Griffin
I sat near the fire, my head bowed and my hands loose between my knees. The distant voice still spoke inside my skull, but I gave it no more heed than the occasional barks from the dogs. Iskander and Scarrow sat across from me, and the two remaining guides prowled about, their guns at the ready in case we attempted to bolt.
Jack was there, too. But I tried not to look at him.
God. I’d been so stupid. So blind.
Pa had died, and it hurt, because the argument would remain unfinished between us forever. There would be no forgiveness from him, no acceptance. And I’d been so worried about replaying the argument, only this time with Jack, I’d missed what now seemed obvious. He hadn’t kept asking about Whyborne because he suspected our relationship, hadn’t been shocked when Ival saved him on the trail because he saw only a soft, useless scholar. It was because he knew Whyborne was a dangerous sorcerer.
I’d been so afraid of losing the only kin I still possessed, I’d ended up risking the family I already had. Christine and Iskander, and Ival most of all.
Where was he now? They must have reached the moulin, assuming they could find it again after the avalanche. Must have gone down into the depths of the earth.
Turner didn’t intend to bring either of them back. What if my husband died beneath this accursed glacier, because I’d been stupid enough to lead him into this trap?
I’d accused him of treating me as a child or an invalid. Of finding some excuse for me not to have to go down into the dark. The last words I’d spoken to him had been in anger. How could I live with that? How could I live with any of it?
“Griffin,” Jack said. “Let me explain.”
My mouth felt dry as cotton. I swallowed, but it didn’t help. “What can you possibly say to explain this?”
“I didn’t mean for them to threaten you, I swear.” As if that somehow made it better. “Nicholas...God, I’m not sure where to begin, even.”
Iskander shifted on his rough-hewn seat. “You might start with why you agreed to lure us here in the first place.”
“Nicholas sought me out,” Jack said. “Because of my connection with Griffin, and Griffin’s connection with Dr. Whyborne. Although he wasn’t exactly truthful about the nature of their, um, friendship.”
I didn’t give a damn what he thought of my relationship with Whyborne. “And you just agreed to hand us all over to your new friend? Did Nicholas even tell you he’s a sorcerer?”
“Of course he did!” Jack snapped, then caught himself. When he spoke again, it was far more calmly. “Nicholas told me all about himself, and about the family his mother came from back in England.”
A chill ran through me, because it could mean only one thing. “Damn it. The Endicotts.”
“Yes. Nicholas was already here in Alaska, looking for the city. He’d read an old account from a crazed Russian explorer, and believed some sort of ancient city waited here in the mountains. He came to me and explained everything—that he was sorcerer, that his family fights monsters and protects ordinary people.”
A hoarse laugh escaped me. “Yes, I heard those lies myself first hand. Did he tell you what the Endicotts tried to do to Widdershins?”
“He told me Dr. Whyborne is a monster,” Jack replied, anger lacing the words now. “And that some of his cousins from the main family line died trying to stop him.”
“They tried to kill Whyborne by murdering an entire town full of innocents! Oh yes, the very definition of keeping ordinary people safe.”
Jack scowled. “From what I understand, most of the people in Widdershins aren’t very innocent.”
“You don’t know anything,” I replied. Fury began to replace despair in my veins, and I embraced it. I raised my head and pinned Jack with my gaze. “Whyborne saved your life, and this is how you repay him?”
Jack shifted, unable to meet my eyes. “I thought...but I was useful to him. Nicholas explained the deception. Creatures like Dr. Whyborne don’t really feel things like love or human kindness.”
The argument we’d heard, the first night in Hoarfrost. I’d let Jack keep his secrets because I was intent on keeping mine. I shouldn’t have. I should have pushed. I should have introduced Whyborne as my husband, I should have...
It was all too late, so I ruthlessly slammed the door on my guilt. Later on, when this was over, when I had Whyborne in my arms and we were all safe, then I’d let it back in. But for now, only our survival mattered.
“He’s lying to you,” I replied. “Or he’s just wrong, so caught up in his own certainties he can’t see the truth in front of him. The rings you asked about our first night in St. Michael aren’t society rings. They’re wedding rings. Whyborne is my husband.”
I left the words to hang in the air. Jack’s eyes widened. “Your...husband?”
I refused to look away. “Yes.”
“He’s just using you,” Jack said. “Tricking you.”
