36

RAVEN CAUGHT ME and steered me back toward land.

“I have to find Helen,” I told him. “She was shot.”

I started flying toward the Woolworth Building, but Eirwyn intercepted our flight path, whistling sharply.

“Nathan’s brought Helen back to Henry Street,” Raven interpreted. I had understood a little of Eirwyn’s language. Wing-wounded was the bit I’d caught.

We banked south toward the Henry Street House, skimming over the Lower East Side tenement rooftops. Only a few months ago I’d been running across these rooftops chasing Rue. Now they were packed with crowds spread out on blankets and kitchen chairs, picnicking, drinking homemade wine and ale, eating cold chicken, playing cards and singing and dancing—all to celebrate the lighting of the Woolworth Building. They had no idea how close they’d come to seeing it explode. Nor did most of them notice our cloaked wings passing over their heads. Only a few old women—babushka-wearing Jewish grandmothers, wizened Italian crones wrapped in black shawls—looked up as we passed and made signs with their crabbed fingers or spit over their shoulders.

On the roof of the Henry Street House, though, we were greeted by an excited group: the rest of the Darklings and the girls they’d carried from the Woolworth Building—both the Blythewood girls and the other girls from the Hellgate Club—Kid Marvel and a boisterous crew of madges, Agnes and Mr. Greenfeder, Miss Sharp and Mr. Bellows, and a whole conflagration of lampsprites that lit up the roof like a Christmas tree.

They all burst into applause when we landed. Miss Sharp and Agnes stepped out of the crowd to greet us—but then halted, their eyes riveted on something just over my head that was casting a glow on their faces. I turned to see what they were looking at, afraid there’d been another bomb that had lit the Woolworth Building on fire, but found that it was me. My wings were glowing with a lambent flame.

I turned back to Agnes and Miss Sharp and met their gazes. The roof had grown silent. My friends from Blythewood—Cam and Beatrice and Dolores, Myrtilene and Etta and Susannah and Mary MacCrae—had come forward out of the crowd to stare at my wings. Mr. Bellows’ mouth hung open. I hadn’t seen him look so surprised since Miss Corey and Miss Sharp had kissed. I heard the madges murmur, “A phoenix!” and Cam Bennett whistle something under her breath and Myrtilene Montmorency say “I’ll be—” before Susannah kicked her shin to quiet her.

It was my worst nightmare. I had been revealed to all my schoolmates. Would they turn on me now? Turn me in to the Council? Turn away in revulsion?

But then Dolores was stepping forward, holding her sister Beatrice’s hand. She raised both their hands into the air. “Three cheers for Ava for getting rid of the bomb. Hip, hip—”

They all cheered me, the madges, too, Delilah spinning around in a hypnotic dance, the Irishmen breaking into a jig, the lampsprites fluttering up into the air like miniature firecrackers. It would have been perfect if I hadn’t been missing three faces.

“Nathan and Daisy are with Helen,” Miss Sharp whispered in my ear. “I think you’d better get down there.”

The fire in my wings cooled at her words. I quickly told Raven where I was going and followed Miss Sharp inside and down the stairs to a room on the third floor. It was one of the rooms Miss Wald used to see patients. Miss Wald was there now with her black nurse’s bag, sitting beside a narrow iron-framed cot. Helen lay in the bed, her face as white as the sheets and the bandages covering her chest. Nathan sat on the bed beside her, and Daisy stood, still wearing her patriotic shop girl costume, wringing her hands. When she saw me, Daisy ran to me and started whispering in my year. “She’s not—”

“I thought we’d sworn off secrets,” Helen interrupted in a weak voice.

“You’re right,” Daisy said, pulling me to the bed. “We’ve had enough secrets. They’re all out now. Ava’s half-Darkling—why, that’s not so bad! And I’m engaged to Mr. Appleby—if he’ll still have me. And Nathan’s—”

“The son of the Shadow Master who’s been filling my head with tenebrae for months,” Nathan said, breaking into Daisy’s bright, nervous chatter without taking his eyes off Helen.

“But you’re free of them now,” Daisy said, her eyes wide as silver dollars. “D’you know, Ava, after you left, Nathan carried Helen down twenty-seven flights of stairs because the elevators were all jammed with those awful men who kidnapped us? Don’t worry, though, the madges rounded them up when they left the building and are holding them until Mr. Omar can de-mesmerize them—and then Nathan carried Helen all the way here and woke up Miss Wald and got her to get a doctor from Bellevue so they could remove the bullet from Helen’s spine. She would have died otherwise!”

“Yes, Nathan saved me,” Helen said, turning her head weakly in my direction.

“You saved me,” Nathan said to Helen, squeezing her hand.

“Oh, pish,” Helen replied. “I doubt that bullet would have hit you anyway. Herr Hofmeister was a terrible shot.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Nathan began.

“Oh, but he is a terrible man,” Daisy interrupted. “The madges have him in custody and are interrogating him. . . . ”

Daisy chattered on about Herr Hofmeister, but Nathan and Helen weren’t listening. They were looking into each other’s eyes. Not with the moonstruck haze of lovers, but with the solemnity of soldiers after a battle. Helen had saved Nathan, not just by intercepting that bullet meant for him, but because her selfless action had banished the shadows from Nathan’s soul. But were they gone for good? I studied Nathan. He was pale and drawn, his eyes sunk into his face, but those eyes were a clear gray again, and nothing moved in them besides concern for Helen.

And what about Helen?

“So they were able to get the bullet out?” I said, interrupting Daisy’s chatter. “And Helen’s going to be all right?”

