Escaping from Houdini (Stalking Jack the Ripper #3)

by Kerri Maniscalco

“I’m in favor of hiding in your chamber for the remainder of the week.” A smile twitched across his lips as I raised a brow. “Drinking, kissing, debauching ourselves until we arrive in New York.” He sighed dreamily. “You must admit, we’d be safe from the murderer. Deliriously happy. And both of those options are much better than standing over cadavers.”

“Magic is science. It’s simply a fancier term for showing people the impossible is attainable.”

There is no greater show of power than continuing to live when you’d like nothing more than to lie down and let the world fade.

disappearance. So often we were only tasked with cutting open the dead, searching the aftermath for clues. Speaking with the living during their time of grief was much harder.

“She’s the muscle. I’m clearly the charm.”

“Please. Don’t.” He held a hand up. “I never really—” He shook his head. “For all of my bravado and ability to read a situation, I never could calculate what you saw in me.”

“If you wish to go, I’ll never make you stay. I might not do and say the proper thing all the time, but I do know that I love you enough to set you free.”

I was about to argue that I didn’t want to be free, but that wasn’t true. All my life I’d longed for freedom—freedom to pick and choose every detail of my life. To make good decisions and horrible ones. Decisions that would break my heart and remake it ten times over. I just never knew having choices could be so hard, or hurt so much. A tear slipped down my face.

There was no world I wanted to live in where Thomas Cresswell wasn’t a part of it. No matter the odds stacked against us, I’d fight for him until I drew in my last, shuddering breath. Even in death I’d never stop coming for those who threatened my family. Because that’s what Thomas had become. He was mine—I’d chosen him just as he’d chosen me, and I’d defend him with everything I had. Our friendship had caught fire and blazed with something powerful and untamed. Something I’d been foolish to ever doubt.

A beautiful dream was beginning—one where Thomas and I were waltzing around a ballroom that reminded me of a star. Everything was white and pure and smelled of peonies and magic.

I love you, I thought, rallying against the blackness. More than all the stars in the universe. In this life and ever after. I love you.

“Our work will always be important to each of us. But you have my heart wholly, Wadsworth. No matter what. The only way that will be taken is in death. And even then I will fight with every piece of me to hold your love near. Now and forevermore.”