“And this?” I sweep a hand around us. “Why all this?”
He exhales, pleased. “It’s time to rebuild the Guild. Launch it fresh. A new creed. New mindsets. The old oaths are limiting. They put the Guild beneath those with power over the contracts.”
He looks at me and smiles.
“I’m changing that.”
My stomach tightens.
“And you helped me do it.”
I stop again. “How so?”
He doesn’t.
“You killed every assassin who would have been a problem,” he says easily. “The ones who wouldn’t bend to the new Guild.”
The words landlike a dropped blade.
All those bodies. All that blood. The last few days of staying alive by inches.
I had been doing his work for him.
“It’s simple,” Kenji continues, almost conversational. “Everything needs to be rebalanced. A world war would accomplish that. Killing the presidential hopeful puts someone I control into power. Once America does what it does best—bullies the world into a third war—the Guild will bring it to an end.”
He glances at me. “Eventually. For the right price.”
I feel something cold settle behind my ribs.
“New assassins,” he says. “Ones who understand how the world actually works now. The superpowers indebted to us. Under our thumb.”
He pauses.
“Though I had hoped you’d be dead by now.”
“Why frame me for this?” I ask quietly.
“You would never bend a knee to the new creed,” he replies. “And I needed to clean out the narrow-minded. I assumed Tex would take you out in the chaos.” A faint sigh. “I always did put too much stock in his capabilities.”
He turns to me then, extending his hand. His other remains in his pocket, and I hear it—the soft clink of marbles rolling together. A habit. Always has been.
“For what it’s worth,” he says, “I wanted it to be you. I hope that boy’s life was worth yours.”
I look at his hand.
I don’t take it.
“The poison,” I say. “Your berries.”
He laughs softly through his nose. “Of course.”
“And how did you keep track of me for so long?”
He lowers his hand and slips it into his other pocket. “The tea I served you when you came to me for help. Same micro-trackers as the ones in your sigil. Dissolved. Elegant.”
He meets my eyes. “I never lost sight of you, Saint.”
He turns away.
