“No.” Lyssa pointed at herself, then Aisha. “It puts us at a disadvantage, not you. I’m the primary target. All you need to do is hide and watch. Once our guy shows up and tries to kill me, you’ll have a good idea of what his essence is. In the meantime, I have to not die.”
“There are potential flaws in your plan, Corti,” Aisha said.
“She’s correct,” Jofi said. “Without better knowledge of what you face, you might be killed before Miss Khatri or Mr. Lubon can help you.”
“I’m willing to take that risk,” Lyssa whispered. “So keep quiet for now.”
“What was that?” Samuel asked.
“It wasn’t directed at any of you.”
Samuel gave her a disapproving look. She frowned back. The fact she had a spirit bound to her guns wasn’t the big secret; the spirit’s true nature was. Being secretive about Jofi being present was pointless.
“What if more Shadows show up?” Alexander said.
“We’d prefer if only Miss Corti and Khatri engage them,” Samuel said with a frown. “It’ll be easier to explain to the EAA when bodies start piling up. They’re far touchier about us releasing Eclipses even though Torches kill more Shadows than Eclipses. Regardless of their concerns, self-defense remains a valid reason to use sorcery within the bounds of our treaties. If the Shadows use shards, it’s even easier to explain. That said, in an emergency, I’d prefer you keep Miss Corti alive, regardless of who you have to kill.”
Alexander gave a firm nod. “Understood.”
“Aww. You do care, Samuel,” Lyssa said.
Samuel gave her a cold look. “I wish to minimize loyal Illuminated casualties.”
Lyssa gestured for Aisha to come closer. “I want to talk to you about something in private.” She looked around. “But it’s not like I can take you elsewhere.”
Samuel folded his arms. His conjured image of the ghost town disappeared.
Aisha sauntered over to Lyssa and leaned in closer. “What?” she whispered.
“You don’t have to do this, you know,” Lyssa whispered back. “I’d like your help because after what we went through in Houston and the mine, I trust you to have my back against rogues. I know you can fight, but this is semi-personal. I don’t know how much Samuel told you, but I’m the bait because I’m already a target, not just because I’m aching to score brownie points with the Elders.”
Aisha scoffed. “I’m the only one allowed to kill you, so I don’t care about the reasons behind you being targeted. This rogue is trying to rob me of my prize.” She leaned back and smiled. “I’ll rob him of his life as punishment.”
Lyssa shrugged. “Okay. As long as we’re on the same page. I guess we’re taking a girls’ camping trip.”
Chapter Seven
In her full regalia, complete with mask, Lyssa leaned back in a dusty chair and put her feet up on a creaky old table. Aisha stood near a cracked window, peering outside at the collapsed steeple of an old church. The hint of a dirt road ran in front of the building, but scraggly weeds and bushes had infiltrated most of the area, blurring the line between wilderness and town.
“This grows tiresome,” Aisha said with a frown. “We can’t sit here for weeks waiting for the assassins. I was under the impression an attempt would be imminent. I don’t know that I would have readily agreed had I known how long this would take.”
Lyssa dropped her feet to the floor with a loud thump. “It’s not been weeks. It’s been days. Sure, I’m getting tired of the food we brought along, and I could use a better shower than that wimpy shard Samuel lent us, but we’ve both been in more annoying situations. Hey, this place doesn’t smell as bad as the mine.”
Aisha wrinkled her nose. “I believe they torment sinners in the afterlife in Naraka with that smell.”
“See?” Lyssa grinned. “We’re already doing better than that.”
“This plan might have failed. I agreed to help you because I thought it’d involve defeating enemies of the Society, not spending time in this dreary corpse of a town accomplishing nothing but discovering new depths of boredom.” Aisha turned around and folded her arms. “We’ve gone on many fake patrols, including checking the nearby hills. The enemy has every reason to believe the false story if they’ve been watching.”
“We need to be patient.”
Aisha shook her head. “They’ve seen through the ruse. We’re not so incompetent that we have to spend this long hunting a monster nest. They’d know that.”
“But it’s not like we could guarantee they would show up the first day,” Lyssa replied. “The plan didn’t fail, Aisha. You’re bored and fidgety. Get over it.”
Aisha frowned. “Elder Theodora and Elder Samuel have both explained this assassin is also targeting others. I’m curious where you fit in? I applaud your willingness to volunteer and end this situation before the Society suffers more losses, but there’s something peculiar about someone who’d want to kill you along with the others you mentioned being targeted.”
“Jealous they’re not targeting you?”
“Amusing, Corti, but a dodge. Why are they targeting you?”
“We’re not sure about that,” Lyssa lied.
Boredom wouldn’t hurt Aisha, but shard-wielding mercenaries or a deadly rogue with spirit sorcery could kill her. She was right to be suspicious when her life was on the line.
It was crappy that she couldn’t know the truth. Lyssa didn’t like it when the Elders kept secrets from her, and now she was keeping her own from someone she trusted with her life. Something had to change.
Lyssa patted her holsters. “How about we try a little experiment to pass the time?”
Aisha’s face tightened with distrust. “Experiment?”
“Sure, something that’ll pass the time until the people interested in murdering me show up and make your day a little more exciting. I’m not having fun, either.”
“I’d enjoy sparring with you, but that’s not a good idea given the situation,”
