Page 58 of Blackwicket (Dark Hall #1)

“I’m so sorry, Thea, I wasn’t completely sure whether…”

“We weren’t,” Thea cut me off stiffly. “Not officially. Cora lied to me, I didn’t know she was Authority. But I’m not. I was here for Barrick, to help him undermine the Authority’s plans, but they caught on. Couldn’t do much, because on paper he was doing it all right.”

“But they found a way,” I said, knowing the end.

Ramsey cast his eyes to the ground, the delivery of his next words difficult.

“Grigori took care of the problem for them,” he said.

“What they didn’t account for was Victor,” Thea’s tone carried no affection, but was free of the fear and revulsion I’d previously sensed regarding the Inspector.

“He ripped through the Brom enclave in Devin. Scattered them to the four winds, then continued to come to Nightglass under the charade of being there for a good time, but he was out of control. The Authority attempted to rein him in, give him some work to do outside of busting heads.”

“He mentioned he was here to investigate the disappearances,” I replied. Victor was likely aware of the Authority’s attempts to handle him and, true to form, had turned this to his advantage, agreeing to stay in the very location he already wanted to be in.

“We’re both concerned he’s involved,” Ramsey remarked, the gentleness in his wording revealing his awareness that Victor meant something to me. Why else would I have known these details about his life if he hadn’t confided them? And a man such as Victor didn’t confide easily.

“He is,” I said bluntly. There was no point in concealing information.

Thea narrowed her eyes, “How do you know?”

“Victor isn’t here to bully the Brom, and I’d wager my life that he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the people who disappeared.

” He hadn’t cared that I’d found their clothes, their bones.

It occurred to me he’d always known and was merely waiting to verify I hadn’t been connected.

“He knows what Grigori was doing, knows William is on the same power trip, and he intends to put an end to it tonight. ”

“He wants to avenge Barrick?” This alarmed Ramsey.

“That’s been done,” I said, taking the initiative to walk into the night toward the car, which remained running, its tailpipe steaming. “This is retribution for what he was forced to endure, and insurance that it’ll never happen to anyone else.”

Thea was working to keep up, her heels sticking in the gravel.

“What are you saying? Slow down, Eleanora!”

I didn’t heed her, continuing my clip, heart pounding. I was going to share Victor’s deepest tragedy, but it was necessary.

“Victor is Thomas Nightglass. Grigori used him to perfect the practice of soldering a Drudge to a human soul.”

“That’s impossible,” Ramsey exclaimed, his barking voice enraged, horrified at the implications. “It would have killed him! Not a single known person survived that joining for more than a few weeks at best, and all of them went mad!”

I wasn’t ready to confess Thomas had assistance, that I’d unwittingly become the final link in the alchemical equation that allowed the merger to succeed and endure. I was in a precarious position as it was.

I reached the car, grasping the handle to yank the door wide, but I didn’t enter, not yet. “The Drudge you saw today, Thea. One of them was Victor. He was protecting Jack.”

“ Which one ?” The question was shrill.

I was preparing to answer when a new, horrible thought bloomed.

“Where’s Jack?” I blurted.

“He’s with my wife,” Ramsey puffed, out of breath from the brisk pace we’d taken across the drive.

“Far from High Tide,” Thea assured, still flustered by the information I’d shared.

“Well,” I said, bitter. “That’s one person we don’t have to worry about Victor taking with him to death. ”

I tried to enter the car, but Thea took hold of me, fingers tight on my arm, pleading.

“If Victor’s agenda is to decimate Nightglass, we should let him do it,” she implored.

“Didn’t you hear me? He’s not planning on making it out alive, Thea.”

“A man should die if he wants to die.”

“ I don’t want him to,” I shouted, pulling from her grasp. “He’s choosing this because he’s angry, he thinks this is the only choice. Like Fiona.”

The appeal spoke to Thea’s love for my sister and, truthfully, to mine as well.

Regardless of Fiona’s past decisions, I chose to believe they stemmed from despair, an attempt to regain some control and shield her loved ones from enduring the same pain she’d faced.

She’d chosen to protect those she loved by doing horrible things. Victor was no different. Neither was I.

After a stretch of silence in which Ramsey stood with his head bowed, knowing this exchange required privacy he couldn’t give, Thea spoke, her tone nearly tender.

“You’re too old to be a silly romantic, Eleanora.”

Her delivery of this declaration was subdued, making it sound more impatient than rebuking. Like a sister admonishing a na?ve younger sibling, whose rosy view of the world was irritating but precious.

“We’re grown women,” she said. “And I know that look. Victor got under your skirt, and now you’re letting him get under your skin too. You’re a goddamn fool.”

Despite her arguments, she walked around to the opposite door and climbed inside the car, the veneer of a pragmatic woman restored. She glared at Ramsey and me, waiting in the cold.

“Why are you just standing there? We’re late for High Tide,” she snapped.