Soledad said, “The visions broke my mind. When Joses disappeared, I took the cross apart and placed one part in the Pellissier tomb and hid the other in Joses’s office, where no one would think to look. The pain eased some then, and more when I moved into the estate.”
“You hid it right under his nose,” I said, amused at her cleverness.
Molly rose from her chair and started around the table. I shook my head at her. Held up one finger, begging silently for one more minute. Moll’s eyes flashed but she stopped.
“Except,” I said, “all the caskets in the mausoleum were banged around during the fire. And”—I looked at Leo—“Leo found the cross part, found it when they—Sabina?—pulled him from his coffin.”
Leo turned away, shoulders hunching against pain. I decided I had been right.
Soledad smiled. “Yes. In the coffin of an unknown and seemingly unimportant true dead Mithran. Where no one would think to look. Later, after she came out of the devoveo and became a clan Blood Master, Ming wanted the icon. I told her Joses had taken it from me, and she believed my words as truth. Her treatment of her scions grew much worse after that. Bad enough that Amoury hid Malita and me away in the country with servants and drugs to give me peace, to keep me calm, the drugs to ease my pain.” She touched the burn on her chest.
“That explains a lot,” Eli said.
I turned the cross and the gold Jesus over in my hands. Yeah. They’d fit together perfectly. “If we put it back together—” I stopped. If I put it back together, I might be able to see the future again. Maybe time-jump safely. And maybe it would bring the cancer back. Or give me perfect control over my shifting. Or kill me. I stuck the pieces of the focal into different pockets.
The kitchen door opened and Deon entered, carryinga tray of food, but even underneath the scent of fried meat and peppers, I smelled a lot of vamp blood on the air from the next room.
Bruiser stepped in behind him and said to me, “Your problem has been flushed from his hiding place and dealt with. It required Koun, with my assistance, to find him. Long-Knife has been restrained. What are your orders?”
That was interesting. “Long-Knife was sent to me by Ming of Knoxville. Did she send me a traitor?”
Bruiser’s lips curled into a vicious smile. “According to Koun’s bleed-and-read, and my own impressions as I read him, no. He was conscripted by Mainet only recently. The bleed-and-read by Mithrans did not discover this, and Thema is disturbed by her ineffectiveness.” His lips quirked up on one side. “And that an Onorio was required for success.”
Meaning her pride was pricked.Gotcha.
His words very British in the moment, Bruiser said, “Long-Knife’s job was to slit your throat and behead Leo at the earliest opportunity, while you, quote, ‘slept in Leo’s bed.’ Mainet assumed you were now sleeping with Leo. Our enemy has incorrect data, supplied to him by Leo in a forced read, and by—”
I interrupted, “Leo hid something from his master and gave false info? Go Leo.”
Bruiser tilted his head in agreement and went on, “And by a man named Reach.”
My head snapped up at that. “Reach?” Reach had been the researcher keeping all vamp data before he was attacked and tortured and disappeared. Alex had taken over Reach’s database and improved upon it, but Reach had never been heard from again. “Reach gave someone bad info?”
Which explained Bruiser’s vicious smile. “He is a prisoner of the Heir.”
Which meant that Reachdeliberatelygave his captor bad info. He could be asking for help. Or leading us into a trap.
“Long-Knife was outside my rooms the night I knocked two vamps’ heads together.”
“Yes. It seems he was a very frustrated individual, unable to get to you, unable to follow his orders.”
“Reach wants to be rescued,” I guessed.
“That would be my interpretation of bad intel from that particular source. Or a trap.”
I dropped my head in a tiny nod as Deon arranged the tray on the table and put a pot of tea at my elbow. The little man bowed at me and blew me a kiss, which made me grin.
Suddenly, I wasn’t hungry. Just tired. Tired of fighting, of intrigue, of the constant conflicts and the layered machinations, tired of what I had become. However, there wasn’t time to wallow in useless self-pity, and food was food. I popped a length of andouille sausage into my mouth, chewed, swallowed. To Soledad, I said, “A powerful vamp is invading. He’s Leo’s master, the maker of his bloodline. He’s called the Heir. He wants the crucifix?”
“And the implements I hid when Joses disappeared. And me. And you. And if he discovers what she is, he will want this child.” She hugged Angie gently and said, “Thank you, little one. I never gave up hope that your vision of the offerings through a witch circle would become truth. After they took me, I watched so carefully, and when it opened, I threw myself inside and got away, just as you said. You saved me.”
“De nada,”Angie said. “That’s right, isn’t it?”
“Si. You are a smart little girl. You learn fast.”
To me Angie said, “Can I have the cross?”
“No,” we all said together.
