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Bastion groaned. “So Banjo actually has killed more people.”
“Well, it was actually demons,” I said. “Seems to happen whenever the dog gets aggravated, and I imagine potentially being used as a sacrifice was aggravating enough. Banjo’s survival instincts kicked in and caused all those people to – well, to experience catastrophic existence failure.”
Sterling wrinkled his nose. “In the grossest ways possible. Too much, frankly, even for me.”
“Wait,” Bastion said. “Demons, you say? Any specific class of infernals? Imps, incubi? Or do you have any clues about their affiliation?”
I winked one eye, staring into my beer bottle, casually avoiding Bastion’s gaze even as it burned into me. I sighed.
“We have reason to believe that it was a bunch of demons who work for – for Mammon.”
Bastion slapped his forehead. “Great. So not only is the dog wanted in the magical community, it’s wanted by an actual demon prince.”
“Wait,” I said. “Didn’t you say that only a select few in the Lorica know about Banjo?”
“News travels fast,” Bastion sighed. “The Hound, for example? Donovan Slint? He must have been tipped off by one of the Scions – because yes, even within the Heart, you’ve got your o
wn cliques and factions. Everyone thinks they know best. I imagine that acquiring the dog was just one of Donovan’s missions.”
I stared into my beer again, pretending to be fascinated by the bubbles.
“Dust,” Bastion muttered. “You heard what I said.”
I sighed, taking another sip of my beer. It tasted a lot more bitter this time. “Fine. I’ll bite. What was his other mission?”
Bastion set down his whiskey, then folded his hands, just like Carver would. His face went stony.
“There are doubts, even within the Heart – no, especially within the Heart – that the Dark Room has been truly sealed away forever.”
The intermittent splashing from Sterling’s end of the water went silent, and I heard glass clink again as he set his beer down on the pebbled poolside surface.
Sterling’s voice seemed smaller when he spoke. “Is that true, Dust?”
“Of course it isn’t,” I lied through my teeth. “I don’t know. How would I know? I wear the amulet I enchanted all the time. Surely that’s like keeping a chain on the door.”
Bastion’s face hardly changed. He didn’t look angry, just watching me with a neutral gaze, gray eyes piercing me like metal. I fought not to squirm under his stare. I wasn’t sure if it was the knowledge that he was a Scion that did it, but part of me felt that I would have truthfully answered anything Bastion would have asked me in that moment. What the hell? Was that how he became a Scion? Was he part Mouth all along, and I just never knew?
As he looked at me – as I locked every muscle in my body to stop myself from shifting – I remembered the painting of his family over the fireplace in the mansion’s grand entrance. I remembered the hard, penetrating eyes of his father. Bastion seemed to be growing older, sterner, more authoritative before my very eyes.
And, I had to confess, despite every protestation in my body – handsomer.
“Bastion,” I said quietly. “How did you become a Scion?”
He held my gaze for several more uncomfortable seconds before answering. “Through pure skill. Talent. Power.”
“I guessed as much,” I said. “But the others, they’re combinations, two Lorica classes rolled into one body. Royce is a Wing and a Mouth. What are you?”
The gleaming white of Bastion’s teeth slowly showed as the corner of his mouth parted in a brilliant smile. “I’m just the equivalent of two very strong Hands.” He leaned in closer, his eyes no longer hard, but hazy, like clouds before a storm, like tight coils of new smoke. My left leg quivered, and my heart did the smallest somersault. Christ, had he always been this handsome? “You know that, Dusty. More than anyone.”
“More than your mother? Surely not.”
Luella Brandt’s voice cut through the stillness and silence, like the sharpest, coldest knife.
Chapter 14
Bastion’s lashes fluttered, his eyes hardening again as he searched the room for his mother. I gasped, finally able to breathe again, and turned to Sterling, who was staring at me with a similarly confused look on his face.
He mouthed words at me. “What the fuck was that?”
