Immortality: A Love Story (the Anatomy Duology, #2)

Set in an alternate version of Regency-era Britain where a fictional plague called the Roman fever has ravaged the population, this second and final installment in the Anatomy duology opens with a prologue in Paris in 1794. During the Reign of Terror, the French Revolution's period of mass executions, the renowned chemist Antoine Lavoisier is sentenced to death by guillotine. Before his execution, his wife, Marie-Anne Lavoisier, embraces him and secretly presses a small vial into his palm.

The story shifts to Edinburgh in 1818, where Hazel Sinnett works as an unlicensed surgeon. In the previous book, Hazel fell in love with Jack Currer. Jack was hanged, but before his execution, Hazel passed him a vial of an immortality elixir called the Tincture, originally formulated by Antoine Lavoisier. The celebrated surgeon Dr. Beecham, revealed as an immortal who killed people to harvest their body parts for wealthy clients, has since disappeared. Hazel has thrown herself into medical work and is writing a treatise to make anatomy accessible to ordinary people. Her mother has relocated to England, leaving Hazel alone at Hawthornden Castle, the family estate. She received one unsigned letter she believes is from Jack, saying his heart is still hers and he will be waiting in America, but she cannot be certain he survived.

One night, a desperate woman arrives at Hawthornden, pregnant and hemorrhaging after taking substances to end a pregnancy forced upon her. Hazel nurses her back to health, but soon after, a high constable arrests Hazel for the murder of Florence Fitzpatrick, the woman's real name. Florence's husband has coerced her into testifying that Hazel procured an illegal abortion. Hazel is imprisoned at Calton Gaol, falls dangerously ill, and prepares for execution.

Instead, she is released into the custody of Gaspar Philip Pembroke, a steward in the royal household. Princess Charlotte of Wales, the heir presumptive to the throne, has been refusing to see any physician. The Prince Regent, Charlotte's father, hopes she might accept a female doctor of her own age, and Hazel's charges are dropped on condition she serve the crown.

In London, Charlotte refuses examination for days. Hazel befriends Eliza Murray, Charlotte's lady-in-waiting, and earns the Princess's trust by rescuing her lapdog, Edwina, from the street. One evening, Hazel observes elegantly dressed figures wearing gilded rabbit masks disappear through a hidden door on Pall Mall. Eliza identifies them as the Companions to the Death, a secretive and influential literary society. Hazel's medical bag arrives ruined by mold, so she visits the infirmary at Kew Palace, where she meets Dr. Simon von Ferris, the King's personal physician, a tall, accomplished Swedish doctor. They clash but develop mutual respect. Simon treats King George III, whose condition is worsening, marked by constant babbling, delusions, and forgetfulness. The Prince Regent threatens Hazel: Charlotte must attend an upcoming naval celebration, or Hazel's position will be terminated.

Hazel persuades Charlotte to allow a brief examination, which reveals only a low fever and stomach pain. At a ball, she dances with Simon and they discuss Charlotte's baffling case. Afterward, she finds a riddle-invitation sealed with a brain-shaped wax stamp on her pillow. With Charlotte's help, Hazel deciphers the riddle and confronts the Princess: Charlotte has been faking her illness to avoid marrying the Prince of Orange and to avoid seeing the person she secretly loves with someone else. Hazel agrees to keep Charlotte's secret if Charlotte attends the celebration.

Following the riddle to a hidden door in the Seven Dials neighborhood, Hazel descends into an underground clubhouse where Marie-Anne Lavoisier greets her. The members include Benjamin Banneker, an American mathematician and astronomer; Lord Byron; Voltaire; and Antoine Lavoisier himself, alive but mute, his head stitched back onto his neck after his execution. When Byron shoots Voltaire during an argument, Hazel performs emergency surgery and realizes all members are immortal, having taken the Tincture. Marie-Anne offers Hazel immortality, but Hazel declines, agreeing only to serve as the Companions' surgeon, repairing their deteriorating bodies.

After leaving the Companions at dawn, Hazel finds Simon asleep in the infirmary, and they kiss, though she feels guilty thinking of Jack. At the naval celebration, Charlotte appears healthy, and among the sailors, Hazel spots a scarred man with an eyepatch: Jack Currer, alive. Jack visits and recounts his story: He woke after his hanging, fled Edinburgh, and watched Hazel through her window at Hawthornden but chose not to reveal himself, believing he could never give her a real life as an immortal fugitive. He lost his right eye in a shipwreck and was rescued by HMS Iphigenia. When the Companions confirm the Tincture cannot be reversed, Jack tells Hazel there is no future for them, since he will live forever while she ages and dies.

Simon gives Hazel a new medical bag, and its leather smell triggers a realization: The arsenic dye in the King's green wallpaper, activated by moisture and mold, has been releasing poison into the air, causing his deteriorating condition. They tear down the wallpaper and move the King to new quarters, and he begins improving. Simon proposes marriage, but Hazel declines, knowing she loves Jack.

Hazel accidentally discovers that Charlotte and Eliza are in love. Charlotte was heartbroken not over any prince but over the prospect of losing Eliza to her fiancé, Otto Anhalt. Hazel devises a plan to fake Charlotte's death so the Princess can live freely with Eliza. They prepare a body double, and Charlotte departs for Eliza's estate in Bavaria, disguised as a servant. Simon examines the body and invents a fictional cause of death to protect Hazel, then departs for Sweden.

Visiting the Companions, Hazel discovers a drawer labeled "Kew" containing the same toxic mold that poisoned the King. She accuses Marie-Anne of deliberately keeping the King incapacitated so the Companions could manipulate the Prince Regent from behind the scenes. Marie-Anne does not deny it and demands to know where Charlotte really is. Hazel tears off Marie-Anne's surgically reattached arm, grabs a vial of Tincture, and flees. She then encounters Beecham himself, alive under a false name, who confirms the Tincture is irreversible.

Jack gives Hazel a ring made from a bent surgeon's needle, and they marry at a small church. During the ceremony, Hazel secretly drinks the stolen Tincture, making herself immortal so she and Jack can share eternity. As they leave London, Marie-Anne blocks their carriage on horseback and shoots Hazel in the chest. The bullet lodges in Hazel's heart, but she survives: The Tincture has already taken effect. Jack dismembers Marie-Anne, and Hazel performs surgery on herself to close the wound.

The novel closes with three epilogues. Charlotte and Eliza arrive at a castle in Bavaria to begin their new life. In London, Marie-Anne survives as a severed but still-living head, continuing to host the Companions alongside the mute Antoine. Hazel and Jack sail for America, where Jack takes a job at the Park Theatre in Manhattan. Hazel seeks admission to King's College medical school, waiting persistently in administrators' offices with her medical bag and completed treatise. They plan to reassess their immortal life in two hundred years, and Hazel holds on to hope of one day reversing the Tincture.