As Lie the Dead

fatigue. I kept my hand where it was, offering what little comfort I could and knowing it wasn’t nearly enough.

“Don’t know,” he whispered, lips curling back in a snarl. “He killed Eleri.”

“He tried to. How did he know she was spying on him?”

“She isn’t as clever as she thinks she is,” Cole said. I jerked upright, pulling the bat back, ready to swing. He stood in the bedroom doorway, hands at his sides. Nonchalant, even. He had the temerity to smile at me. “Neither is Phineas, although I had hoped to convince him to truly join me. Seems he now harbors some strange loyalty to you.”

I took a single step away from Phin, putting him at a safer distance from my swinging arm. Rage jolted through me at the mere sight of Cole, so smug about the events he’d allowed to unfold and the slaughter happening across the street. Any sympathy I’d possessed died with the first scream I’d heard from inside the theater.

“You, however, continue to impress me,” he said. “Your abilities are understated, to say the least.”

“Does that mean you’re ready to fight me yourself this time? Or do you have any more underlings I should dispatch first?”

“We’d make better allies than enemies.”

I barked laughter. “Because we’re so much the same, right? Slaughtering hundreds of people and stabbing Clan Elders to chairs?”

“I promised him a front-row seat.”

“Gee whiz, that makes it okay, then.”

“You are fascinating, Evangeline, truly. Keeping your wits about you after everything you’ve suffered. I admit, I think your tenacity surpassed even Tovin’s wildest expectations. He lost because he underestimated what people in love will do to survive. He never did understand that about humans.”

I didn’t know if he was trying to get a rise out of me and make me attack, or just making small talk to prevent me from stopping the theater assault. It didn’t matter, though, because it wasn’t going to work.

“I know it counts for little, but I didn’t know what Kelsa had planned for you,” he said. “I wasn’t privy to her particulars.”

Okay, maybe it was starting to work. I had to put a metaphorical lid on my temper to keep from swinging the business end of that bat at his head. Not knowing was no excuse, considering Kelsa was a fucking goblin. They weren’t known for their niceties—especially toward Hunters.

“And I’m truly sorry about Jesse and Ash,” he continued. “They were my friends, too, but I had already agreed to help Tovin—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Heat flared in my cheeks. The rest of my body chilled. A tremor raced up my spine, spurred by rage and hate. “You don’t get to say their names or be sorry they’re dead. You could have stopped it. You could have prevented all of this!”

His joviality evaporated. He narrowed his eyes and stood straighter, mouth tight. “Perhaps, but there’s no changing what’s happened. They’re dead, and you’re not. You want to honor their memory by dying again?”

“Who’s going to kill me? You?”

“If it comes to that, yes. You’re an impediment to my vision for this city.”

I snorted. “Vision? You’re deluded.”

“Change is coming, Evangeline, whether you want it or not. And it’s up to you if you’ll be on the side making the changes or the side that gets plowed under by progress.”

Worse than the words themselves was the knowledge that he truly believed his own propaganda. He’d convinced himself his path was the correct one and he was doing this for the betterment of all the species. He seemed to have forgotten that, as a species, humans might outnumber Dregs five million to one, but their unique abilities and magical talents almost evened those odds. If we lost this city to goblins and Halfies—or worse—we’d lose others to the same. We’d lose everything.

“Can I ask you a question, Cole?”

He cocked his head. “Sure.”

“If Rain could see you today, and all the death and pain you’ve been party to, what would she say? Would she still love you?”

It was both the right and wrong thing to say. His complexion darkened with rage, and his entire body coiled to attack. I could almost see imaginary steam billowing from his ears.

“Guess that would be a no,” I said.

He advanced with a roar. I feinted to my right, as if preparing to swing. He moved perfectly, coming at me from my unprotected left side. I ducked the expected swing and jammed the nail-free end of my bat up into his gut. He staggered; I slammed it across his chin, whipping his head sideways. Continuing the arc of the wood, I drew it in a circle and cracked it across his right ankle.

He howled and crashed to the floor. One leg lashed out and caught me off guard. I tripped and fell onto my ass. Fingers of pain dragged angry nails up my back. Faster than I expected, Cole grabbed my ankles and pulled hard enough to unseat me, and the back of my head slammed against the floor. Colorful lights winked behind my eyes.

His weight settled on my hips and abdomen, low enough that I couldn’t raise my legs to kick my feet. I attempted a whack with the bat. He blocked my arm and used his free hand to grab my hair and slam my head against the floor. Everything went swimmy. Phin was shouting. Hands wrapped around my throat.

Fuck, not again.

Bracing for the agony to come, I teleported one last time. It felt like squeezing my body through a tube of ground glass. I ached and smarted, barely able to see for the roaring behind my eyes. Where was—? Just outside the bedroom door, facing in.

I blinked through blurry vision. Cole had stood. He was leaning over Phin, who shrieked when Cole pulled a knife out of one arm, its blade coated in Phin’s blood. I crawled unsteadily to my hands and knees. Cole drew his hand back to his opposite shoulder, knife blade aimed down. I knew that action, knew what he was about to do.

No!

With a primal cry torn from pain and desperation, I launched to my feet. Shot toward Cole. Didn’t feel the carpet beneath me. Barely felt the impact when I crashed shoulder-first into Cole’s gut. Was only slightly aware of glass shattering all around us. Cutting. Cole screaming. Phin hollering my name.

Then the sensation of free-falling, punctuated by an abrupt crash.

Chapter Twenty-three

It was the awful smell that drew me out of a comfortable, deep sleep. Not rotting-meat awful. More vinegar- tang awful. Smelled like that Korean sauerkraut Ash would make for dinner. Only Jesse would eat it; I got takeout those nights. Was she making it? That what I smelled?

I peeked one eye open and spotted familiar stained wallpaper. Watermarks on what used to be white and yellow daisies, left over from the last people to rent the place. I wasn’t home enough to care, so I’d never bothered painting over it. The apartment was a place to crash and recover, not to nest. I was in my room, and it reeked of icky food. Terrific.

I rolled over, cuddling my pillow and tugging the blanket higher over my head. Every muscle in my body ached. Must have been a rough night. What had I done last night? Had we gone out on a warrant? Stayed in? Trained? Couldn’t remember. Were my partners even home?

Home … Home was gone. I couldn’t go back there, but why?

Because the were-cats had attacked me there, that’s why. Duh.

I shot up in bed so fast my head spun and the room tilted. I clutched the blankets tight to my chest, waiting for things to settle. It was my room, in the old apartment above the jewelry store. My room, my bed. The blankets and sheets were new, and something was burning on the table nearby. Looked like incense and was the source of that odd odor.

It was all a bad dream; it had to be. The last two weeks were just some elaborate drug-induced nightmare, and I was back at home, in my old life. That explained it. Only thing that could.