Through a Mirror, Darkly

Chapter 12

Charles mirror-hopped to cut some of the distance off the cross-town trip. He could have appeared right inside Cat's cannery, but that felt rather like walking into someone's home unannounced and uninvited. Instead, he emerged from a mirror in a clothing store down the street and went the rest of the way on foot.

He was nearly at the dock when he heard soft sniffling from an alleyway. Charles backed up and turned around.

Edwin was leaning against a brick wall. He wiped tears from his face and let out a shuddering sob.

"Edwin?" Then, Charles' protective instinct kicked in. He walked up to him. "Mate. What is it? What's wrong?"

"Charles. Ah, it's alright. It's nothing." Edwin pushed off the wall and tugged on the lapels of his jacket. He dabbed at his cheek again with the back of his hand.

"Don't give me that. All these years and I've only seen you cry a handful of times. Something's up." Then a thought occurred to Charles. He tensed. "Is it Cat? Has he done something? Has he hurt you? I'll box his ears if he has."

"No, no..." Edwin reached out to squeeze Charles' wrist. "He hasn't. Everything's fine."

"Edwin," Charles set his hands on his shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Tell me what's wrong."

"It's...it's private. It's between him and I. But I promise you he hasn't hurt me in any way. Now...tell me, did you summon Mick?" said Edwin. He regained his composure quite quickly, the vulnerable look on his face quickly replaced by his more businesslike demeanor.

It stung Charles that Edwin didn't confide in him. They certainly didn't tell each other everything. There were certain things, such as Edwin's time in Hell and Charles' father that they never spoke on unless one of them chose to share. He came to the slow realization that things between Edwin and Cat also fell into that private category now. It was a hard pill to swallow, but only fair considering he didn't disclose everything that happened with Crystal or the few girls he'd spent time with over the decades. The shoe was on the other foot, and he found it pinched. "Ah, em, in a manner of speaking."

"Oh?"

"Well, Monty and I were nearly done with the spell when he sort of...fell into the harbour. In human form again," said Charles.

"Ah," said Edwin, blinking in surprise. "Poor Mick. Is he okay?"

The fact that Edwin reacted with empathy first instead of jumping right to the implications for the case surprised Charles. It was further evidence that Edwin had changed since going to Hell a second time.

And since he'd been seeing Cat.

"He's miserable. Won't stop going on about how Sedna kicked him out. Good news, though. Most of his dangerous stuff was locked away in a vault. Monty's searching for it now. There's a ledger in there that will tell us what was out in the main shop when it was ransacked."

"And Niko?" Edwin asked.

"He said he gave her the soapstone polar bear to mark her as a worthy soul for Sedna, whatever that means. The place we saw her in through the crystal ball is a holding area," said Charles.

Edwin frowned. "Well, that is not reassuring, but it's certainly not the worst place she could be. I tasked Crystal with finding another Inuk artifact. Hopefully she will have located something by the time we've buttoned up things here. Let's head back to Mick's shop and assist Monty." He turned and started to walk off down the street.

"How is Cat?" asked Charles as he stood still for a moment. "Recovering?"

"Yes," said Edwin without turning back at first. Then he pivoted on the spot. "Slower than he should have been because he was trying to move about instead of resting. But I put a stop to it. He should heal much faster now. Oh..." he patted down his jacket and withdrew a small object. "Crystal told me to give this to you. I'm...sorry it didn't work out, Charles."