “You have caused enough trouble for the night. Clean yourself up and get some rest.”
“But—”
“Now, Duchess. The crown prince and I will take care of this.”
Danilo looked at the library with disgust. “I’m not sure what you wish me to do, Monsieur.”
I nodded, trying hard to hold back tears, so they would not see. It was no use. Sucre spotted a teardrop and touched a finger to my cheek. “Ah, the taste of sorrow and regret,” he said, licking his finger. “Bittersweet.”
I shuddered and hurried back to my room. I did not care if the headmistress found them or not.
It was close to dawn, and our room was dim and gray. Elena and Aurora were still snoring, but Alix’s bed was empty. My heart skipped a beat, and I ran back down the hall to tell Sucre. She could be killed by the wolf if it spotted her.
“Monsieur! Alix is missing!”
“Oui?” He looked thoughtful. “Return to bed at once, Duchess. I will go and look for her.”
“But—”
“I am here under the empress’s orders to keep all the students at Smolny safe. You will be safe if you stay in your room. Your crown prince has already taken the remains to dispose of them. Everything will be back to normal in a few hours.”
I wanted to laugh. What was normal anymore? A giant wolf had sneaked into Smolny and attacked my undead teacher. An undead teacher who had been trying to calm an angry adolescent ghost out of terrorizing the students. I shook my head and headed back to my room. I was too tired to argue any more with Sucre. I decided to trust him to bring Alix back safe.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
I woke up to see Elena and Aurora whispering at the doorway, peeking out into the hall.
“What is going on?” I said, sitting up immediately.
Elena turned around to look at me. “It’s about time you woke up. It is almost noon!”
“Mon Dieu!” I jumped out of bed and quickly dressed. “Why did you not wake me? I’ve missed my morning classes!”
“Relax, Katerina Alexandrovna,” Aurora said, rolling her eyes. “Classes have been cancelled today.”
“What?” I dropped the shoe I was holding. My hand was shaking. Had the glamour not worked? Did the headmistress find out about Madame Metcherskey?
Elena turned around from her vigil in the hallway. “Monsieur Sucre is hunting a wolf on the grounds.”
“And Alix is missing,” Aurora said. “They think the wolf might have gotten her.”
I saw Elena glance under Alix’s bed, then at me. The room started to spin as I realized what she was thinking. Surely not.
Was Alix the wolf? She wouldn’t have been able to change while the empress’s spell was in place. But last night, I had broken the spell. And perhaps I’d unleashed something in the process.
“This is getting tedious,” Aurora said, sighing. “I hope that they don’t cancel any balls this spring if something happened to Alix.”
“Balls?” I was confused.
Aurora Demidova looked at me as if I were stupid. “She’s a daughter of the grand duke of Hesse. If anything happened to her, most of Europe would fall into mourning.”
Elena nodded, sadly. “Like the crown prince of Austria last year.”
“And that is what concerns you most?” I looked from Elena to Aurora. “A stupid ball?”
“The Winter Ball at the Yussupov Palace. My grandmother is taking me,” Aurora said. “I’ll die if I don’t get to go.”
Elena twirled around the room holding the edges of her apron up like a skirt. “I’ve written to Militza and asked if she would take me as well. All of the imperial family will be invited.”
I finished getting dressed and pushed Aurora and Elena out of my way. I was tired of listening to them both. Alix was in danger. I had to reach Sucre and help him find her.
I passed the library on my way downstairs and peeked inside. The room had been cleaned up and straightened. It looked as if nothing had happened in there. No ghostly temper tantrum, no werewolf attack, no decapitated undead Smolny teacher. It was still very cold in the room, however, and I could feel the ghost mourning Madame Metcherskey. Perhaps now that her soul had been released, she would be able to help the ghost as she had intended?
I took a step inside and was pushed back by a painful blast.
My heart sank. Madame Metcherskey had been unable to appease the ghost. I had hoped her spirit would be able to rest now, but would she rest if her task was still unfinished? The memory of last night’s violence made me nauseous again.
The Bavarian sisters were sitting in the front parlor with several of the younger girls. Erzsebet jumped up out of her seat when she saw me. “Katerina! Isn’t it terrible? I’m so frightened!”
I embraced her. “Everything will be all right. Monsieur Sucre and the Smolny guards will find the wolf and keep us all safe.”
“Alix!” Augusta cried, getting up and running to the door. I saw a flash of a woolen cloak as someone walked quickly past the parlor.
I followed Augusta into the hall. She ran after Alix and asked, “Are you all right? We’ve been so worried about you!”
“I’m fine, but I need to lie down.” Alix did not stop. She was in a hurry to get to our room. I hurried after her. Augusta shrugged and returned to the parlor with her classmates.
“Elena and Aurora are in there,” I told Alix. “It might be more restful if you go to see Sister Anna and lie down in her study.”
Alix turned to me with a glare. “Why should you care, Katerina Alexandrovna?”
I wasn’t sure how much I could say. “Where have you been, Alix? Did you know there was a wolf on the loose at Smolny? It came inside the school and …”