Rising Shadows

Percy had spent the night at Emily's house several times in the past, when he still lived with Luke. But now he belonged in her house. It was their house now and she woke up feeling almost giddy about it. He was still sound asleep beside her and she sat up and watched him for a few moments before looking down and admiring her wedding ring.

"Mrs. Everett," she whispered. "My name is Mrs. Emily Everett. This is my husband, Percy."

"Em, are you talking to yourself?" Percy mumbled sleepily and cracked one eye open to squint at her.

"I'm testing out my new name," Emily said with a smile. She leaned over and kissed him, tracing his face with her fingertips. He caught her hand and pressed his lips against her wrist before tugging her down and wrapping an arm around her. She giggled.

"It has to be almost noon," she said.

"Who cares? The newlyweds get to sleep in."

Emily wasn't going to argue further with him, snuggling against him and planting kisses all over his face. Normally they would be getting ready to leave for a honeymoon by now, but Emily had a few big projects whose deadlines were coming up soon and so she decided to postpone the honeymoon. Being able to be with Percy every morning and every night was as good as a honeymoon to her, anyway.

"I can't believe we're actually married," Emily murmured, laughing lightly. "I still remember the day I first saw you, when I was arguing with Ben in his stateroom and you knocked the door off its hinges. If anyone has told you that someday you'd be living as an inventor's partner and married to the waifish London socialite your captain kidnapped, would you have believed them?"

"Never," Percy said, grinning. "I probably would have punched them square in the jaw if they tried to tell me that. But you're not waifish. You've never ceased to surprise me with how different you are from the rest of the English elite."

Emily laid her head against his shoulder. "So no regrets about being a committed man?" she teased.

"None at all, Mrs. Everett."

Emily knew she should get up and go to the lab to get some work done, but like Percy said; they were newlyweds. She supposed she was entitled to a day of being lazy and lounging in bed with Percy. It was nearly dinner time when they finally ventured out of their bedroom; Emily was still amazed that now she could call everything theirs instead of just hers; and down the stairs. Francine and Nora were laughing in the kitchen while they cooked.

"So there you two are," Francine said with a smirk as they peeked around the doorframe. "We were beginning to wonder if you'd ever come down. Oh, pardon my rudeness, Mr. Everett."

She blushed slightly. Emily has good rapport with her small staff and they always talked freely in front of her. It would take them some time to adjust to having Percy around now. He blinked.

"Uh, no, that's all right," he mumbled. "Don't feel like you need to censor yourself on my account. And you can call me Percy."

"Dinner is almost done," Nora said. "We were going to bring it to you."

"You don't have to do that," Emily protested.

"Nonsense. You're newlyweds. And you had to postpone your honeymoon for work so we thought we'd do our best to make life as honeymoonish as possible in the meantime." She grinned and winked before shooing them back upstairs.

"Oh, and that Finnigan boy stopped by earlier to drop off Mr. Everett's cat," she called. "He's wandering the house somewhere."

Emily heard a mew and laughed as the tabby came bolting out of the parlor and up the stairs. She expected him to try to climb Percy's leg as he so often did, but instead Caesar stopped short and his fur puffed out.

"Caesar?" Percy frowned. "What's the matter?" He knelt to pet the cat but Caesar hissed and shrunk back. He went to Emily and wound around her ankles, still eyeing Percy warily.

"Come on, Caesar, I thought we were past this. I told you I didn't abandon you."

Caesar merely hissed again and streaked down the hall.

"How peculiar," Emily remarked. "I've never seen him behave that way before."

"Maybe he's just upset about having to adjust to a new house," Percy said. "He probably expected us to be bachelors forever."

"Come to think of it, my cats seem to be avoiding us since we got home, too." Emily frowned in bewilderment. "Such odd creatures."

She shoved the thought from her mind and tugged Percy's hand to lead him back to the bedroom. She flopped unceremoniously across the bed. She barely made a dent where Percy shook the entire bed when he flopped beside her. She laughed and rested her chin on his chest so she could look at him.

"I love you, Percy."

"I love you too, Mrs. Everett."

"You really like the sound of that don't you?"

"Yes as a matter of fact."

Emily started kissing all over his face until there was a knock at the door. She sighed and drew back.

"Come in."

Nora opened the door, bearing a tray of food and tea.

"You two will need your strength," she said, winking conspiratorially at Emily and making her flush crimson. Even Percy looked awkward. Nora left, chuckling quietly to herself while Emily poured a cup of tea. She stayed cuddled against Percy's side the whole evening and she didn't remember falling asleep, but she was in a nightmare again. She watched as another girl was pinned helplessly to the ground and had her face sliced open before the man with the velvety voice choked her to death.

She woke up in a panic, nearly tumbling out of the bed. Percy was still asleep but beginning to stir from all her flailing. Emily bolted into the bathroom to splash icy water on her flushed, panicked face. When she raised her head, it wasn't her features looking back at her. It was the face of Millicent Kempwell, her throat bruised blackish-blue. Emily screamed and leaped back, stumbling and nearly banging her head on the edge of the tub as she fell.

Percy came bursting into the room to find her huddled on the floor, pale and shaking. He immediately scooped her up in his arms and carried her back to the bed.

"What's the matter?" he asked frantically. "What happened? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Emily said weakly.

"Emily," Percy said, exasperation laced with concern in his tone. "There's obviously something going on. If you're going to tell anyone, don't you think it should be me? I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong."

Emily clung tightly to him, taking a few deep breaths to calm her racing heartbeat.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner," she finally admitted. "I just...I know how you feel about these things and I never expected any of this to happen."

"What are you talking about?"

"The night I went to Georgina Hale's party, she had a woman there named Madame Antoinette Beauchene. She's a famous psychic. I guess the Hale's wanted to make their party memorable and more interesting, so they had Madame Beauchene host a seance. I saw a girl in the room before the lights went out. Then I fainted. And then my nightmares started. I didn't connect them to the seance until Finn showed me that newspaper article about The Dollmaker. But Percy, the girl that I saw was his first victim, Millicent. And my nightmares aren't dreams at all."

She looked up at him tentatively. "They're real. I'm seeing every murder The Dollmaker commits."