“Or maybe we could just let it go. Whoever it was, they’re probably gone.”
“We don’t know that. I don’t evenfeelthat. In fact, I suspect I haven’t felt that for far longer than I knew. It’s like I could somehow tell that there was something else, like a hand on my shoulder. Some sort of darkness, following me around.”
“A shadow,” she said, as his words made everything sink into place.
The being in the Underneath. His words, like a warning.
As Bram seized them and carried on.
“Exactly. And just because they haven’t tried again, doesn’t mean they won’t. It may just mean that you look different enough that they weren’t sure. Or that they haven’t noticed you. Or even that they think you’re not the same sort of problem to them anymore, so why risk murder a second time? Until you do somethingwe can’t know, that makes them think they should. Excelled in a way they couldn’t, achieved something they wanted, challenged something they couldn’t stand being challenged.”
“I can be quiet and unassuming and not critical of a thing.”
“And you really think that’s the answer? Thatyoushould suffer?”
“No, but—”
“But nothing. Whoever they are,theyare the ones that should.Theyare the ones that will, and in ways I don’t want to say, in case you think less of me for it. Iwillhave my revenge against the nightmare that stole our lives from us, Lil. So start thinking about how we can uncover who they are,” he said, so fierce she was almost breathless, before he got to that one last thing.
Her name.
So casually said.
Just that one syllable, tripping off his tongue, like no time had passed at all. So perfectly her that her heart raised its hand and said present, before her head had even caught up. And it took her a second to recover from that. She almost teared up—but knew why she held it back.
She didn’t want him to ever feel self-conscious and stop.
She had herself back now. And that meant staying the course.
“They must be a powerful magic wielder,” she suggested.
“Making a wound look vampiric isn’t exactly hard.”
“True. But knocking out a well-fed vampire is.”
That struck him. Or at least enough for him to concede, with a grim nod.
“All right. What else?”
“They knew what you are.”
“That would narrow the field down considerably.”
“Not necessarily. Maybe they never let on to you that they did.Had some reason to keep quiet, while still wanting to kill me. And kill me in a way that kept them safe. I mean, throw me in a lake and you’re going to know. You’re going to hunt them down. They’re suddenly in grave danger. But frameyoufor it—”
“Then the only person I want to kill is myself.”
She felt the words sink, right through her heart.
And couldn’t help asking. “How many times did you try?”
“Not that many. Cobble wouldn’t let me.”
She snapped her fingers. “Knew it was him who helped you.”
“He did more than that. He covered everything up, while I was beside myself. Kept me fed, when I refused to eat. And when I went catatonic for all those years, when I slipped into the long sleep, he made sure I was safe. He made that room for me, at great personal risk.”
“So at least we can rule him out.”
