She retained her grip on my face, her fingertips digging in where grit from the ground had chapped my skin. “Which is the holiest of the rites?” she asked.
Another repeated inquiry, earning repetition from me, as well.
“I told you: I don’t know.”
I tried to shift away, wishing to alleviate the strain in my neck from the woman’s unyielding grip or the pain that spiked in my knees as they pressed against the floor.
But she held me fast and bent closer, sneering. “Why do you seek to serve a god you know nothing about?”
I was Kit’s recruit, here to join the ranks of those who worshipped Eeus. That was the cover story. That was what I’d been told to say. But those simple declarations had proven insufficient in convincing my captor. And I really had no knack for lying.
“I can learn,” I stammered, then corrected, “Iwilllearn and do whatever is necessary to prove myself worthy.”
Her lips pulled back from those fang-like teeth, ready to either snarl or spit in my face. I didn’t find out which before another woman’s voice cut in.
“There he is!”
My captor pulled back while digging a single, claw-nailed finger under my chin like a fisherman’s hook. She peered past me, making me wish I could see what made her expression shift to one of confusion.
“Violette? Where are you taking the intruder? They were to be questioned and detained until the Right Hand?—”
The new arrival, Violette, laughed, a sound like a lilting melody. “Kit Koesters is hardly an intruder, Matina. He belongs here as much as any of us. More than some.”
Kit?
I jerked my head around, feeling the sharp scrape of Matina’s fingernail as I turned. In front of the open door—which did indeed have bars—Kit stood, unbound andimpassive, seeming to tower beside an equally tall redheaded woman. They made an impressive pair, though the arrogant tilt to Kit’s head was as puzzling as the surname his companion had used to refer to him.
Kit Koesters. Why not Mosel? And why did the new name seem to carry the weight of a curse, a word forbidden to be spoken aloud?
Pulling away from his escort, Kit advanced into the room. Even his gait had changed. His posture was bolt upright, and his face had gone stony and cold.
A flash of anger crossed his features as he gestured toward me. “Is this how we’ve taken to inducting new recruits? With scare tactics and abuse? This is far from the way my father would have handled things.”
His father was a sore point in any conversation. Why bring him up now?
Realization struck me when I remembered where I’d heard that surname before. Several years past, a man named Vaughn Koesters was caught out as the head of the Bone Men. He’d been arrested, tried by the Provincial Council, and executed publicly. It was the talk of Eastcliff for weeks; rumors and hearsay ran rampant about the big, bloody debacle.
Some speculated Vaughn’s death would be the end of the cult—cutting off the head of the snake, as it were. But the Bone Men survived, perhaps even thrived, in his absence.
I would find out soon enough how well they managed.
I’d known through rumors that Kit’s father had been high up in the organization, but I hadn’t expected this. Kit was not merely the son of a Bone Man. Not only a former Bone Man himself. He was the son of their most infamous leader. Now I understood why he wasn’t upset about his father’s passing.
“He’s no kind of recruit,” Matina snapped, pulling me from my thoughts.
Kit drew to a stop close enough that he could loom over my captor. I’d thought him intimidating when he’d threatened me with a knife. Now, he was downright menacing.
“He’smyrecruit,” he said.
Something in Matina weakened, and she hesitated to meet Kit’s eyes as she protested. “He knows nothing of the tenets or the rites. He knows nothing at all, from what I can see.”
“It’s none of your concern what he does or doesn’t know,” Kit retorted. “It’s not your place.”
Matina’s hands curled into fists. “Presumptuous of you to assume my place,” she hissed.
“Stand down, Matina.” Violette spoke from her post inside the door. “Kit outranks you by blood alone. Even though he got lost for a while.”
I craned my head around to see her wink at Kit and flash a flirtatious smile. Jealousy joined my maelstrom of emotions, catching me off-guard. I bit my lip and stared at the floor so neither Kit nor Matina would see the flush rising to my cheeks.
