The Lazarus Engine – Chapter 15 The Séance Lady Isolde Vane had not fled the manor fire. She had simply moved her operation to a townhouse in Belgravia, where she hosted weekly séances for wealthy widows and grieving mothers. It was the perfect cover. No one suspected that the spiritualist who spoke to the dead … Read more
The Lazarus Engine – Chapter 14 The Society’s Founder The last surviving founder of the Order of the Second Breath lived in a decaying mansion on the edge of Hampstead Heath. His name was Lord Augustus Pym, and he had been ninety years old for the past decade. Thorne had met him once, at a … Read more
The Lazarus Engine – Chapter 13 The Experiment Thorne’s hidden laboratory was beneath the shared morgue, accessible only through a trapdoor behind the skeleton display. Gray had not known it existed. When Thorne lifted the iron ring and pulled open the door, she stared into the darkness below. “You’ve been keeping secrets,” she said. “Surgeons … Read more
The Lazarus Engine – Chapter 12 The Mausoleum The cemetery behind Vane Manor was a city of the dead. Gravestones leaned like crooked teeth. Angels wept over moss-covered tombs. And at the center, behind an iron gate rusted shut, stood the Vane family mausoleum. Thorne used Pound’s key. The lock turned with a sound like … Read more
The Lazarus Engine – Chapter 11 The Blueprint Ezra Pound led them to a hidden room behind his workbench—a tiny chamber lined with shelves of old journals and rolled-up diagrams. In the center, on a wooden pedestal, lay a single sheet of vellum. It was yellowed with age, the ink faded to brown, but the … Read more
The Lazarus Engine – Chapter 10 The Mechanical Hand The prosthetist’s workshop was located in a narrow alley off Cheapside, above a tannery that stank of chemicals and decay. Thorne had learned of the place from Crowne, who had whispered the address between sips of gin. “His name is Ezra Pound,” Crowne had said. “Not … Read more
The Lazarus Engine – Chapter 9 The Third Victim’s Last Hour Before they went to the mausoleum, Thorne insisted on one more stop: the railway station where Sir Humphrey Wells had spent his final hour. “I need to see it,” he said. “Not the carriage—the platform. The witnesses. The moments before he locked himself inside.” … Read more
The Lazarus Engine – Chapter 8 The List The membership roll of the Order of the Second Breath was hidden in a locked safe behind a painting of a dying saint. Thorne had known about it for years. He had never opened it. Until now. The safe was located in the back room of a … Read more
The Lazarus Engine – Chapter 7 The Shared Morgue The light was not an explosion. It was a gas lamp, shattered by Gray’s truncheon, sending a spray of oil and flame across the workshop floor. Charlotte screamed—not in pain, but in fury. She stumbled back, clutching the spinning gear to her chest. The flames caught … Read more
The Lazarus Engine – Chapter 6 The Clockmaker’s Daughter The darkness lasted only a moment. Thorne struck a match. The flame caught the edge of a fallen curtain, then a candelabra, then the oil in a brass lamp. Light returned to the library in flickering waves. Lady Isolde Vane was still in her chair. The … Read more
