He spread his hands wide. He didn’t have to finish that sentence. I knew what they’d do to an old lady who had marbles clacking in her brain. They’d lock her up in the wards, where they’d look after her until they decided to put her out of her misery.
I pressed my lips together, thinking fast. I needed to keep Grandma safe. I needed to keep the beasts on the property safe and the network for House Brown clear and away from other House influence, from other House claims.
Quinten had made me promise to stay hidden.
I’d tried. But hiding wouldn’t keep anyone safe this time.
“Son of a sin hole,” I said quietly. “All right. Can you call the drones off?”
“I can.”
“I need a week to set things in order.”
“I can’t give you a week.”
“I have responsibilities, Abraham. It will take me a week to settle everything enough to come with you.”
“What?” Left Ned said. “Matilda, we can run on our own. We don’t have to make a deal with a stitch just because he got here before the other Houses that wanted to claim you. You don’t know nearly enough about him to just take his word as truth.”
Abraham didn’t argue with that. He waited like a man who was used to being judged. Like a man who knew his own sins and had come to peace with them.
“Who told you my father was alive?” I asked him quietly again. “I need to know that, at the very least.”
He didn’t look away, didn’t pay attention to Neds, who were cussing up a storm now.
I expected him to tell me it was my brother, Quinten, who had somehow sent him out this way. I expected him to tell me my brother was in trouble and I needed to go bail him out of it.
That was not what he said.
“Your mother,” he said softly, “Edith Case. She told us to look for your father here. She told us you would be here too.”
6
With a startling, unexpected comet burning in the sky, Alveré Case triggered the Wings of Mercury. A great bell rang out across the land. And death answered the call.—1910
—from the journal of L.U.C.
My mother was dead. I’d seen her killed, seen her and my father hauled off, taken away. I’d been young, but I knew they hadn’t been breathing, hadn’t been moving at all. I’d seen the blood the men in black hosed away.
“How long?” I finally asked.
Abraham frowned. “Since what?”
“How long can you keep the drones away from my property?”
I couldn’t deal with the question of my mother. Not yet. There was too much pain around the idea of it.
“Two days at the longest,” he said, maybe surprised that I hadn’t asked about my mom. “We will be able to do more if we return to my House. House Gray has some clout over the transfer and claim of the population. If you are officially claimed by us, by Gray, we can hold this land under our protection. It should keep the other Houses away from it.”
“Medical and Defense too?” I asked. “Does Gray have clout enough to keep both of those Houses away from here?”
He nodded. “We should.”
“Since when does Gray let athinglike a galvanized speak for it?” Left Ned asked.
Abraham didn’t look over at Neds. He just opened and closed his hands, like he was imagining a neck—or two—there to wring.
“Galvanized are given the right to speak for a House at the House’s discretion,” he said calmly. “Would you like to challenge my authority, Mr. Harris?”
