Chapters (44)
- Title Page
- One: Into the Storm
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Two: London Calling
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Three: The Malignant Seven
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Four: Squirrels and Cats
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Five: Revelation
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- About the Author
“White Velvet?”
“A drugged gin that Fell created by using one of the book’s formulas. Mother Deare was losing her mind and had been working with Black for some time. How those two got together, I don’t know. But I suspect Black knew he had to kill the Broodies to get the cases of Velvet out of their warehouse. Mother Deare likely knew that as well. I don’t know if Lash was in on this or not, or where the cases of Velvet wound up, but I do know for certain: I cannot leave here without the book, Firebaugh and—” Could he leave Julian to the wrath of Black and Lash, if it came to that? “And Julian,” he finished.
“Murdered all the Broodies?” she said quietly. “Every one?”
“Every one,” Matthew answered. “And I won’t go into great detail, but they did not die easily.”
She was silent for a while, as she digested this foul information.
“The Broodies took me in off the street when I needed refuge,” Matthew continued. “In their own way, they were kind to me. I believe I came to look on Rory as a true brother, of a sort. I would venture to say that Samson Lash is driven by his need to build this airship and prove a point to the Royal Navy—a point they will likely always refuse to grant him—but that Black’s influence is corrosively evil, and under it Lash will be drawn into deeper and darker depths.” He refrained from stating his belief that Lash was probably already at dark depths even without Black’s demonic hand pushing him deeper; it seemed to him that the airship idea had unhinged the vice admiral and made him believe that any wretched crime and murder was done for the advantage of England in her future wars.
Elizabeth stared for a moment at the discarded clothing on the floor, but Matthew saw that she wore a blank expression as if she were regarding items for paper dolls that had been torn in two and tossed into a fire. “I didn’t want Samson to become involved with Black,” she said. “I advised against it when the Owl came to speak to him about the collaboration. Yes, the Owl put all this together. It was quite a pretty penny for him, and another feather in his—” She paused, deliberating, and then said, “Tail.”
When she didn’t go on, Matthew decided to push her for the sake of his own curiosity, and possibly there was some information he might grasp upon and use. “How did all this begin?”