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“Condolences,” Gemma says with enough honesty that I don’t set her on fire. “But that’s my price. I want to live and manage my business and maintain my reputation as having the best high wares, young lady.”
Tala tightens her jacket close as if it’s freezing down here, when actually the sorrow in her amber eyes tells me she’s about to part with it. She strokes the black feathered sleeves, and I hope it’s of some consolation to Tala that Roxana is still alive to produce enough feathers to start again. Tala takes off the jacket, her wings and talons and beak tattoos exposed. Before she hands it over, she asks, “Where’s the soil?”
Gemma stares as her hydra-grown arms unlock a chest and pull out a pouch that’s patterned with blue and white stripes.
“How do we know this is legit?” Tala asks.
“You not knowing the product isn’t my fault,” Gemma says as she swiftly snatches the jacket and hands over the pouch. “But if it turns out to be nothing but park dirt, you can find me down here dressed like one of you until I have a buyer.”
Tala storms off, and I chase after her.
“I’m good with snapping off her arms if you want to steal back your jacket,” I say.
Tala stops in front of a booth selling ointments that claim to prevent phoenixpox. “There’s no honor in that, but there is some in the sacrifice I made. It’s better to lose something sentimental if it means saving phoenixes everywhere.”
Her devotion to phoenixkind makes me feel selfish for not even offering the oblivion dagger. But she made her choice, and I quietly made mine.
“Excuse me,” a short man says, trying to get to the booth. He has a dark, thick beard peppered with gray, and he’s wearing a tracksuit. He does a double take, and it’s clear he recognizes me. Then he looks especially petrified when he sees Tala’s mask. He immediately runs away, snaking his way through the crowd.
There’s something familiar about him. Was he one of the Brew dealers I confronted during the night of the Cloaked Phantom? Or one of those pharmacy alchemists I’d hoped might have some affiliation with Luna?
Then I know. I never met this man, but back when the Spell Walkers researched Emil’s life before bringing him onto the team, we learned that his boss at the Museum of Natural Creatures wrote a nonfiction book about some journey with phoenixes. What I remember most was this black-and-white author photo of him wearing a white turtleneck and a raptor glove. I couldn’t help but laugh at how serious he was trying to look while he rested his chin on his gloved fist, and even Atlas couldn’t hold back his smile at how funny I found it.
“That man is Kirk Bennett. The museum curator who would’ve hired your parents to protect Gravesend, and then traded her egg away for Emil.”
Tala breaks into a sprint, shoving shoppers out of the way, and I follow in the path she’s cleared. Kirk runs past the stairway and through a dark tunnel where there are no lanterns in sight to light his way. I cast fire, but Tala is still several feet ahead of me, tracking Kirk by his pounding footsteps. She dives forward and tackles him, his face splashing in a deep puddle; he’s lucky if it’s only dirty water.
My fire-orb illuminates his face. “We haven’t had the pleasure, Kirk.”
“Please let me go,” he says. “I didn’t do anything!”
“Innocent people don’t run away like you did. What are you doing here?”
“I’m running an errand,” Kirk says.
“For what?”
He’s biting his tongue until I inch the fire-orb closer. “For whom—Luna.”
I tap Tala’s shoulder and ask her to ease up on him, but she’s too furious. “What are you getting for her? Where is she?”
The Starstifler can wait if we get a location on Luna now.
“I don’t know where she is! I’m picking up some oils and herbs used to strengthen phoenixes, and an ointment for shifters. She’s planning on sending someone over to grab them in the next few days.”
I’m not going to camp out in his home. That can turn into a trap quickly.
“Do you know who I am?” Tala says.
“A Halo Knight,” Kirk says.
She rolls him onto his back and removes her mask. “My parents were murdered in your precious museum over a job you didn’t honor.” He tries to apologize, but Tala’s fist connects with his chin too fast and hard. “Your word means nothing.” She drives her knee straight into his stomach. “You profited off phoenixkind and couldn’t bother protecting the precious first life of one who had centuries of lives ahead of her.”
Kirk begs for her to stop as she raises her fist. “Please! I’ll do anything! You want Luna? We can set up a trap for whoever comes for her order. They’ll know more than I do!”
Tala finally gets off of him. “You have ten seconds to get out of here.”
“Thank you, thank you!” Kirk is gasping for breath as he runs down the tunnel.
