“Coward.” There was a long pause. Then, without vehemence, Tian said, “Mun. Would you let me do it?”
“Kick him in the balls?”
“Be Madam Butterfly.”
This silence was longer than the first. The familiar conviction in Tian’s voice spun up Adeline’s memories of the previous night, that had been momentarily waylaid in the aftermath of the Ox’s attack.Take it. Take it. Take it.
Adeline subconsciously touched the place on her arm where she’d cut herself to draw blood. Healed by Ah Lang for a pretty fee, passed off as an injury from the fight, even though the Ox hadn’tbeen carrying a knife. If Pek Mun had thought anything of it, she hadn’t confronted Adeline then. But Adeline knew better than to assume it meant she hadn’t noticed. Had Tian told her what Adeline had offered? And if Tian had told her, had she also mentioned how tempted she had clearly been?
Pek Mun still hadn’t replied. Adeline pressed closer, wondering if they were whispering, but it was silence all the way through. Perhaps that was enough of an answer in itself.
“You just want to do anything you want,” Pek Mun said at last. “Liedown.” A thump, and a curse. “Fine. I’ll go talk to my mother, if that makes you stay put.”
“Do you care aboutanyonebesides me?”
“No,” Pek Mun said shortly. Then she was moving too quickly. Before Adeline realized what was happening, she had opened the door, bringing them face-to-face.
Adeline flinched. Surprise flitted across Pek Mun’s face, but it disappeared so quickly Adeline might as well have imagined it. By the time Tian sat up, alarmed, Pek Mun wore the familiar mask of cool condescension. She stepped out into the corridor, shutting the door behind her, closing Tian away and standing with Adeline in the hallway.
“I didn’t kill your mother,” she said.
Adeline stared at her. Of all the things she’d expected her to say, after the conversation she’d just overheard, it hadn’t been that. There was never a moment with Pek Mun where she didn’t feel three steps behind, where Pek Mun didn’t find the singular scenario she hadn’t prepared to confront. Pek Mun’s mouth pursed. “I asked Tian to go to the White Orchid that night because I was going to see a Needle. That’s where I was, and if it will get you to get out of Tian’s head with this insane idea, then I can take you to ask him.”
“Why were you seeing a Needle?” Adeline challenged.
“My mother is dying,” Pek Mun said bluntly. “Slowly. I’m giving her blood.”
“I thought you weren’t on speaking terms.”
“That doesn’t mean I want her dead. I didn’t tell Tian because my mother didn’t treat her well. But she is my mother. And I didn’t kill yours. I had no reason to, which I’m sure you know somewhere in your head. What Tian doesn’t need is fewer people to trust.” Pek Mun had come within reach, looking down at Adeline. “I’ve taken care of her since she was thirteen. I’m the only person who can say that, now that your mother is dead. You can think what you want of me. But if you endanger her any more, I will string you up, and I don’t care about your choice.” She wasn’t even smug. “I’m going to see my mother tomorrow. I’m going to ask her about the list. You can come and see for yourself.”
“I will,” Adeline said, taken aback.
“Tian needs to sleep again. Don’t bother her.” Pek Mun made to leave, then stopped and clicked her tongue. “You should beg Christina to finish that tattoo. It’s embarrassing.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEENPEI PA ZAI
At half past eleven, the red-light district was still stirring. Laundry hung from the windows; girls with bare faces sat on the steps smoking and eating, laughing coarsely. They didn’t pay Pek Mun and Adeline much attention. Without the costumes, any of these houses could have been anything.
Pek Mun had set them off earlier with an emphatic instruction to keep her mouth shut. It had been entirely silent on the walk since, and it was a rather long walk. Grudgingly—between fantasies of tearing her hair out—Adeline respected the older girl a little bit more. No one had ever stood up for her the way Pek Mun had for Tian. It had surprised her, and surprise was enough for her to follow Pek Mun without a fuss through a street market and out to her mother’s brothel.
The market and the business of Chinatown in the daytime crossed dozens of languages through the ear like passing bees. Smattered English phrases, sprays of Chinese dialects, Pasar Malay and then Melayu proper; Tamil and Hindi and Punjab; the occasional bits of Tagalog and Thai and other regional visitors. The city had been woven from different directions for hundreds of years, full of worn holes as much as it was dense with threads. Adeline adored being between the seams where the loose ends all frayed, even if it was with Pek Mun. She felt like she could tug on any person they passed and unravel something entirely new. She had tugged on Tian and that had brought her to the Butterflies, and then following that linefurther there were more, other, girls with magic now somewhere in the web.
Despite the circumstances, the idea drew her in. Girls with strange new magic, enough to enchant some and scare others about how they might upset the local balance. Enough for Three Steel to want to control—if someone wanted to control something, then that something had power. Her new tattoo—Christina had grudgingly finished it—caught the sunlight as she walked and swung her arm. It fluttered in the corner of her eye and felt like a new piece of armor.
They were surreptitiously let into the brothel and to a private bedroom. Pek Mun had warned that her mother was in poor shape—lying in her room with the shutters closed until the sun went down, sickly, her hair falling out—and that Adeline was, once again, to shut her mouth and keep her hands to herself. Adeline had never actually seen anyone dying of sickness. It seemed slow for everyone involved. She’d rather someone just kill her.
Yet the woman occupying the room was not only up and about, poking at a caged songbird in the window while the television played, but also looked fresh as a new bride. She was dressed in a fantastic silk robe with a light blue dress beneath it, and her hair, very much not falling out, was curled under her ears. There was nothing dying about her. If anything, she was the most beautiful older woman Adeline had ever laid eyes on—regal like a portrait, an almost jarring youthfulness for someone who must have been almost fifty.
“Mother?” Pek Mun blurted, equally shocked.
Tiger Aw didn’t turn from her bird. “Who let you in here? I didn’t ask you to come.”
Pek Mun strode over to the television, picked up the remote, and switched it off. Her mother turned with the sort of idleness Adeline recognized immediately as coy.
“What did you do?” Pek Mun said roughly. “You miraculously recovered?”
“Don’t sound so happy.” Tiger Aw extended her hand. Pek Mun stared at her for a moment, then returned her the remote. She switched the television back on, some Taiwanese soap about an amnesiac wife, and turned up the volume. “Aren’t you glad you don’t have to give your mother anything anymore? I found someone more useful. My business is booming.”
