Page 177

‘The child?’

‘Yes, little Zero,’ he said. ‘She was only three. I should have left her behind, but I took pity on her. I saw in that nameless girl a shadow of the orphan I had been, abandoned by the world. And so I carried her away with me, saving her from the bloodbath.’

‘Eliza,’ I whispered. ‘Eliza was Zero?’

‘A young woman had stopped taking the contraceptive pill, hoping a pregnancy would move Scion to release her,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately for her, she was mistaken. Still, Nashira spared the newborn, to rear her as a perfect soldier. The Suzerain is never wasteful.’

My ears rang.

‘Eliza never knowingly lied to you,’ Jaxon said. ‘Once I had Seven Dials, I palmed her off to some courtiers in Soho, not caring to raise a child as my own. But I did keep her in my sights, in case she grew into someone worthwhile. When she was fifteen, she started using white and purple aster, trying to escape her distant memories of Oxford. I made sure a copy ofOn the Meritsfell into her hands, and she asked me for a job.’

‘Does she know now?’

‘I told her in London,’ he said. ‘She was upset, of course. But you and Nick abandoned her; I never did. And Eliza fears nothing more than abandonment.’

Eliza had been in a terrible position. I had left her behind, and this was the consequence.

‘If it helps, she never told me where the Mime Order was hiding. I still have no idea,’ Jaxon said. ‘Don’t be too angry, Paige. Eliza loves you like a sister, as Nick does, but she is bound to me by more than blood. We survived the Bone Season together. We survived the Novembertide Rebellion. If not for me, Eliza Renton would be nothing but bones.’

‘Which wouldalsohave been because of you,’ I reminded him.

‘If not for my actions, neither of us would ever have escaped. I believe the Ranthen would have failed that year, and I needed to leave Oxford.’

‘Didn’t we all?’

All he did was take another drag, making the end of his cigar glow like a dying ember.

The Devil had me on the end of his chain. Perhaps this night was proof that I had never been able to avoid the third card in my reading. I was always meant to end up here.

But the Devil had not been the last card. Whatever it meant, this cell was not the end of my journey.

‘Sala needs me to defend her against Cade,’ I said. ‘So what happens now, Jax?’

‘Wait and see. Even for me, it’s a master stroke,’ he said. ‘Carter despises the Rephaim. Your weakness for the Ranthen is about to be your undoing.’ He showed me a small packet. ‘And look what I have to sweeten the deal. The precious files that Scarlett Burnish stole from the Archon. Entering the wrong access code will erase its contents.’

‘And only you know the code.’

‘Well done.’ He fastened it back into his pocket. ‘Even the amaurotics have their part to play.’

‘Cordier wanted to do right by her sister. It was cruel of you to manipulate her,’ I said. ‘Then again, I would expect no less of you.’

‘Whatever you think of me, I always work to protect you.’

‘How isthisprotecting me?’

‘Few places are safer than a prison.’ He patted his pocket. ‘I hold all the cards. And you have none.’

I swallowed past the drought in my throat, realising I hadn’t drunk a drop for hours.

Jaxon had covered his own tracks with ashes. Almost everyone in the grey market was dead, and only I had ever seen him in the Archon.

‘So you’re going to let the Council of Kassandra control London,’ I said. ‘You’re going to bow and scrape for them, like you did for Nashira, just so you can wear the Rose Crown.’

‘Oh, darling, you should know by now. I don’t thinkanyoneis better than me.’ His gaze bored into mine. ‘I have wanted to rule London since I was a child. If I have to tell this sententious Council a few white lies to keep them out of my way, then so be it. Did youreallythink I would allow my own mollisher to sit on my throne for good, Pale Dreamer?’

‘I am not your creature any more. Whatever happens to me next, it was all worth it, to be rid of your grip on me.’ I looked him in the eye. ‘You’ll get yours, Jaxon Hall.’

‘Not before you. Best of luck.’