I watch her for a moment, searching for any sign of hesitation, but she's just giving me that wide-eyed, trying-to-please look.
"Give me a location," I say. "Something tied to the Order."
Her brow furrows slightly. "Like a ritual site?"
I nod. "Yeah, like that."
I'd love the location of the compound, but I know I'll need an army to take it. So I need to start small. Build it up.
She gives me this, then Brother George, then Cormac.
That's the best course of action.
She thinks about it, her gaze drifting to the window.
"Okay, sure," she says. "It's Wednesday, right?"
I nod.
"Okay." She exhales. "I can give you one that would have just been used. If you go tonight, there may still be people there, but there's a good chance no one will be."
"Okay."
She licks her lips nervously. "Can I have a pen and paper, please?"
I stand, walk to the dresser, and pull open the top drawer. I pull out a notepad and a pen. When I hand them to her, her fingers brush mine.
Her hands are small and delicate and soft.
"This is the harbor here," she says, and starts drawing.
Her words mute as I watch her hand move across the page.
She doesn't notice me staring or, if she does, she pretends not to.
My eyes linger on a scar that runs across three of her fingers as she draws lines, curves, and what looks like a cluster of trees.
Maybe it's because I'm starting to believe she's actually giving me something real, but I feel a twinge of violence rising in my chest. A need to destroy whoever gave her those scars.
I don't question it.
It's probably the same person I want to kill anyway.
"There you go," she says, and hands me the page.
I take it, studying the map she's drawn. I see a long road, the warehouse district, and a building near the water circled.
"Go there tonight," she says. "You'll see."
"What happens at these sites?" I ask.
My phone starts buzzing in my pocket and I ignore it.
"Normally it's symbolic rituals," Zaria says. "Now, it's killing. Blood lettings and sacrifices of my fellow Sisters. Friends. Which is what caused me to wake up."
Her voice cracks on the last word.
I pull my phone out and glance down at it.
