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“I’m making you a better weapon than just a damned flute. ”
She raised a brow, giving me a sassy look. “I think it’s more than just a damned flute. ”
She’d sounded amused, but when I replied, I was more serious than ever. “Yeah, but can it pierce a heart?”
She looked appalled. “I can’t pierce someone’s heart. ”
I had no patience for her revulsion. “First of all, it wouldn’t be someone’s heart. It’d be something’s. And, if it were your life or theirs, you bet you could do it. But first, you need a stake. ”
I’d been thinking about this since the day Ronan had revealed his handmade stakes, slim but lethal, hidden beneath the sleeves of his sweater. One of those stakes had saved my life, killing the Draug that would’ve killed me. And now I was going to make some for myself. For us.
“Where will you get a stake?”
I stood at my bureau, sad but resolved. Because the trouble was, you needed wood to carve a stake. And the only wood I had was my shuriken box. “Stakes—plural. I’m gonna make them. ”
“You’re making us stakes?”
I opened the drawer. Pulled it out. I hated to do it. I’d not received many gifts in my life, and this had been one of them. Even though it came from a bunch of vampires, it was impossible not to appreciate the gorgeous antique, stained a deep red. The wood had been notched and pieced together by hand. Someone had spent much time carving a crane, etched in black on the lid. “Yup. Hopefully I can get a few out of this. ”
“Oh, you can’t,” she exclaimed, seeing the box. “That’s too beautiful. ”
“Then they’ll be some mighty pretty stakes. ” I set aside the throwing stars, wrapped in a swatch of dark velvet. I’d tucked my pencil rubbing of the runes in there, too, and pulled it out, sliding it under my clothes instead. It was a weird compulsion, keeping this memento, but somehow the snippet of ancient Viking graffiti served as a reminder of how banal humanity actually was. How banal it was supposed to be.
I held up the empty box, studied it. And then in a violent motion, I began to wriggle the lid free of the base.
Mei leapt to her feet. “You’ll ruin it. ”
I swung my back to her, holding it out of her reach. “Better the box than us. ” The hinges slowly gave way, and then my arms jerked as the lid ripped free.
I got to work, popping off the edges of the top and the sides. I’d use it all. “Hopefully, we’ll each get two good stakes out of this. Maybe three. They’ll be crude, but sharp enough. ”
I began to sharpen the chunks of wood, using the edge of one of my throwing stars. It reminded me of peeling potatoes.
She sat next to me, enthralled. “What are we going to do with them?”
“You’re not going to do anything. You’re going to learn how to protect yourself, so you can keep yourself safe if anything happens to me. ”
“What’s going to happen to you?”
Deep in thought, I swept the edge of my shuriken along the stake, working methodically. Lethal points were gradually emerging from the blunted, splintered ends. “The vampires in charge want Car—Master McCloud dead, even though I’m certain he’s innocent. There’s more going on with this island than Watcher training. ”
“And you think if you throw Master Alcántara off stride, you’ll get one step closer to uncovering the truth?”
I stopped carving, amazed. “Wow, you really are going all Nancy Drew on me. ”
“I prefer Buffy references. ” She gave me a sly grin. “And I want to help. ”
Ironically, it was the grin that turned my stomach, stopping me. My hands froze in midair. She should’ve been grinning with friends at the mall, not smiling with me over this macabre endeavor. “I can’t let you help me. I mean, you could die, Mei. ”
She grew serious. “I know. ”
“Why help? And why me? I mean, we just met. Seriously, I’m just a messed-up seventeen-year-old who’s trying to go down swinging. I am so not worthy of your help. ”
She looked away, thinking, and I expected an adolescent response. But what I got was something far wiser.
“My grandmother used to tell me not to be afraid,” she said. “She said the only thing in this world that we should fear is standing still. ” She met my eyes once more, her expression hard and focused. “The vampires ordered the Tracer to kill my boyfriend. They would’ve killed my family if I hadn’t come. I must not remain still. Evil has been done to me. I can lie down and take it. Or I can stand up and take revenge. ”
