Sambah snapped his fingers, pointed to the truck, and spoke in a language I didn’t recognize. The three men surrounded the truck and guarded it.
When I saw they weren’t listening, I turned back to Sambah. “For reasons I can’t explain, turning him in isn’t an option. Hell, even if it was, I’d still be here. I have no sympathy for this man.”
“What do you expect I will do with him?”
“Graham once mentioned he wanted to work for you, but he was also afraid of your pride. He said some men killed a lion in your pride and then just… disappeared.”
Sambah folded his arms. “And you want to know what we did to them.”
“He suggested you ate them.”
Sambah threw back his head and laughed. “They were challenged to battle, but we didn’teatthem. We’re not savages.” His gaze drifted back to the truck. “I had a taxidermist stuff their animal remains and return them to their pack.”
“That’s… a little bit extreme. Isn’t that illegal?”
Sambah lowered his arms, clasping his hands. “Perhaps that is why they never speak of what happened to their former packmates. They’re embarrassed that they’re sitting by the fireplace.” He smiled grimly. “And that is why you brought my son’s killer to me? How do you know that this man killed my child? He doesn’t look like much of a warrior.”
“He confessed. I wouldn’t be here unless I was absolutely certain.”
“Why me? You said there are other victims. Why not their fathers and mothers?”
I sighed. “He worked for some of them. If this got out, it would cause a rift between Shifters and Relics.”
“Yes, but how is it that you choseme?”
I worried my lip and decided to tell him. “Because your son helped us solve the case.”
He blinked. “King?”
“One of our people is a Gravewalker. I guess this was King’s unfinished business.”
Sambah swung his gaze up to the moon and remained quiet for a long while. I could hear Graham rustling around inside the truck, but I’d taken the keys. Finally, Sambah cast his gaze upon me, and I thought for a minute he might go back inside. “Did my son say anything else?”
“I don’t know. He helped us with the case. I think he really wanted to do right by you. He offered to help us in exchange of delivering a message to you, but we just caught Graham, and no one has talked to King. Once I get home, I’ll have our Gravewalker write down the message.”
“I would rather him go to his next life. I don’t wish him to linger between worlds.”
“I doubt he’ll stick around much longer. If he already left, I’ll see if he had a message and make sure it gets to you.”
“I would very much appreciate that. He must go to his ancestors. I visit his grave each night and speak to him, but I do not want him to be there. This is just my way of coping, you see.”
“No offense, but you don’t seem upset to find out your son was murdered.”
“I have lived many lifetimes and experienced great loss. When an accident takes your child, you blame the gods. When a person takes your child, you spend your life trying to figure out why. No answer is good enough, and sometimes it will only make it worse. Even if they are punished, you always live with that hate. Then you spend your life hating yourself, wondering how you could have prevented it from happening. I no longer let those emotions consume me. They are bad for the spirit.”
After a quick nod to his men, they tried to get Graham out of the truck, but he’d locked the doors. When one of the men raised his fist to break my window, I shouted at him and jogged toward the vehicle.
Jingling my keys between two fingers, I went to unlock the door.
Graham was plastered against the driver’s door. “Don’t feed me to the lions.”
“They’re not going to eat you. Look, I’m doing you a favor. You don’t want to go to Breed jail and face the higher authority’s judgment, and I can’t let you go free. I don’t accept bribes from murderers like you. I’ve got zero sympathy. But hey, if youwantto spend the rest of your life in jail, eating slop, I’m more than happy to oblige. Have you ever seen the inside of one of those prisons? Depending on which one you go to, they’re pretty bleak. You don’t have any rights in there. All you have are walls and bars and a lot of free time. Something else to consider: they might give you the death penalty. I hear they behead you right in front of an audience. Is that what you want?”
Without another word, Graham opened the door and stepped out. He allowed the men to escort him inside, and all things considered, that was probably the bravest thing I’d seen him do. A beheading might have been quicker, but he wouldn’t want to chance getting the life sentence. Or maybe he thought he could talk Sambah into letting him choose his method of death—perhaps by poison. Same as his victims.
Either way, Graham was ready to meet his maker.
“Don’t tell anyone about this,” I said, rejoining Sambah. “We could get in a lot of trouble.”
