“Excuse me,” Annalise said again. She laid the block against one woman’s shoulder. After a second, she moved to the next.
The second woman flinched. “I don’t-“
“It’s all right,” Annalise said, and laid the wood against the woman’s arm. After a moment, she started back toward our table.
The first mechanic caught her eye as she passed. “If you’re looking for something radioactive, honey, you put your hand on the wrong body part.”
His buddy chuckled. Annalise walked by without comment. As she settled back into her seat, the waitress returned. She didn’t seem terribly happy with us. “If you keep bothering other customers, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
Annalise didn’t acknowledge her. “Understood,” I said.
The woman moved away from the table while keeping a wary eye on us. I wondered how long it would take for word about us to spread around town.
“I expected you to keep a lower profile,” I said.
Again Annalise didn’t acknowledge the remark.
“What’s the matter? Turn off your emotion chip?”
She stared at me as though she was imagining me dead.
I’ve seen that look before, but it’s not something I’ve ever gotten used to.
I settled back in my seat and was silent. Annalise didn’t need to talk to me. I was going to be dead soon.
I remembered the way the boy had split apart into a mass of worms and my stomach flip-flopped. Why had I ordered a cheeseburger with the works?
I didn’t have the guts to keep pestering her. The peers of the Twenty Palace Society might have forbidden her to kill me, but I had no idea how or if they would enforce that rule. I knew very little about her society except that, like Annalise, they were sorcerers. Like Annalise, they killed predators and people who toyed with magic. Like Annalise, they hunted for copies of spell books.
One thing I did know: as powerful as Annalise was, she was one of the weaker peers in her society. It was a scary thought.
Our drinks arrived, then our burgers. Despite my queasiness, I tore into my food, my body’s needs taking over. All my concerns about dead children and murderous sorcerers receded just far enough for me to fuel up.
Spit or no spit, the eating was good. I could see that Annalise was enjoying it, too.
“So,” I said between bites, “do you think the Benton family was targeted specifically?”
Annalise looked at me like I was a bug that needed squashing. She took another bite of her burger and kept chewing.
“I found a slip of paper on the floor of their living room,” I said. I took another bite of food, making her wait for the rest. Eventually, I said: “They could remember their kids when they were alone. They could see their kids’ things and remember what happened to them. It was only when they were with other people that the memories were wiped away.”
Annalise took another bite. I set my burger on the plate and leaned toward her.
“Is that what you found in Finklers’ kitchen? A photo of her with her kids? Or maybe her grandkids? Was that why you were so entranced by her? A mother all alone, grieving over her children?”
Annalise became very still. She stared at me with all the warm gentility of a shark.
“I’m not trying to push your buttons,” I lied, “but I can be useful. I want to help.”
“I don’t need your help,” she said.
“If I’m going to be dead soon, it won’t matter if you answer my questions.”
“I don’t want your help.”
“I work for you,” I said. “Your peers in the society, whoever they are and what ever that is, put me here to help you.”
“You agreed to be my wooden man,” she said. Her tone was even and low. “You lied to me and betrayed me. I attacked a peer because of you, and the closest friend I have ever had in my long life is dead. Because of you.”
“I’m sorry about Irena,” I said. “I liked-“
“I don’t want to hear you talk about her. At all. If you say her name to me again, I will splinter every bone in your body, peers or no peers. Am I clear?”
At that moment, before I even realized it was possible, I stopped caring what she would do.
I’d spent the whole day in the van with Annalise, knowing she would eventually kill me. Before that, I’d sat in a jail cell for months waiting for someone in the society to collect my head.
People become accustomed to their circumstances. It was one of the many unpleasant truths I learned in prison. We can’t be afraid all the time; our bodies can’t sustain it.
I was getting used to Annalise’s hatred and to my quite sensible fear of her. What I was not getting used to was my own ignorance. I didn’t like stumbling around in the dark. I didn’t even know what a “wooden man” was. I was pretty sure it involved more than just driving around.
So, against all common sense, I pressed on. “The way you’ve been frowning at your scrap of wood makes me think the Bentons were not specifically targeted. The design on that scrap moves when magic is nearby, right? And does other stuff when predators are close, right?
