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"Don't kill her," Bain said. "We need to know who hired her."
I bared my teeth, and hurled Urla gentler than I wanted to. The shoemaker flew backward through the air and struck the far wall with a thud. She slid down and lay still, unconscious but alive.
"She wouldn't have spared me," I growled.
"Probably not." Bain put a hand on my shoulder.
I still held a lot of power I had drawn from him, but I could take more. In the back of my mind, it tingled, itched at me to draw in every drop and blast the city to ruins. I could draw and destroy until only I remained, standing in a pile of ashes.
I gritted my teeth, stepped away and used the excess to calm myself and pick up the awl which lay near Urla. She must have dropped it as she fell. I placed it on a shelf, far from the shoemaker. I didn't want anything to do with it, any more than I wanted to be stabbed with it.
"Are you all right?" Bain asked.
I glanced over to him, unsure if he was referring to the attack, the power or both.
I sniffed. "I'm done throwing people around, if that's what you mean."
"But?" He must have known there was one before I did.
"But if what she said about the Covener and his family is true and you and Dex knew but didn't tell me—"
Bain cut me off. "If it's true, I'm unaware. I'd bet a chest of dragon scales Dex didn't know either." He held up a hand. "Ifit's true. She might have been goading you."
"Why would…" I caught my lip between my teeth. "To see what I could do?"
"Maybe. I'll… talk to her later and see if I can find out her motive."
"Can I be there?" I asked immediately.
Bain didn't answer right away. "That will be up to Dex." He gestured to his men who stood outside the door. "Take the shoemaker to the residence and put her in a cell." To me, he said, "We have a job to finish."
I gaped. "We're still going?"
The side of his mouth jerked upward. "Why wouldn't we? You're not going to let a little ambush scare you, are you?"
I mouthed, "Little ambush?" to his back, but followed him to the bike. He helped me remount, but I kept my head down, gaze this way and that. Whether or not the person who threw the knife had tried to kill me, they were still out there somewhere.
They might easily try again.
I snorted to myself. If they had any sense, they would be far away by now, not going after me while I was in the middle of a group of shifters who would now be even more vigilant. Safer to chase a dragon into the mountains and try to pin it down in a cave. Unless they also had some kind of power. If they were anything like me, they could choke me while I—
I dismissed that line of thought. If they had, and wanted me dead, they would have done that first. No, they created a ruse for a reason.
I glanced back to the shoemaker's as two guards carried a tightly bound form between them. They hefted her over the front of one of their bikes and rode back back the way we came.
With any luck, they would get some answers from Urla.
I turned back around and tried to let the thrumming engine of the bike between my legs soothe me.
The only thing which really settled my nerves was the feeling of the power I still held, laced with sandalwood and musk.
9
Viva
The templeof Hades in the lower part of the Vault was huge. I could barely stop myself from gaping as we stepped inside.
The walls were lined in stone reliefs of Hades, and others, in almost every pose imaginable.
