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She made no motion and didn’t seem at all surprised by my frenetic entrance, keeping her back to me as she gazed through her windows. I always did find it strange, how internally, Thea’s office was only on the second floor, yet it still afforded her a view of the city as if we were twenty stories up. Whatever she was looking at had her fullest attention.
“Thea?”
She finally acknowledged my presence, turning her head slightly over her shoulder. “You’re back, Graves. I was worried when Herald told me you’d burst out of here.” She faced me, a small smile spreading across her lips. “And it seems you’re content to burst in just as suddenly as you’d left.”
My breathing slowed as I composed myself, and I put some semblance of rigidity into my posture. The urgency was still coursing through my blood, but I knew instinctively that just babbling everything at Thea at top speed wouldn’t help my case.
“The Black Hand,” I said. “They came for me again. This time it was their leader. At least I think it was.”
Thea raised an eyebrow, like she was having a hard time following what I meant. “Oh. Of course. The Black Hand.” She cleared her throat and tutted. “See, this is what comes of mistrusting those who only want to help you.” Her words cut at me, but her expression was soft, almost kind.
“I. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Thea smiled. “Yes, that seems to be a theme for you, Mr. Graves. But you did well to come directly to me. Darker elements are try
ing to seduce you, when I’m the one that you should be trusting. This Black Hand character. Did he offer you anything?”
What a strange thing to ask, I thought. Shouldn’t she have been more concerned about him trying to attack me?
“Truth,” I said carefully. “He offered me the truth.”
“Deception,” Thea said, shaking her head. “They’ve moved past attempting to murder you. Now it’s indoctrination that they’ll pursue. You’re more useful to them that way. And worse still that they have someone working on the inside to help them.” She pulled something out of her pocket, placing the familiar, spiny sharpness of it on her glass desk.
I stared at the dagger, than back up at her. “Herald? You don’t mean that. He can’t be working with them.” Couldn’t he? Just an hour ago I’d almost believed that Herald and Thea – no, that the entire Lorica was in league against me. My fingers ran through my hair of their own accord, tugging in confusion.
“We have good reason to believe it was him,” Thea said, her voice a mix of resignation and cold accusation. “He’s working with the Black Hand. Or are you trying to convince me that he’s innocent?” She took a single step, and that smallest movement filled the room with her presence: sharp, brilliant, suffocating. “Perhaps the man you met convinced you. Have you decided to trust your murderers so easily?”
“You know that isn’t true. Herald is innocent. Where is he?”
“He’s safe,” Thea said, in a way that told me he wasn’t. “For the moment. The Lorica has ways of handling internal matters that will ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.” She took another step forward, close enough that she could lay a hand on my shoulder. Thea squeezed, the gems on one hand glinting as she did, and it was almost comforting.
“You’re cleverer than that, Dustin. I knew why you ran. You saw the knife, and you knew immediately, didn’t you? I always pegged you for your intelligence, your keenness. Surely you know it was him. It was so clever of the Black Hand to get such an innocuous-looking plant, too, someone so inoffensive. So harmless.”
“No,” I said. “Someone planted the blade on him. Herald isn’t tied to the Black Hand, nor to the god murders. I know it.”
Thea watched me, her face a mix of interest, and pity. For a moment, all was silence in her office, apart from the quiet, low hum of her computer, and from somewhere else, perhaps within the walls, a quiet, low chittering. The rats. Always the rats.
“You know that you can trust me, don’t you, Dustin? I would never wish you harm. You’re far too important to me.”
I looked up at her, wondering what to believe. “To the Lorica, you mean.”
She smiled sadly, and shook her head. “To me, Dustin. I’ve told you before. You’re a special person. I would almost say irreplaceable.”
“I don’t understand,” I began to say, my thoughts left unspoken, when a commotion streamed in from the hallway outside.
“Dustin,” a voice shouted. Prudence?
“Where the hell are you?” And Bastion?
The door exploded off its hinges, splinters spraying across the immaculate white of Thea’s carpet. Bastion strode in, face like thunder, his hand held menacingly up in front of him. Prudence rushed in after, her fists already charged with blue fire.
“Bastion? What’s going on?”
Prudence bent forward and yelled. “Get away from her, Dustin!”
On instinct my feet backed away, but I didn’t make it very far. Thea’s fingers were locked around my wrist, clamping with an alarming strength.
“Thea? You’re hurting me. I – ”
