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I didn’t like that I took pleasure in Tessa’s moan of horror as she took in the empty library, but I reveled in it anyway. “We found the place that your buddy Rhyzkahl warded against me,” I said conversationally. “The contents made for nice, light bedtime reading.”
Dismay washed over her face as she spun toward me. “Kara, it’s not what you think—”
I cut her off. “I also found your notes in the attic, so you can stop lying about your association with Katashi.” My hands were starting to ache, and I adjusted my grip on my gun.
Tessa drew a deep breath, and calm settled over her. Pygah. She just mentally traced a fucking pygah. Hurt and anger clawed within my chest at the reminder of things she’d never taught me.
“If you know so much,” she said, “then you also know I won’t tell you anything.”
“That’s nothing new.” My throat clogged. “I loved you!” I said, agonized. “You were like a mother to me! How could you throw me to the wolves?”
“I didn’t!” Tessa’s hands tightened at her sides despite her damn pygah. “I never wanted you to get hurt.” She shook her head. “It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this, but the situation had reached the point where having Angus diminish you was the best available option.”
“Are you going to insist you begged Katashi to show me kindness and mercy?” I said with a sneer.
The cold steel in her eyes took me aback. “You’re dangerous,” she said with uncompromising certainty. “Harsh measures were on the table. I advocated stripping your abilities, but in the end Isumo and Lord—” She caught herself. “Isumo made the decision without my input.”
What the hell? Ever since the nightmare at the Nature Center I’d clung to the fantasy that Tessa had stood between me and a death sentence. They could have killed me at any time, I reminded myself. They took out Steeev easily enough. I remained of use to the Mraztur, but for what purpose? Especially now that I was diminished. I didn’t want to consider the ugly possibilities until I was well armed with wine and chocolate.
“Did you have any input on getting Kara thrown in jail?” Idris demanded, taking up my slack while I recovered from her bombshell. “Do you know what happens to ex-cops in prison?” I wasn’t sure whether to be pleased by his support or worried. He’d met his mother, and she was the enemy.
“I wasn’t party to that decision,” she said with a lift of her chin, then she cast a righteous glare at me. “Your own actions set you up for that.”
“But you’re a key member of Katashi’s organization, and you stood by and let it happen,” I countered. “Guess what? If I get killed in prison, you might as well have murdered me with your own hands.”
She paled, but it only took her a second to rally. “You believe your allies are so admirable and without reproach?” she shot back. “Mzatal? Szerain?” Her voice dripped with venom on the second name.
“Your allies’ methods suck!” I yelled. “And you’re a horrible, lying, conniving bitch who never deserved my love!”
Tessa recoiled a step and stared at me, color high in her cheeks. “You’re my niece. I did the best I could for you given the circumstances. You can’t possibly think—”
Carl stepped out of the parlor. “Their backup is here. Two men,” he said, no more perturbed than if reporting that the morning paper had landed on the doorstep.
I took a deep breath and found my center. I didn’t need a pygah. Getting that crap off my chest worked just as well, and she could keep her lame excuses about circumstances. “Let them in,” I said. “We’re done.”
I lowered my gun enough that it wasn’t a direct threat but didn’t holster it. Carl swung the door open and stepped back to reveal Jerry Steiner easing across the porch toward the door with his gun tucked close to his body, and Tsuneo on the walkway behind him.
Jerry leaped nimbly aside to get out of the potential line of fire from a shooter within, while Tsuneo did the same in the opposite direction. When no hail of bullets materialized, Jerry made a tactical peek around the door frame. Satisfied he wasn’t about to get his head blown off, he leaned out for a more thorough inspection.
“You cool?” he asked McDunn.
“Like the ice planet Hoth,” McDunn replied as chill as ever. Some of the tension left Jerry’s stance at the answer, which told me it was a code phrase.
Jerry entered the house, shut the door behind him and put his back to it. Fine by me. No sense letting the neighbors see if things went to shit in here. His eyes darted this way and that as he took note of threats and tried to figure out what was going on. At the sight of Idris he paled and went still as a rabbit beneath a circling hawk. Idris regarded him with seething malevolence that radiated danger and a promise of death. Didn’t matter that fifteen feet separated the two. Jerry was terrified of Idris, and for damn good reason considering what he’d done to Idris’s sister.
Though McDunn surely felt the tension, he remained placid as he turned to me. “Unless you have any objections, I’d like to take my people and go now.”
“None whatsoever,” I said cheerfully.
He looked over at Eilahn. “Could I have my weapons back?” he asked, polite and respectful.
She gave him a tight smile and thrust a plastic grocery bag containing heavy, angular items into his hands. Wary, McDunn peered into it, then let out a sigh and withdrew what I recognized as the spring and barrel for his handgun. While Tessa and I had shouted at each other, my boldly clever guardian had slipped away to unload and disassemble McDunn’s weapons. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I detected a trace of not-so-grudging respect in his expression as he dropped the items back into the bag and tied it shut.
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Jerry shifted, uneasy. “C’mon, let’s roll out,” he urged.
McDunn shot him a quelling glance then touched Tessa’s shoulder. “Miss Pazhel, we need to leave.”
