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“I pronounce the Crow’s judgment on you, Robin DeWinter,” Lords intones. “I find you guilty of aiding and abetting in the murder of Jade Kalveri and her unborn child. I call on the gates of Karkarus to open. I entreat the eternal prison to hold you until the Four Pillars of the Aedis Astrum pronounce final judgment on you.”
DeWinter starts shaking. “N-no, Evan. Please, no. It wasn’t me—”
“That is my judgment,” Lords says.
With a crack like a glacier splitting and a swirl of icy mist, DeWinter disappears.
“Holy fuck,” Charlie whispers.
Chapter53
Under The Crow’s Wing
Lords helps us up off the floor.
Once he touches us, the grip of whatever command he had us under lessens, but it’s still a major effort to get up off my knees.
Lords slides his hand under my chin and tips my head up so he can look into my eyes. Then he does the same to Darwin and Charlie.
“The compulsion will wear off over the next few hours,” he assures us. “I’m sorry it affected you. Sometimes being The Mr. Black is ... more than any one person can contain.”
“Holy fuck,” Charlie repeats.
“You shouldn’t have seen any of that,” Lords says. “I’m sorry you did.”
“Holy fuck,” Charlie mutters a third time.
I elbow him.
Lords runs his hand through his hair. “Charlie, it’s okay.” He hangs his head, looking, somehow, reduced and wounded. “You’re still so young. I forget, given how formidable you four are. You shouldn’t have to deal with any of this. Come here.”
He holds his arms out and when I take a step toward him, he pulls the three of us into a tight embrace.
I should be weirded out. I just saw him pronounce fucking judgment on a professor and send him to a mystical prison. Presumably that was the fate that awaited Darwin or Gabe if Lords found them guilty. I should be afraid of him.
I’m not. This feels like every hug I should have gotten from my Da and never did.
I hug him back hard. “It’s okay, sir. It was just a shock. I reckon we all thought the whole The Mr. Black thing was just a title. Like Chief Constable or sommat. But thank you for getting justice for Jade.”
“Yes,” Darwin murmurs. “Thank you. I let Jade down in every way. It’s haunted me that we couldn’t even find who killed her.”
“It was never your responsibility,” Lords says. “None of you should have been involved in this. You should be finishing classes, studying for your finals, trying to sneak into Walden Pond pub with fake I.D.s like the rest of your classmates, not solving murders and fighting Fates. Once Doctor Prince, Madame Serpa, and I seal Klotho in her realm, that’s the end of it for you four. No more sleuthing. You’ll have a normal freshman year like normal kids with normal problems.”
I crane my head back so I can look at Darwin and Charlie. Darwin grins.
I pat Lords on the back. “We’re not normal kids. We don’t have normal problems. But we’ll try to lay low for the rest of freshman year.”
Lords shakes his head. “I need to find myself a new job. I can’t imagine how much trouble you’ll be as seniors.”
* * *
Lords walksus back to our flat. We stop at the campus café to pick up Gabe, who is nursing a hot chocolate as he waits for us. His surprise at seeing Lords, and hearing about the exposure of DeWinter, tells me Darwin and Charlie were coming to meet me, not summoned by Lords. That gets them big hugs as we order hot chocolate to take with us.
Lords glowers at the delay, but when I point out this is a normal freshman thing to do, and when Darwin treats him to a hot chocolate, he relaxes. He even cracks a small smile as we discuss our plans to take Hog’s tank to Faery with us to find him a girlfriend. But the smile barely reaches his eyes and does nothing to lighten the deep lines in his forehead.
As we walk through the town’s darkened, icy streets, I inch up beside Lords.
“Bad day?” I ask.
