Julia Vanishes

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2016 by Catherine Egan

Cover photograph copyright © 2016 by Jack Ambrose/Getty Images

Map copyright © 2016 by Robert Lazzeretti

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 9780553524840 (trade) — ISBN 9780553524857 (lib. bdg.) —

ebook ISBN 9780553524864 — ISBN 9781524700843 (intl. tr. pbk.)

June 2016

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v4.1

ep

For Mick,

who keeps this ship afloat

while I am conjuring sea monsters

T
he cab crosses the bridge by Cyrambel Temple, and Jani hears herself say, “I'll get out here.”

“Here?” asks her companion, still bouncing the sleepy baby in her lap. “Surely not. I don't know Lord Snow, but I can tell you he doesn't live here. Nobody lives here.”

“It isn't far,” says Jani, laughing, though she cannot remember at the moment where Lord Snow and his family reside. She has the address in her purse; she just needs to get out, gather her thoughts. She doesn't know and will not have time to wonder what compels her. She is sorry to leave her companion and the beautiful child. They have traveled by train all the way from the south together, agreed to share the cab because they were going to the same part of the city.

“You sure?” asks the cabbie, also skeptical. There is nothing here but the temple, the river, the empty bridge.

“I fancy a bit of a walk,” she says.

“ 'Tisn't safe, miss,” says the cabbie.

“I'll be fine.” She turns to her companion. “Thank you for keeping me company. Please give me your address. We're both new to the city—we could get to know it together.”

“Of course.” Her companion takes a pen and a bit of notepaper from her own purse, writes swiftly, folds the paper, and presses it into Jani's hand. The smell of rotten flowers wafts through the cab. “Take care,” she says.

“You also,” says Jani. Impulsively, she leans over and kisses the woman on her cheek. She kisses the baby too.

“Say bye-bye, Theo,” says her companion, and little Theo waves a fat hand. “Bah-bah.”

The cabriolet pulls away into the night, and Jani is alone in the shadow of the temple. Someone is waiting for her. She knows that much. She is afraid too, and yet here she is. She unfolds the paper her companion gave her. She can only just make out the words in the dark:

Forget me

She looks after the cab, puzzled, trying to remember who gave her the paper. Lord Snow's house in Forrestal is a long way off, and the night is cold.

“What am I doing?” she says aloud.

The soft hand on her throat comes like an answer to her question, choking off her scream. In one swift motion the blade cuts her loose of the dark night and all that was to come.