“Well, that settles it.” Despite the insult, I was relieved. “We can’t disobey.”
“Can’t we?” His voice was dark. Dear God, was Blackwood actually suggesting treason? “I think our children would have untold strength. Consider the new world we could show to the Order; the possibilities are endless.”
Blackwood was speaking entirely too much about children for my taste.
“We can’t do this without permission,” I said.
“We can do what we like. We’ve proven ourselves stronger than most, and the strong should rule.” This was insanity. I would have labeled Blackwood as many things, but a rebel was not one of them. “You know me. You know my secrets. And I know yours.” I flinched. He didn’t know all my secrets, but I couldn’t tell him about R’hlem now. “I will never be as comfortable with anyone as I am with you.” He looked into my eyes. “We have so much that can build a successful marriage.” He touched the tips of his fingers to my cheek. “I respect you as I respect no one. Do you feel the same?”
He was perhaps the most admirable person I knew. “Yes.”
“Do you like me?”
“Yes.” It felt as if I were sinking into a quagmire, the irresistible pull taking me down. He put a hand to my waist.
Some part of me was curious how it would feel to press his lips to mine, but I stepped away to look into his striking eyes, his beautiful face. Anyone would call me a fool, and be right to do so. “I want you to be happy,” I said.
“The key to my happiness rests in your hands.” He wasn’t going to make this easy for me. “I think you feel something,” he whispered. If only he were wrong, I’d push him away now with a feeling of revulsion, but the revulsion did not come. “I believe that with time, you can love me as I love you. Maybe not with the sweetness of your childhood love, but something real. Something passionate.” His gaze hypnotic, he went to kiss me.
“I can’t.” I retreated to a colder, darker corner of the room, where it was easier to think. “I told you that I’m in love with Rook.”
Blackwood kept his back to the fire, his gaze cooling. “I see. Leave aside Rook’s poverty and his being Unclean—I know you don’t care about such things. Are you entirely yourself with him?” He advanced, one smooth step at a time. “His powers frighten you.” He circled me like one of his father’s blasted predator birds. “Am I wrong?”
Much as I hated to, I whispered, “No.”
“You are hungry for knowledge in a way he never has been. You want to ask questions no one has dared ask before. We can have something that will last for generations. Don’t throw yourself away. Don’t be ordinary.”
I moved back to the fire, but he pursued me. “I would do most anything to make you happy, Howel, if you’d let me. I would become your servant, lay whatever you wanted at your feet. Does that offer mean nothing to you?”
No. But Rook needed me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I won’t break my word to him.”
Blackwood was silent then, and despair washed over his features. But the despair was soon replaced with coldness. He’d shown me his heart and was now locking it away again.
“You’d choose a poor servant over a rich one?” That made me want to snap, but before I could, Blackwood strode out the door, leaving me alone.
Something in the corner moved. I nearly missed the shadow as it swept across the floor and slipped into the hall. It had been shaped vaguely like a person—
Dear God. With a barely suppressed cry, I threw open the door and rushed down the darkened hall. Turning a corner, I emerged into a clutch of people.
I had to move swiftly but without panic. If someone stopped me for a chat, I had to look interested, excuse myself politely, and keep moving. There could be no suspicion, even as I made like hell for the stairs. If anyone noticed my panic, it might draw attention, and then—
Rook had been a shadow, lurking in the corner of the room. If he could do that, how far gone was he?
In the front hall, I was prepared to lose all propriety and start shoving. I managed to navigate the crowd elegantly, but as I neared the staircase, Eliza and Magnus moved onto the stairs. Neither saw me, but I heard them speaking.
“We’re doing this now?” Magnus asked.
“George will be back soon,” she hissed.
Magnus sighed, raised his stave, and dimmed all the lights in the room. That gained everyone’s attention, and the chatter died. All eyes turned to Magnus and Eliza standing slightly above the crowd on the stairs. She smiled, her cheek dimpling, and spoke clearly.
“Thank you all for coming. This has been the most marvelous debut anyone could ask for.”
I didn’t know much about society’s ways, but I was fairly certain Eliza wasn’t supposed to speak publicly tonight. Hunting for Foxglove, I found him gazing at his soon-to-be-fiancée with bewilderment.
What in hell was going on? Magnus raised his punch glass and took over.
“Lord Blackwood should be making this speech, but he’s missing.” Magnus glanced about as if assuring himself that Blackwood was, indeed, gone. Then he kissed Eliza’s gloved hand, while she looked the very illustration of excitement. “That makes it my pleasure, then, to make a tremendous announcement. Lady Elizabeth Blackwood has consented to become my wife.”
The silence was absolute until a trickle of whispers began. The trickle gave way to a stream, and soon the room filled with confused murmuring. A pocket of commotion erupted near the side of the room as Aubrey Foxglove shouldered his way out, probably in search of Blackwood.
I didn’t understand, and right now I didn’t want to. I’d no time for any of this, though my stomach gave an unanticipated drop.
As if to cue me, Maria appeared at the top of the stairs, looking about in a panic. I signaled to her, and she waved me up urgently. Launching myself onto the landing, I skirted around the newly engaged couple.
Magnus had the audacity to try to stand in my way. “I need to talk to you,” he said, his voice low. Eliza tugged at his arm.
“Not. Now,” I said through gritted teeth, and barreled past him and up the stairs. Maria pulled me along beside her.
“He’s worse,” she whispered.
No. Please, no.
Fenswick was not in the apothecary when we barged in, but a person was lying on Maria’s cot. She grabbed up her ax by the door.
No, it wasn’t a person on her bed. A great mound of quivering shadow lay there.
“Rook?” I said, my voice weak.
The darkness developed a form and features, melting into Rook. He lay curled on his side until, shaking, he sat up. His eyes were rimmed in red.
“Were you going to tell me?” he whispered. So he had been in the aviary. He had the power to become shadow now.
“How much did you hear?” I asked, keeping my voice calm.
“Enough.”
“What’s going on?” Maria whispered.
With a curl of his fingers, Rook beckoned me to him. He was sweating, as if he’d been laboring under a fever that had finally broken.
“Let me look at you,” he said. Slowly, I did as he asked, and shadows exploded from every corner of the room, extinguishing the candles on the table. Maria cried out as I set my hand aflame and held it up to look at him.
Rook’s eyes were pure black.
“How long have you been able to do this?” I asked. Somewhere off to the side, in the impenetrable darkness, I heard a little voice whisper. I couldn’t make out the words. When I held up my flame, the voice was silenced.
“I can’t see anything,” Maria said. I’d never heard her so afraid.
“Please take the dark away,” I whispered.
“No. Show me your face.” That wasn’t Rook’s voice; it was too cold, too demanding.
I did as he asked, holding the fire close to my chin. He reached a hand out of the blackness and stroked my cheek. His touch was ice cold. By my light, I could make out the sharp contours of his face.
“Do you love me?” he murmured. I put a hand to his chest.
“You know that I do.”
He clutched my wrist. “Then why didn’t you tell Lord Blackwood he was wrong?” he said.