Can you imagine the things a person like Eliot would do to protect his brothers from his mistakes? His widowed mother?
Ilsa shook her head. “I don’t believe you. You’re telling me Eliot betrayed Camden to protect his family? To save his father’s reputation? I don’t believe it.”
“The threat of his mother’s broken heart was only one incentive,” said Hester wryly. “I presented him with a second: make working for the rebels work for us.”
This, Eliot had tried to tell Gedeon. How his backchannel had benefited Camden. “The rebels expected a pawn, so Eliot gave them one. They did not know there was a queen behind him. They’ve never known of my involvement, but together we have fed the rebels innocuous scraps of intelligence while Eliot siphoned off theirs. We have always benefited more than we were hurt. Until.”
Until.
“Their first few attempts to raid us, they acted alone,” she continued. “But our defences were too solid. Eliot met with them fortnightly. He told me they would hide their faces, but otherwise they appeared to trust in their power over him.” She smiled reluctantly. “He must have played a far meeker boy than you or I know.
“One night, he came back and told me their demand: they wanted a window of opportunity to get into the Zoo.”
Ilsa’s anger flared. “You knew the whole time they were looking for something.”
“Looking for something, planting something.” Hester waved a hand dismissively. “We decided we could deal with whatever it was later. Eliot believed he was close to identifying some of the highest-ranking rebels; we just needed more time. Gedeon wasn’t supposed to be here. Security was supposed to be light. If that damned trip to Millwater hadn’t been a ruse, it would never have been the fight it turned into.”
“You can’t blame this on Gedeon,” said Ilsa. “You could have told him what was going on but—”
Hester laughed derisively. “No, cousin. I have told you the kind of leader your brother is. He knows nothing of hard decisions. Eliot and I are cut from stronger steel. We understand that we must make hard decisions because weaker men and women cannot. That some choices are no choice at all. Your brother believes he can mould the world around him like he can mould himself. But I have learned, as Eliot has, that we can only cut at it. But if our blades are sharp enough, we can leave a scar.”
“You let him go through all that,” said Ilsa, feeling hot tears on her skin, “you let him carry all that guilt ’round, then you made him take the blame.”
Hester faltered, her wicked humour vanishing, and swallowed. “It’s better this way.”
“Better for you?” growled Ilsa. She didn’t know where she was finding the rage. She was shattered.
“Better for Gedeon. Better for Fyfe.” She closed her eyes like she could block her own words out. “Better for Camden.”
For Camden.
They were not her words; they were Eliot’s. Eliot, who had been so accepting of whatever fate Ilsa dealt him when she found him out. Who had left the abbey with his head held high and an air of relief. He had talked her into this, but then he had begged to be saved. He had faltered at the last moment, and Hester had not. Perhaps they were cut from the same steel, but hers was stronger.
Now Ilsa was the one laughing spitefully. “You talk ’bout Gedeon like he ain’t a good leader, but you won’t even help him be one. You should have told him,” Ilsa repeated. “You should have told Gedeon.”
Hester shot her a sardonic glare. “You have been lucky again,” she said. “When we plucked you from the Otherworld, Aelius wanted to make you alpha.”
Ilsa blinked. “But I… that don’t make no sense.”
“Oh, don’t misunderstand me. He never expected you to lead. But I chose, at first, not to oblige their whims when they made me warden, and Gedeon was gone. Aelius wanted a figurehead. A show of strength. He wanted to tell all of London that Camden’s lost princess had returned.
“He was overruled, of course, and you were lucky. If they had made you alpha, you would only have had to give it up again when Gedeon returned. Then, maybe, cousin dearest, you would understand why.”
“But I don’t want that kind of power.”
Hester studied her, a tiny crease between her brows, like she saw a lie. “Funny. It seems neither does Gedeon.” Then she smiled. She was frightening when she smiled, just like Eliot. Ilsa wondered if she’d ever been that good at reading people. “I heard you today, in front of the wolves, defending Eliot’s life. You pulled rank on the Prince of Camden.”
“I din’t mean to—”
“You pulled rank,” she said more firmly, “and the whole pack let you.”
Ilsa shook her head, but she wasn’t sure what she was arguing anymore. A sort of dreamy calm was overcoming her, and her fear and indignation were disappearing into it like streetlights in the fog. She could barely concentrate on the problem of getting back to her bed. She was making a half-hearted effort to rise from the couch and take her leave when something struck her.
“Ain’t you gonna ask me not to tell no one?”
Hester smiled at that, only faintly. “We both know I don’t need to. We both understand what sort of a threat I am to Gedeon now.” She sighed her dramatic, lofty sigh. “Do not fear, cousin dearest. From now on I shall sit in my chair like a good little girl and be nothing and nobody.” She turned her head. Her shaking fingers reached up and brushed the tears away.
Like that, Ilsa could not leave, not if she had all the energy in the world. Somebody needed to stay with her, to be a buoy should Hester need to grab on. Ilsa knew this, even in her shattered, dozing mind. Because despite
