The Nightmare Garden

beautiful in moments like this, when the light hit him just so and brought his Erlkin features to the forefront. “Aoife, don’t be that way. You’re not one of those girls, and that’s why I like you.”

“Do me a favor, Dean,” I said. “Don’t tell me what I am and what I’m not. You don’t know me that well yet.”

He drew back from me, hurt replacing the tender look in his eyes. “I want to, dammit,” he murmured. “But you won’t let me. There’s a wall around you, princess, but I’m not going to stop trying.” He squeezed my hand and then stepped away from me. “I know this is hard,” he said. “And I’m here for you, but you’ve got to stop shoving me back every time I try to get in.”

I searched for the words to tell Dean that I was sorry, and that if anyone was close to me, it was him. He knew things about me that nobody else did, and he wasn’t put off by them. But Archie’s voice drowned out my reply of I’m sorry. Which was fine with me, really. Banality like that could never show Dean how I really felt.

“We’re landing, and it’s rough wind!” my father bellowed. “Strap yourself in if you don’t want to be dumped on your ass.” Dean and I both scrambled for seats and safety harnesses. I’d survived one airship crash, on the way to Arkham, and I had no desire to even come close to the experience again.

Valentina sighed as she hurried to an armchair, drawing a pair of leather straps with brass buckles from beneath the cushion. “Archie, your language. Honestly.”

Dean looked over at me and mouthed You all right? I nodded as the wind buffeted us. Conrad looked distinctly green around the edges, which I couldn’t help feeling a little smug over. Flying had never been his favorite thing. I saw Cal reach over and squeeze Bethina’s hand as the Munin drifted back to earth, and in that moment I envied her. Her life was easy, with someone who loved her unconditionally. Mine was becoming anything but.

8 The Frozen Shores

THE CROSLEY HOUSE was a great white thing, clothed the whole way around in porches, all the way up to the third floor, like lace wrapped around bleached bones. It sat on a spit of land poking into the Atlantic, and on the rocky point beyond sat a lighthouse, its crimson band of paint the only color in the winter landscape.

It wasn’t as grand as Graystone, Archie’s huge granite mansion in Arkham, but was imposing in its own way, clinging to the rocks, crouched above the sea as if the house were waiting for something, or someone, to come in from the horizon.

My father set the Munin down on the vast expanse of dead, snowy lawn behind the house, amid ice-dripping statues and drooping topiary animals. He looked to Conrad. “Well, that shaved about ten years off my life. You know how to tie down an airship, boy?”

Conrad spread his hands and shook his head, but Dean took off his straps and jumped out of his seat next to me. “I do.”

“Good man,” Archie said. “Usually it’s just me and Valentina to keep her steady, and it can get hairy with this much wind.” He went down the ladder to the lower deck, and Dean followed.

“Be careful,” I called, before his gleaming raven head disappeared belowdecks.

He turned back and threw me a wink. “You know me, doll.”

I felt the heat start again in my chest. Dean had an effect on me with just a look. I was glad he’d gone back to smiling after I’d snapped at him. Later, I’d have to try to find a way to really apologize.

“We can disembark,” Valentina said, knocking me out of my Dean-induced daze. “I’ll lock the wheel while you kids go inside.” She pressed a brass key into my hand. “That opens the back door.”

I was surprised at how casually she handed over the keys to her home, especially when I’d made it glaringly obvious I didn’t like her. Dean’s voice echoed in my head, reminding me to give her a chance.

But I remembered the emptiness in my guts when I’d seen the ruined madhouse and realized Nerissa was still gone, and I just couldn’t do it. I snatched the key and went ahead of Conrad, Cal and Bethina down the ladder and across the lawn. Up close, the house was even more foreboding, like it had been emptied out and was only a skeleton, a dead insect left on the lawn after warm weather had gone. Salt-rimed windows glared back blankly at me as I crossed the frozen grass, crunching blades under my boots, and I looked at the vast expanse of empty beach and dune and rock around us. There were no ghoul traps here, nothing to thwart some kind of creature lying in wait for a fresh meal. My shoulder wasn’t throbbing, so I walked on cautiously, but my every nerve sang with alertness, and looking too long at the skeletal house gave me a chill.

“So,” I said to Conrad as we mounted the shallow weather-grayed steps to the wide, faded blue back door. “Valentina is something else.”

“She seems swell,” Bethina piped up. “A real classy lady.” Of course Bethina would think that. She expected the best from people until they showed her otherwise. I wished I could do the same, sometimes, but now I couldn’t help being a little annoyed. Just because Valentina had fancy clothes and good manners didn’t make her good all over.

Conrad sighed and rolled his eyes in consternation at my annoyed expression.

“Aoife, don’t be naive. People in the real world don’t sit around and pine for the rest of their lives when their wives get committed to madhouses. And you know they were never legally married, anyway.”

“Why don’t you strip your own gears, Conrad?” I suggested, glaring at him.

He flung his hands in the air in response to my insult, looking for all the world like someone who had reached the end of his rope.

“I can’t even talk to you these days without getting my head bitten off. I’m done.”

“Fine by me,” I told him. “All you ever do when you open your mouth is try to make me feel stupid.”

“Hey!” Cal shouted, when Conrad opened his mouth again. “Me and Bethina are freezing. You think maybe we could take the family fight inside?”

I turned away from Conrad. I wasn’t embarrassed for losing my temper this time, but I was infuriated that Conrad seemed to be sticking up for Valentina just to be contrary.

I shoved the key in the lock and opened the rickety wooden door to Valentina’s house, following Cal and Bethina inside, away from Conrad and that disapproving line between his eyes.

The remainder of the afternoon was taken up with my father turning the aether feed to the house on and getting hot water flowing while the rest of us checked the pantry and returned to the Munin for provisions. Conrad and Dean carried in wood to stoke the fireplaces; various other household tasks like making up beds and washing plates and cups fell to Valentina, Bethina and me. The work did absolutely nothing to stem the tide of fierce resentment growing in my chest.

Valentina flitted around taking dust catchers from the furniture and asking if everyone had had enough to eat or wanted tea and biscuits, and everything else well-bred young ladies were supposed to check up on when they entertained guests. I didn’t know how she could be so calm in an unprotected house, with no reinforced doors, shutters, or traps—ghouls could burst in at any moment, and then the tea party would be over.

I finally cornered my father when he came back from the basement, cleaning soot from the boiler off his palms. “Are we safe here?”

“Sure,” he said, frowning. “The house is in Valentina’s father’s name. The Proctors have no reason to suspect we’d come here.”

“I meant …” I lowered my voice as Valentina passed, carrying a tray of sandwiches into the dining room. Dean, Conrad and Cal fell on them like, well, starving teenage boys. My stomach grumbled. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a real meal. “Are we safe from, you know …”

Archie raised one eyebrow. “From the Fae? Yes, Aoife.” He put his hand on my shoulder, surprising me, and gave a half smile. “There may not be ghoul traps outside, but the bones of this house were built to protect the people inside. There’s no iron, but that’s not the only way to keep out Fae.” He patted me, in what I’d call a fatherly gesture from anyone else. From him, I wasn’t sure what to call it yet, but it still calmed me. “When we’re settled in, I’ll tell you all about it. It’s stuff you need to know anyway.”

“And Conrad,” I reminded him. Archie’s eyes darkened into an expression I couldn’t identify as he looked past