“I’ve lived under the same roof with the man for three years. I would have noticed by now if that were the case. If anyone has been using others, it’s Nicholas.”
“You don’t understand!” Jack lowered his voice when the remaining guards looked at him sharply. “You don’t know what my life has been like, Griffin. I told you some of it. I ran away from home. I ran away from the circus. I drifted everywhere until I came here. My life was nothing. I didn’t care about anyone, not even myself. I used everyone I came across. The swindler Dr. Whyborne saw me interrupt in St. Michael? I was once just like him.”
Jack shook his head unhappily. “Nicholas changed everything. He offered me purpose. He believed in me, the way no one else ever did. By helping him rid the world of the sort of things most people don’t even realize exist, I could do some good in the world. Be a part of something bigger than myself.”
Wasn’t that why I’d joined the Pinkertons? To make the world better, to be a part of something important? Why I’d fallen in love with my brave, beautiful Ival, who ran toward danger when everyone else fled, because he couldn’t just pretend nothing was wrong? Had Nicholas seen that in Jack and played on it? Or did he, like Theo and Fiona Endicott, believe he did the work of the righteous, no matter how many innocents died?
I couldn’t let emotion cloud my judgment. Not again. “Even if it means murdering your own brother,” I said ruthlessly.
“I’m saving you!” His mittens clenched on his thighs. “Nicholas said you knew all about Dr. Whyborne, but I thought his reports must be wrong. I convinced him to help me free you from the abomination masquerading as your human friend. We used my connection with you to let Dr. Whyborne know a powerful servitor waited here in the north for any sorcerer able to claim it. He wouldn’t be able to resist such a prize. He’d hurry here as quickly as possible, just to prevent anyone else from finding it first. Once he arrived, we’d find the city with his and Dr. Putnam’s help. We’d go inside, expose him for what he really is, and just...leave him there. You’d join Nicholas and me, and the three of us together would help save the world.”
“We didn’t come to claim some sorcerous prize. We came to save your worthless hide.”
Jack looked at me uncertainly. “Me?”
“Yes.” I started to rise, caught the expression on one of the guard’s faces, and sat back down. “We came here for you. Because you’re my brother, and I couldn’t sit by while you went blindly to your death.” I spat; it froze before it hit the snow and lay there gleaming. “What an idiot I was.”
“But...but that’s not right,” Jack said. “It can’t be.”
I laughed bitterly. “Of course it is. And you know it. You expected one thing from Whyborne and got something entirely different, didn’t you? A man who seemed a true friend to those around him, not a sorcerous tyrant using us all to achieve his own ends. Moreover, a man who risked his life to save yours.” I shook my head. “You’d already started asking yourself questions, hadn’t you? About how poorly the reality matched the terrifying monster Nicholas described to you. By the time we got to Hoarfrost, you didn’t really believe any more. But you let Nicholas convince you, smother the doubt in your heart. Just like I’m sure you’re telling yourself Nicholas won’t really murder me, and Iskander, and even poor Reverend Scarrow the moment we’re no longer useful.”
Jack closed his eyes briefly. His body trembled, but I didn’t think it was entirely from the cold.
“Don’t let this happen, Jack,” I said. “Don’t let him kill all of us and take this servitor, whatever it is, back to the Endicotts.”
A frown creased his mouth. “I don’t understand. What do you mean ‘whatever it is?’ You’ve encountered umbrae before.”
The devil? “I assure you, we’ve not fought so many horrors from beyond that I no longer remember the particulars,” I said. “Whatever this umbra is, we’ve not seen it.”
“Umbrae,” Jack corrected. “You don’t think...oh.” His eyes widened. “You truly don’t know, do you?”
The arctic wind seemed to seep through clothing and flesh to chill my blood directly. “What do you mean?”
“Sorcerers take them to be guardians. Steal them from their nests while they’re still in the chrysalis stage, then grow them into something that can be controlled through magic. They’re powerful, strong, nearly indestructible except from fire and lightning.” Jack met my gaze at last, and I thought there might have been pity in the depths of the green eyes so like my own. “You’ve seen them twice already. Once in Chicago, and once in Egypt.”
“No,” Iskander whispered. “There’s a daemon of the night here?”
“Not a daemon, my friend,” Jack said wryly. “An entire city full of them.”