AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not in my own past, Teddy. But I remember all too well how much hate and anger I held in my heart. If I’d had such knowledge at the time ... I fear what I would have done with it. I beg you to keep this one secret from him ... from me.”
I hate secrets.
I hate the idea of Darwin helping Klotho and the sectists destroy an entire race more.
“If it were you, and your-Teddy kept a secret like this from you, and you found out, would you have forgiven her?”
He kisses my forehead. “I understand what you’re asking, and I wish I could give you a straight answer, Teddy. The truth is, I don’t know. I understand my father a great deal better now. When we were at Bevvy together, I lacked perspective.”
Understanding the stakes, I nod and tuck in against him. I hate the idea of keeping a secret this big from my boys, but I understand why I might have to.
Chapter3
Your Undoubted Mr. Black
The guest Darwin brings to breakfast is not the one I expect.
I remember thinking The Mr. Black looked like Severus Snape’s younger, hotter brother when I first saw him take the podium during the Dean’s Speech. That was a few weeks ago for me.
Ten years ago for him, and that decade has not been kind.
Sitting at our table, he looks like an escapee from Azkaban. His black hair hangs shaggy to his shoulders. He’s wearing a half-dozen layers of shirt and hoodie, all ripped and peeking through one another. His cargo pants bear several generations of stains and are tucked haphazardly into combat boots that must have seen action on the beaches of Normandy. His face is set in a perpetual squint, and since he’s no longer wearing glasses, I wonder if that’s because he’s nearsighted.
Despite his hobo gear, he carries himself like a soldier. Back straight, shoulders high, knees spread on the padded chair, boots flat on the floor. A pommel of some type of sword peeks through the layers of cloth at his shoulder, and he has a belt slung low on his hips with guns that look like pirate blunderbusses in each holster. Whatever it is those guns shoot, I’m fairly sure it’s not bullets.
He wraps a hand heavy with silver rings around the mug of tea Gabe gives him and nods curtly. “What d’you want from me?”
I glance at Darwin, who is sitting on my left, with his arm spread across the back of my chair. He left us last night without an inkling that he’d found Evan Lords, much less that he was bringing the former crow to breakfast. I don’t know what he’s told Lords.
Darwin tips his chin at me, letting me know I can tell Lords whatever I think he needs to know.
“Do you remember me from Bevington?” I ask.
“No.” Lords shrugs. “Bevington was a long time ago. You must’ve been just a kid.”
“I saw you at Bevington a few days ago,” I explain. “In my Time.”
Lords’s eyes travel from me to Darwin, to Gabe, and back to me. “I’ve heard stranger things. Keep going.”
“In my Time, we know each other more’n a little. You told me you were on my side.”
“Did I, now?” Lords takes a sip of tea. “Were we fuckin’?”
“No. Did you make a habit of screwing students?”
He cracks a smile over the lip of his teacup. “Touché. What were you getting up to that you needed me on your side?”
“Investigating Jade Kalveri’s death.”
His squint sharpens into a scowl. “I’m guessing you didn’t find her killer.”
“Not yet. We found the why but not the who.”
He sets his teacup down. “You got my full attention. Tell me the why.”
“In my time, Jade was murdered, and her unborn baby was sacrificed to summon a starkers spider-monster named Klotho. Klotho cut the threads that bound one of the fae courts to the mortal world.”
Lords runs a hand through his shaggy hair. The houseboat’s soft witchlight catches on many gray strands. Too many for how young a magi Lords is. “Where was Klotho released?”
