In Malice, I’ve found a quiet spot in the mountains to focus better on occupying Rose’s mind. It can be…consuming, the thrumming of her heart against my consciousness, the steady cadence of her breath as it draws in and out. The brush of her hair against the nape of her neck is a whisper on my own, and when she speaks to me, it’s like a hand reaching for me from the darkness of her mind.
At times, it’s as if I can taste her on my very tongue.
It makes for a visceral experience then, discovering the mass grave in the warehouse—because surely that’s what this place is, even with the absence of bodies.
“Something is wrong about this,”I say as she crouches down to look more closely at the marks. One of them is positioned farther out than the others, as if the demon in question tried to flee before they were killed.
If they did, they only got a few feet.
“I’d say a lot is wrong about this,”she replies. Her voice is the same in her mind as it is out loud—bright and sharp, like a colorful flower armored with thorns.“Demons and ephilium aren’t meant to be getting up to any kind of war shit in Pax.”
“Exactly my point. You said that maybe the ephilium have been torturing demons for information on our wards. But even if they were, they wouldn’t do it here. They wouldn’t risk breaking the Concords.”
“You sure about that?”she asks, skepticism heavy in her tone.
“That pact has been strong enough to maintain peace in Strata’s cities for more than two hundred years, and with good reason. The pale-bloods’ collateral is very dear to them, even when locked away in the Assembly building under human control. They take all the drivel about ancestral magic very seriously.”I spin Rose around, earning me a flare of anger in her mind—though, as usual, it gets clamped down quickly. I scan the warehouse for any more clues, but the building has little to offer.“No, if these rifts and murders are the ephilium’s doing, then they must’ve found a loophole.”
“You mean like getting humans to do their dirty work for them?”she responds, her thoughts so pointed I can feel them poking at me.
“It’s not their usual style,”I say, refusing to rise to the bait.“The pale-bloods are arrogant and pompous. That’s why I wouldn’t expect them to entrust humans with an operation like this. They think of you as weak and incapable, for the most part. But yes, perhaps they’re taking a leaf out of my book these days,”I finish.
“I just don’t know why you guys don’t get along better,”she says.“You sound like such a fan.”
It’s unexpected enough that I have to quickly suppress a laugh. Amusement is not an emotion I anticipated after seeing those smiting marks or receiving the slap in the face of recognizing the river. I thought the city would be so changed that nothing would seem familiar. Another assumption swiftly debunked. That’s happening a lot these days.
“Come,”I say, not wanting to crawl back into the pit of wallowing that comes with dwelling on certain subjects.“Let’s return to the workshop. It will be simpler to open the rift back to Malice from there.”
“We’re done?”she asks, her heartbeat fluttering lightly for a moment. Is it just surprise? Or hope? It shouldn’t matter, and it’s best I disentangle myself from her mind before I get too curious about Rose Radley.
“For now,”I say. Though I try to ignore it, I can feel the way that same heart sinks at my words.
I try to distract myself by admiring the agile way she leverages herself back up to the windowsill, using nothing but an iron hook as a handhold before swinging up and through the open frame. Another skill she must’ve picked up scavenging. Not for the first time, I find myself wondering how shefound herself in that life, but when I brought it up before, she’d stayed silent.
I tell myself that’s for the best as she climbs down from the other side the warehouse window, landing neatly in the side alley.
Instantly, I go on alert. We’re not alone here.
“Company,”I warn, growling the word into her mind. But I know she’s caught it too, a twist in her gut alerting her to movement at the end of the alley.
Three figures draw closer. All men, heavily built, who look like they’ve seen more than their share of fights. I’m not used to viewing the world from this height, and from Rose’s perspective, they seem like small mountains, looming over her with calculating eyes gleaming in their brutish faces.
Something stirs within me at the sight—a beast that’s been asleep for a long time. It’s a creature of rage and violence I thought I’d killed off centuries ago. But the way those men are looking at her makes it unsheathe its claws and bare its teeth.
“What are you doing down here?” demands the one in front. He has a scar running from his ear to his chin and a dagger strapped conspicuously to his belt.
“Make an excuse andleave,”I order, because if I take full control of her now, I might do something I regret—or thatshe’llregret, and I’d rather not have to feel her pain. It was unpleasant enough last time.
“Hi, boys, I just got a little lost, I’m afraid,” she says. It’s shocking how good she is at holding her voice steady when I can feel her heartbeat racing in her chest.
“Well, get the fuck out of here—this isourterritory,” says the shortest one, offering a clenched fist to illustrate his point, as if she wouldn’t somehow get the hint from his subtle choice of words.
She starts to back away. Which is good. Of course, the beast stirring inside me doesn’t like it, but it keeps him from needing to rip anyone’s throat out.
Then she stops.
“Hey,” she says, her voice absurdly cheerful for someone whose cold sweat I can feel beading at the base of her throat.
“What are you doing?”I snap.
