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A creature scurried up my leg, the needle-like claws piercing into my skin through my pants. I screeched and smacked the rat away.
“Hey!” Cait shouted. She growled and stomped the wooden floor until the rat battle ended with the sound of retreating squeaks in the dark. “Did you just throw a rat at me?”
“Not on purpose!” I said.
She shuddered. “Ugh, I’m demoting my previous life wisdom to number two. Number one is ‘stay out of prison, for feck's sake!’”
A door scraped in the dark, its hinges creaking as light poured through the widening crack.
I squinted, blocking the sunlight with one arm. I pulled against the restraints on my wrist, but the chain only clanked, tugging against the hook in the wall behind me.
“It’s time to talk,” said a low female voice.
Enforcer Merrick swung the door wide open, propping a grain sack from the cabin floor against it. She still had the small black box attached to her belt. Now that I’d had time to think it over, I was pretty sure the Academy’s book had called that thing a radio—or maybe a phone.
Cait looked at the device as if she wanted to distance herself from it, but the hull was already against her back.
Enforcer Dunn stepped through the door after Merrick.
He looked down at me, probably glad to have our positions reversed for the first time.
I smiled to let him know he still didn’t intimidate me.
Merrick sighed. “Tell us where you hid the body.”
My smile fell. “The body?”
“There’s no point in pretending,” she said. “We know you killed Graham Brennin. Tell us what you did with him.”
I opened my mouth to deny their accusations and explain the truth, then paused. If I told them where Graham was, they’d go back for him. All he wanted was to be left alone. But then again, I had to protect myself and Cait.
“Brennin’s alive,” Cait blurted out. “She didn’t kill him.”
There went my chance to think that over.
Merrick’s expression didn’t change.
I swallowed. “It’s true,” I said, unable to deny this for Graham’s sake when it could get me executed. “He’s back on Tramore.”
Cait gave me a look, apparently disapproving of me telling that particular detail. She wanted to protect Lachlan from the Enforcers’ return, but I didn’t know how to make a convincing argument without saying where he was.
“I want the truth,” said Merrick. “What have you done with his body?”
“I told you. He’s alive on Tramore,” I stated again, my voice firm.
“My apologies, but my incredulity hasn't suddenly remedied itself,” said Merrick. “Next question: how many Enforcers have you killed?”
“None!” I said. “Where are you getting this from?” I glared at the two Enforcers in front of me.
“From where,” said Dunn. “You dangled a preposition?—”
Merrick interrupted him. “The Academy’s fastest boat, containing six Enforcers, along with a cook, went missing while searching for you and Brennin. I’m certain you were involved.”
I hesitated. “Last I knew, they were on Ash Island. The islanders stole their boat.”
Dunn inhaled sharply. “They’re not dead?”
I shook my head. “No.”
