Floren startled, as if he’d fallen asleep standing up. Which he probably had as I’d seen him do it before. A pyrist kept odd hours and slept where they could. Not unlike me.
He bustled to the furnace, opening it to test the heat that poured from its maw. Nodding, he gestured for me to bring the woman to him.
Carefully, we slid her body into the furnace and closed the heavy metal door.
“May the gods find your soul,” Floren murmured, then left to clean his workspace.
“May the gods find your soul,” I echoed.
Kiera’s shoulder brushed mine as she stood vigil beside me. “May the gods find your soul. And your brother’s. May you join your family across the Abyss.”
The ache in her voice called to the ache in my chest.
Memories blinded me. Pyres stacked high with bodies. The night ablaze with my failure. The few living crying out for the many dead.
With a shudder, I yanked my mind back to the present. Sweat trickled between my shoulder blades.
“Do you think what she said was true?” Kiera glanced up at me, her honey-brown eyes beseeching mine. “That her brother—Jerell—had done nothing wrong?”
“I believe it.”
“Then why would the Shadow-Wolves take him?”
I threw a stray wood shaving into the carnivorous flames. “They don’t need a reason. They just do what they’re told.”
She bowed her head, but not before I saw her grimace. “If we hadn’t been there... if we hadn’t witnessed it... what would’ve happened to her body?”
“Birds, beasts, or street sweepers. But a street sweeper would’ve just tossed her body into whatever fire burnt the rest of the trash.”
Kiera’s shoulders jerked. But I didn’t bother to comfort her. Why spin lukewarm falsehoods when I wanted her to be afraid. I wanted her to understand why I didn’t want her here.
Her arms wrapped around her middle as if protecting herself. “Would no one else have done what we did?”
“Did you see a door or window crack open? Others must have heard her. Yet they will do nothing when the Wolves have done such a marvelous job of keeping them silent and afraid.” Acircumstance I could hardly blame the people for. I could only fight for a better life for them.
“You’re not afraid,” Kiera said. “You stopped. You brought her here.”
“I have enough blood on my hands without adding hers. Or yours.”
“My blood is not your burden to carry.”
Our eyes met and held. Something churned in the space between us, like waves crashing against a stone wall neither of us wanted to tear down.
“It’s not always a choice,” I said softly. “And I’ll have my knives back now.”
Her chin notched higher in a way that made me want to seize it. Again. Her jaw feathered as she searched my face. For a moment, she looked as though she might refuse.
But then she slipped them from her belt, flipped them over, and passed them to me hilt-first.
“I’ll be needing my own in this gods-damned city,” she said.
“Noted.”
I slipped Floren a few coins and promised to bring him a tea soon. The short journey to my rooms was uneventful, if tense. I abandoned the idea of taking too many false turns in favor of speed. Kiera didn’t let on if she suspected where exactly we were. Sooner or later, she would. I just preferred it to be later. Not that I hid much in the few rooms I rented out of a large building that looked the same as a thousand others.
I did a quick check to make sure we weren’t followed. We trod up the smooth stairs carved into the side of the building to reach my rooms near the roof. The height was a necessity.
The moment I pushed open the door, it was yanked from my grasp, and I was dragged inside.
