The swift winter night came, falling like a knife between one moment and the next, casting the drawing room into gold-tinged shadow. Matthew was first to leave, having borrowed a tweed overcoat from James, who walked him to the door and stood leaning against the jamb, exhausted, while Matthew pulled on his gloves.

“You’re certain you don’t want to borrow our carriage?” James asked, for the fifth time, as Matthew glanced up at the gray-black sky.

“No, I’ll catch a hansom at Oxford Street. Might as well walk a bit. Clear my head.”

“Let me know if it works.” James brushed a flake of snow from Matthew’s shoulder; it wasn’t falling, but the wind was sending flurries skirling down the streets.

“We cannot keep all this a secret,” Matthew said. He looked tired, the shadows under his eyes pronounced. “We will have to at least tell your parents.”

James nodded. “I had planned to tell them tomorrow, all of it—hopefully Lucie can fill in the bits we don’t know. But with Belial on the horizon, we can’t keep this a secret from them. Save the part about Cordelia and Lilith, of course.”

“I agree,” said Matthew. “Perhaps Magnus will have some idea how the enchantment between them can be broken.” He put his gloved hand over James’s bare one where it rested on his shoulder. James could feel the slight tremor in Matthew’s touch; Matthew had drunk a little port in the drawing room, but it wouldn’t be enough. He’d be wanting to get home, not to rest but to drink until he could.

So silly of me. Who knew toys had sharp edges?

“You were not there,” Matthew said. “You did not see how happy she was when she thought Wayland the Smith had chosen her to be his paladin. I—I know what it is like, to do something you thought was good, and have it turn out to be a terrible mistake.”

James wanted to ask Matthew to tell him more. What mistakes have you made, Math, that you cannot forgive yourself for? What is it that you are drowning in bottles, and glasses, and silver flasks? Now that I can see you clearly, I see you are unhappy, but why, when you are more loved and loving than anyone else I know?

But the house was full of people, and Cordelia needed him, and there was no time or chance just now. “I know, myself,” James said, “what it is like to live with a darkness inside you. One that you fear.”

Matthew drew his hand back, knotting his scarf around his neck. His cheeks were already pink with cold. “I have never seen darkness in you.”

“Nor have I known you to make such grave mistakes as you say,” said James. “But if you did, you know that I would do all I could to help you fix them.”