Chapter 163: Chapter One-Hundred-Sixty-Three: Puppeteer
//CLARA//
The carriage door slammed shut.
My heart pummeled against my ribs, entirely out of sync with Casimir’s terrifyingly still composure.
His hands descended into the silk of my skirts, sinking straight into the layers of crinoline and petticoats.
"What are you doing? Let go of me!" I shoved his shoulders with all the strength I had left. "Casimir! Stop it!"
With a violent jerk, he tore a long, thick strip of fabric right out of my petticoat lining. Before my brain could process anything, he caught both of my wrists in one hand, pinning them together with a grip like iron handcuffs.
"You absolute lunatic!" I hissed.
He didn’t tie it tight enough to cut off my blood flow, but he was fast. He looped the remaining length of the fabric through the brass support beam and knotted it twice, cutting my mobility entirely in half.
"Casimir, I swear to God—"
"Quiet, little bird."
His voice wasn’t angry. But I am.
"Don’t tell me—!"
Casimir lunged forward, his mouth smothering my words with brutal intensity that knocked the air straight out of my lungs. His hand gripped my jaw, his fingers digging hard into the bone to force my head back against the velvet wall.
I thrashed against the beam, my bound wrists straining against the linen strip until the fabric bit into my skin. I tried to bring my knee up, but Casimir used his entire body weight to pin me down.
I kept my teeth clenched, fighting him with every ounce of survival instinct I possessed, but the pressure of his fingers on my jaw only tightened.
He squeezed the joints, forcing my lips apart, and the exact second I gasped for air, he invaded. His tongue plunged deeper, devouring my mouth. Like he was trying to crawl inside me through my throat.
Every time I tried to turn my head, he followed, his other hand fisting in my hair, yanking my head back until my spine arched against the upholstery.
It was scorching hot. For a split second, the sheer sensory overload of his weight crushing my chest, his scent filling my senses, and the bruising pressure of his lips made my head spin.
Then the rage roared back, white-hot and blinding.
I locked my jaw and bit down. Hard.
I sank my teeth into his lower lip until the metallic taste of blood flooded my tongue.
Casimir let out guttural growl. He pulled back slowly, his thumb tracing his split lip, staring at the dark smear of blood on his skin.
His eyes darkened. A slow, chilling smile tilted the corner of his mouth. He wiped the blood away with the back of his hand, leaving a dark smudge across his jawline.
I glared at him through the tangled strands of my hair.
"You’re a fucking, shameless monster."
"We’ve already established that," Casimir said smoothly.
He sat back on the bench opposite me, adjusting his cuffs. He looked entirely unbothered, save for the split on his lip that was still sluggishly bleeding.
"You lied to me!" I snapped. "From the very second we started down this path, you’ve been playing me for a fool."
"I have protected you."
"Oh, don’t give me that noble garbage!" I yelled. "You watched me and Elias lose our mind and panic over those ledger entries. You looked me in the eye while we were tearing this city apart looking for clues, acting worried when you were the one pulling the entire scheme!"
The puzzle pieces were clicking into place with a sickening clarity that made my stomach turn.
"You pretended not to know anything about it. You let Elias and me run around like rats in a maze trying to decode whatever the fuck is this."
Casimir leaned back. The shadow of the carriage framework cut across his face, hiding his eyes, but his voice remained flatly analytical.
"Elias was a liability. He stole a ledger he didn’t understand, involving himself with people who would have skinned him alive for a fraction of that data. I let you play detective because it kept you distracted."
"You let me think he was being hunted by some phantom enemy. You let me think we were saving him."
"Indeed, I was hunting him," he admitted without a shred of remorse. "Because if I didn’t find him first, the others would have executed him in the streets. I had a ship waiting to take him away with enough gold to ensure he never set foot in New York again. It was a mercy, Clara."
"You’re missing the point." I shook my head. "I don’t care what you do, Casimir. I knew this world wasn’t all flowers and rainbows. I care that you made a fool of me. Treated me like a child playing with toys while you ran an empire of blood and broken bones."
Casimir watched me. The twisted amusement had completely faded from his face.
"You think this was a game to amuse myself?"
"Wasn’t it?"
"If I had told you the truth, Clara, what would you have done?"
He leaned forward, invading my space once more without ever laying a finger on me.
"If you had known what I was the moment you entangled yourself in this mess, you would have run. Exactly like you just did earlier. You would have vanished into a city you aren’t equipped to handle alone."
"I already knew what kind of a monster you are. It would have been my choice to make."
"And it would have been your last." His voice was ice. "A bullet doesn’t care about your defiance, little bird. A knife in a dark alley doesn’t stop because you refuse to pay curtsy."
I went entirely rigid, staring at him.
He reached out, his long fingers catching a stray tear I hadn’t realized had slipped down my cheek. His touch was surprisingly gentle compared to the violence of his mouth, but it felt infinitely more dangerous.
"I knew about the ledger because I wrote it. I knew about Elias because of his bad gambling habits that put him in a snare. And I knew about your movements because I have kept you within my sight."
The frustration inside me mutated.
"I am not a variable in your equation."
"No," he corrected smoothly. "You are my wife. And that is more than enough reason for me to go to these lengths to protect you."
"Don’t," I snapped. "Don’t you dare try to make this romantic."
The anger was still blistering, but beneath it, the sense of helplessness was finally fading. It was being replaced by a strange, toxic rush of adrenaline.
If my sharp mind couldn’t save me from his world, then maybe it was time to stop fighting the current and start directing the flood.
"Undo this," I said, nodding toward my bound wrists. "I’m not going to run. Where would I even go?"
I flexed my fingers against the constraints, forcing him to look at the reddening marks on my skin.
"I’m angry." The admission tore out of my throat. "I’m so furious I can barely breathe. You made me feel stupid."
"I know."
"But I am not leaving you."
I forced my chin up, meeting his dead, icy gaze with everything I had left.
"I love you. Even now. Even after watching you turn a man’s bones to splinters. I love you, and I absolutely hate myself for it, but that is the reality we are dealing with. So untie me."
Casimir didn’t move for a long, agonizing beat.
Then, slowly, his thumb rubbed the back of my knuckles, the gesture deceptively tender. For a split second, I thought he was going to untie me.
He didn’t.
Instead, his fingers slid up to the knot, pulling it even tighter, checking the tension to ensure there was absolutely no room for escape.
"Stay here, little bird."
A bitter, hysterical laugh escaped my lips.
"Stay here? As if I have a choice? You fucking psycho."
"Good. Because I cannot take the risk of you following me back inside."
Casimir turned the brass handle, pushing the carriage door open. He stepped down onto the muddy cobblestones without looking back at me and locked the door securely from the outside.
I cursed him silently, staring at the locked door and pulling against the restraints.
Through the small window, I leaned forward as far as the tether would allow. I watched his silhouette approach the side entrance of the warehouse.
He was going back to finish what he had started.
I sank back against the cushions, my mind was a chaotic warzone. The battered, bloodied images of Bartholomew and Silas crashed back into my mind like a wave of pure acid.
I could still see their mangled bodies. The flesh torn from broken bones.
Yet, as the carriage sat frozen in the dark, the horror didn’t come. The pity never arrived. My morality felt entirely distant.
I closed my eyes, listening to the distant howl of the wind and drew a deep breath.
I could only pray for their wretched souls to rot in the absolute depths of hell.
