“Too late,” he told me.
Damn.
“I know how that goes,” I said. “You can tell them that, but you signal another, or you write it down.”
“No,” Laird replied. “I don’t want them trying and screwing it up. I’d rather have control over how this plays out.”
I considered.
“Okay,” I said, I couldn’t peek out, so I looked at Duncan instead. “Makes sense. It’s also a convenient way to get rid of them so you can pull something they wouldn’t like, isn’t it?”
“You’re so invested in finding something evil in what I’m doing. Have you considered, Thorburn, that I might be right? That you and your family are a stain on this world and we’re all better off without you?”
“So you want to hand us over to Conquest and let him sic demons on the world? How is that better?”
“You tell me, Thorburn. You started this contest, and Conquest has bent the city to its knees as a result, innumerable people have been hurt or killed, you’ve set two peaceful groups of practitioners against one another, assaulted a police station, and led this city into at atmosphere of fear, violence and confusion.”
“It’s got to be better than what happens if he gets what he wants.”
“You had a plan, didn’t you? You weighed the risks, you made a gamble, there are elements you haven’t broadcasted to the rest of us?” Laird asked. “Is it so hard to believe that I could do the same thing?”
“A scheme?” I asked. “You’re admitting you’re scheming against Conquest with him standing right there?”
“Not a scheme. A deal. I came here to arrange for Duncan’s safety. That wasn’t my sole reason for coming. I was and remain interested in the long-term safety of Jacob’s Bell and Toronto. I had a discussion with the Lord of the City, and we made arrangements for just about everyone’s long-term benefit.”
“Except mine, I assume,” I said.
“That’s why I said ‘just about’. I don’t know what would happen to you. You’re a bit of an enigma, you and Rose.”
I frowned.
“Surrender, Blake,” Laird said. “Just… give up. Stop making things worse.”
I stared down at the ground.
“I’ve stopped some pretty fucked up monsters,” I said. “Tried with some others.”
“Maybe, but you’ve dragged your friends into this. You dragged Fell into it, and he died as a result. You dragged that little ghost boy into this, and I don’t think he deserves to face down the kind of ugliness we both know your family deals in.”
“Like you’re better? You sent those kids after me at the police station.”
“I won’t say I haven’t made mistakes here and there, but I’m looking after my family in the long term.”
“Putting yourself in charge of Jacob’s Bell in the process.”
“Trying to, yes. You’re trying to make this a choice between one or the other. Save Duncan or take power. I think they’re one and the same. Intertwined. Can you confidently tell me you’re bettering the lives of your friends and acquaintances here?”
Laird was building on his dream, striving for some distant goal, becoming Lord, putting his family on the map. My dream? My goal? When I floundered, trying to put my thumb on it, I kept coming back to a mental picture of the place I’d dreamed about. The place Ms. Lewis had called my refuge, my hope. It was the place I wanted to be, the place I wanted to reach when all this was said and done. I fought, in part, because I wanted to get to the point where I could do that.
Get on my bike, get away from it all. Find a place where I had peace and a nice view.
My friends hadn’t been there.
“You aren’t answering me,” Laird called out. “Is it because you can’t answer? Or are you pulling something?”
“Does it matter?” I called out.
“No,” he said. I thought I heard a note of amusement in his tone. “It doesn’t. I’ll be right here, our metaphorical hostage negotiator.”
Conquest was quiet. The dolls were still. Maggie still held Duncan at sword-point, and Rose occupied the shard of window beside me.
My friends hadn’t been there, was that because I felt, deep down, that Laird was right? That I wasn’t a positive force in their lives?
“Rose,” I said, lowering my voice so Laird wouldn’t “How much did you tell Conquest?”
“You’re wondering if he told Laird this?”
“Or overheard or something.”
“Nothing this specific. I told him about your hangups, and some observations about your character. He came to this on his own, I think.”
“Okay,” I said.
“He’s not getting to you, is he? This garbage isn’t hitting the mark?”
“It is,” I said. “He’s partially right.”
“The diabolist sees the light,” Duncan commented, his voice low. “Could it be a miracle?”
“Shh,” Maggie said. “This thing isn’t easy to hold.”
I looked at Maggie and Duncan. She still covered part of her face, and the sword did look hard to hold with one hand.
Rose spoke, her voice gentle, “Focus, Blake. We went into this with a plan.”
“The plan is out,” Maggie said. “It was simple. We get Laird, we use Laird to screw over Conquest. Now Conquest is here.”
“We have options,” Rose said. “We came into this with a strategy. So did they. Let’s be smart about it, plan, counterplan. You can’t get fucking down in the dumps because they’re attacking your character and Evan isn’t around to stand up for you.”
I grit my teeth.
“Isadora called you a warrior,” Rose said. “Your friends bled to get you back in the game. Don’t just sit there and take Laird’s word for it. Fight. You made promises to a lot of people. All the people you respect in the midst of this, Fell, Evan, Maggie, hopefully me, you gotta keep going for our sakes.”
“That wasn’t a question,” I said. “I can fight and do justice while feeling crappy for letting things get to this point.”
“I don’t think you can,” she said. “Dealing with the family, I learned how distracting feeling horrible could be.”
“Take it from me, if you frame it right, feeling like shit can be a good motivator,” I said. Before she could argue further, I asked, “Corvidae is upstairs?”
“J.P.? Yes.”
“Got anything else to summon?”
“Not really. A few of the ones I tried to summon were off on other errands. A few more felt like Midges, or the text was iffy enough I wasn’t sure if they were real demons or not.”
I nodded.
We needed to win with the assets we had right here.
“How does Corvidae work?” I asked.
“Strictly physical objects or people. Switches the connections around. Things and people find their way to new owners, but old attachments linger. Emotional ties…”
“We need Laird, we have Duncan. Is it possible Corvidae could swap one for the other?”
“I don’t think it works that way, and there’s a conspicuous lack of information in the book about practitioners using Corvidae to their own benefit.”