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Back Cardinal Black Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Title Page
  2. One: Into the Storm
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Two: London Calling
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Three: The Malignant Seven
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Four: Squirrels and Cats
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-One
  37. Thirty-Two
  38. Five: Revelation
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. About the Author

Matthew nearly fell. The night and the woods and the world spun around him. He had to grab hold around a slim pine tree to keep from being flung off into infinity, and he realized he deserved to be flung off. He should be, because he had killed Oliver and Greta Autrey. He had killed Elizabeth too, and for what? Because he’d thought Dippen Nack should be saved? And even when he’d done the foolish thing and spoken out, it hadn’t spared Nack’s life. He realized that if he’d remained silent in his role as Baron Brux, he and the false Count Pellegar might very well have gotten out of that house with the book of potions and the doctor and not a drop of blood had to be shed for it. Lash would have his bars of gold and the plans for the airship he was obsessed to build, and that would’ve been the end of it until Julian and Matthew had told Firebaugh where he was going.

No one had had to die, least of all the Autreys. Matthew thought that good and bad were mixed up in his mind; he no longer could tell one from the other. Had it been a good thing to try to save Nack? But that deed had led to bad consequences. Had it been a bad thing to kill Brux and Pellegar in their inn suite? But that deed had led to getting into the house, which would be a good deed in favor of saving Berry.

And just now … the axe to the head of a defenseless woman lying in the snow. Good or bad? A cruel murder? Or a defense against her regaining her feet and her senses and—

A hand gripped the front of the bloodied polar bear coat.

“Listen to me,” said Julian, his face up close to Matthew’s. “I don’t know exactly what’s in your mind but I don’t think I like it. You’re no stranger to bloodshed. Oh, I see … the Autreys, and you can’t stomach that, can you? Well, neither can I but it’s not going to get me killed. Our task was to get the book and the doctor … however we could. We have done that. Now the trick is to get both of them back to where they’ll do some good for your lady. You go to pieces now and everything—everything—was for nothing. Say you understand.” Matthew was slow in responding and Julian shook him. “Say it.”

“I understand,” Matthew answered, and whether he truly did fathom this deadly chess game of good and bad played by the hand of Fate, it did not matter. Julian was right. All the deaths, all the violence … it would be for nothing if they didn’t get the book and Firebaugh back to save Berry, and that was the very most important thing.