Page 74 of Queen of Ruin

No answer.

I knock again. “Mindy! Open up! It’s Diego!”

Silence.

I knock again, this time for longer, and then I pull at the door handle. It doesn’t budge. “Mindy, are you in there? Come on, open the damn door! Don’t make me kick it down!”

Still nothing.

No curses. No sound of movement. Is she really not here?

Returning to my phone, I dial her number and let it ring out while pressing my ear to the door. Her apartment remains silent, not even a hint of her regular, obscenely loud ringtones.

She really must be out somewhere.

“Fuck,” I mutter, lightly jogging back down the steps. “Where the fuck is she?

Tech is my next call and he answers on the third ring. “Yo?”

“Tech, have you heard from Mindy?”

“Yo! My man! Diego!” He grunts as if sitting up. “You are a fucking star, man. Are you enjoying the riches you pulled in for us both? Because I gotta tell ya, my boss was real fucking happy you sold all that so quickly! Ain’t sure why I never thought of selling to those rich fuckers upstate, but it’s kind of genius. Anyway, he wants to talk to you, man. Well, not talk. He talks t’me, y’know?” Tech laughs. “Anyway, he wants you to sell more and I told him you’re in. You’re in, right? You wouldn’t screw me over?”

He talks so fast that I barely catch half of what he’s saying. “Yeah, whatever, listen, Tech. I need to find Mindy. Have you seen or heard from her?”

“Mindy?” He sucks loudly on something and then groans. “Nah, man. Not since that night you sold for me. But I know a couple of places she hangs. Drop round and we’ll talk business and I can take you, alright?”

“Alright. I’ll be there soon.”

“Wicked!” Tech hangs up just as the skies open and I’m drenched in seconds.

I’m even more thoroughly drenched after a short bus ride and ten-minute walk to Tech’s place, so I huddle in my jacket and duck my head into my collar as I approach his door and knock quickly.

“Tech, hurry up, man! It’s pouring down and I gotta piss!”

Footsteps trudge painfully slowly to the door, but Tech finally opens it and I groan softly. “Thanks, can I use your bathroom? I gotta…. Tech?”

Something’s… off.

He stares at me with glassy eyes and his skin is somewhat paler than when we last met. Not unusual, given his line of work, but something about the way he stares at me, unblinking, makes my stomach run cold. Both his arms hang limply at his side and his mouth hangs open, jaw slack.

“Tech… you good?”

I glimpse a shadow moving behind Tech just as he sags forward, and as he collapses into my arms and knocks me back down the steps, I’m struck with one thought before I collide with the ground below.

His skin is deathly cold.

29

VALENTINA

“Tell me exactly what you saw.” Raven sits cross-legged on the table with the laptop resting on her knees. “Don’t leave anything out.”

My hands come together on the table and I twist my fingers together, glancing between her and Cassian. “I’m not even sure what I saw.”

“Just tell her,” Cassian replies. “Raven is our tech genius with this kind of thing.”

“Alright.” Briefly closing my eyes, I call up the face of the little girl that appeared to me during that meditation session, and the sight of her sends a strange, cold sensation trickling through my gut.