Daisy’s eyes immediately filled up with tears. Nathan lifted his head and looked from Daisy to me, silently mouthing the word “out.” Daisy was getting to her feet.

“We should leave Helen to get some rest,” she said, fleeing out the door. I followed her. As soon as we were in the hall Daisy burst into tears. Nathan followed, closing the door behind him and pulling us farther down the hall.

“What is it?” I cried.

“Helen is going to be fine,” Nathan said in a steely voice that brooked no argument.

“It’s just . . . the bullet that hit her spine . . .” Daisy sobbed. “She may never walk again.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling as if I’d been punched in the stomach.

“She will walk again,” Nathan said through gritted teeth. “If I have to take her to every doctor in Europe.” He glared at both of us, silver eyes flashing, as though daring us to contradict him. When we didn’t, he nodded once, turned on his heel, and stomped back down the hall to Helen’s room.

“The doctor says we won’t know for months whether Helen will regain the use of her legs,” Daisy said soberly. I realized now that her nervous, bright chatter had been to avoid the issue of Helen’s condition. “Nathan won’t hear it.”

“Maybe it’s what he needs,” I said. “Someone to take care of . . .” I paused. His inability to help Louisa had driven a wedge into his soul that had let the shadows in. If Helen never recovered . . . I banished the thought from my head. “It will keep the shadows away,” I said with more conviction than I felt. “Helen will make sure of it.”

Daisy nodded and wiped her eyes. “If anyone can, it’s Helen. And we’ll be there to help her.”

I squeezed Daisy’s hand and turned to go back to Helen’s room, but saw Raven and Marlin coming down from the roof. They looked worried.

“We have to go,” Raven said, grabbing my arm.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Are we under attack?”

“Not exactly,” Raven answered.

I heard a commotion coming from downstairs. Voices raised. Miss Sharp shouting. Something breaking.

I ran down the stairs, Raven and Marlin at my heels. In the parlor I found Miss Sharp, Mr. Bellows, Agnes, and Miss Corey on one side of the room, and on the other, three women in black. I recognized them right away as the ladies who had interviewed me for admission to Blythewood. They still wore the same bird-crowned hats they had worn over a year ago. Didn’t they know it was no longer popular to sport dead birds on millinery? But as they turned toward me, the stuffed crows came to life and flew straight for us. Raven and Marlin tried to beat them off, but they were too small and quick. I felt a stuffed bird’s claws dig into my shoulder and suddenly couldn’t move.

“Avaline Hall,” Mrs. Ansonia van Hassel boomed, “I arrest you as an enemy of the Order.”

“You can’t arrest Avaline,” Miss Sharp said. “She and the Darklings saved our girls today!”

“And they saved the Order from disgrace and shame,” Agnes said. “The Council’s been infiltrated by tenebrae.”

“If the Woolworth Building had blown up, all your investments would have been destroyed,” Mr. Greenfeder said.

“Silence!” Mrs. van Hassel screeched. “You will all face charges of consorting with the enemies of the Order!” Mrs. van Hassel’s face, already red, turned purple. Kid Marvel, Omar, Delilah, and all the other madges and lampsprites had appeared in the doorway and were crowding into the parlor.

“Mr. Bellows,” Mrs. van Hassel called in a tremulous voice, “I charge you as a knight of the Order to defend us against these . . . these . . .”

“These good people?” Mr. Bellows asked, moving between the women from the Order and the crowd. Miss Corey and Miss Sharp went to stand on either side of him. Agnes and Mr. Greenfeder joined them. I felt a swelling of gratitude for my friends’ loyalty, but I also didn’t want to see anyone else get hurt tonight.

“I’ll go with you if you release Raven and Marlin,” I said. “And the other magicals. You can arrest me. Just leave my friends alone.”

“Arrest a Hall! I don’t think so!”

The voice came from behind the crowd of madges. I saw them edge apart at the sweep of an ivory walking stick to let my grandmother make her slow but stately way into the room.

“No one will be arresting my granddaughter, especially not you, Ansonia van Hassel. Who let those lecherous men into Blythewood? Who advised the Council to sink all the Order’s money into the Titanic? And then, as if we hadn’t learned our lesson, into the Woolworth Building?”

“Your granddaughter is a Darkling, Elvira,” Mrs. van Hassel said.

My grandmother turned to look at me.

“It’s true, Grandmother,” I said, trying to meet her gaze even though I was still held frozen by the stuffed crow’s grip. “My father was a Darkling.”

A tremor passed over my grandmother’s face. Of course she would disown me now.

“So that was why poor Evie kept you hidden all those years,” she said, her eyes glittering like the jet beads on her dress. “But wings or no wings, you’re still a Hall.” She snapped her fingers. The stuffed crow released its grip from my shoulder and fell lifeless to the floor. The ones holding Raven and Marlin collapsed as well.

“There will have to be an investigation and a special meeting of the Council, Elvira,” Mrs. van Hassel began.

“Yes, there will,” my grandmother replied, raising her lorgnette to her eyes and looking hard at Ansonia van Hassel. “I’ll be interested to know what they make of your investment policies. And now, my granddaughter looks tired. It’s time you came home, Avaline.”

“But I can’t leave Helen, Grandmother, or—” I looked around at the group in the parlor—Raven and Marlin, my teachers, Kid Marvel and Omar and all the madges. “Or my friends.”

My grandmother looked around at the bedraggled group of schoolgirls and Darklings and magical beings and sighed. “Very well, then. I suppose Helen should be moved to our house anyway. Invite your friends along. We have plenty of room.”