Rolling his eyes, Silas demanded, “What did you find?”
You won’t like it,Tal answered from somewhere deep in the murky shadows of the alleyway.
Silas unconsciously ran his palm over a horn as he paced a tight circle, his boots dodging the usual alley detritus not even the squeaky clean EVP street sweeper bots could fully eradicate.
“I don’t like any of this,” he grunted.
You could back out.Tal’s shadows undulated and his voice, soft and low, carried a distinct note of unease.But I don’t think you should.
Silas stopped pacing long enough to send his brother an incredulous look. “Weren’t you the one who told me I shouldn’t do this?”
Not that he was considering backing out. Silas couldn’t imagine walking away now, not after he’d just begun to peel back Petra’s layers with his clawtips. But it was unlike Tal to approve of a plan like this. He didn’t really have a problem withmurder and mayhem for profit, but Tal was staunchly against using innocent people — an amorphous, blurry line to draw in the moral sand.
I still don’t think you should bond with a witch you don’t care about,he explained,but that doesn’t mean I think you should just leave Petra high and dry. Something is seriously wrong here, Silas.
“I know. She’s given me enough bits and pieces of the truth to put that together on my own.”
No, you don’t understand.Tal’s voice was a whisper in his mind, a low hiss of urgency.I followed a couple of the acolytes tonight after they came back from dinner. They weren’t using explicit language, but I could tell they were discussing Petra’s meeting with the Protector.
A deep rumble built in Silas’s chest. He didn’t like the idea of people discussing Petra behind her back, and heloathedher plan to meet with the man she believed was a murderer.
It wouldn’t happen, of course, but the fact that she even considered it made him want to bite her someplace tender.
When she told him the plan, it was only the knowledge that she’d do everything in her power to thwart him that kept him from telling her she wouldn’t be going into a room alone with that man under any circumstances. He didn’t care that she might be wrong about his involvement in Dooraker’s murder. He didn’t care that there was no proof the man wanted her as anything more than a political ally.
She wasnothaving dinner with him. Period.
“What did they say?” Silas resumed pacing.
They were speculating about her meeting,Tal answered,and worrying.
“Worrying? About what?”
About Petra. They wouldn’t say it aloud, but it was clear they were talking about whatever it was Vanderpoel wantsfrom her. They kept whispering about how they hoped ‘she has a choice’.
Silas stopped abruptly, his head swinging around to stare out through the opening of the alley to where the cathedral complex glowed with an impressive array of decorative lights. He and Tal had chosen to meet across the street, despite the fact that Tal had long since established himself in the shadows of the cathedral. Although Silas was confident in his abilities to jam any surveillance equipment, the most prudent option when exchanging information was to simply do so when one wasn’t surveilled at all.
He narrowed his eyes.My little liar, what aren’t you telling me?
Speaking to Tal, he said, “Petra believes he killed her uncle. Apparently Maximilian Dooraker was at one time a criminal from Los Angeles by way of Baltimore.”
He could almostfeelTal’s dismay as his form, indistinct but more solid than any other wraith Silas had encountered, shimmered like hot air over a blacktop.So she’s doing this to get revenge?
Silas snorted. “No, worse. She wants to bring the man tojustice.”
She hadn’t said it in so many words, but it was there. Despite her apparent consideration of simply ridding the world of the man, he doubted she would have gone through with it even if she’d had the money required for a hit. For all her lies and scheming, Silas had begun to suspect that something soft and naive lurked within his little goddess.
Normally that would have been enough to put him off anyone, explosive sexual chemistry be damned, but just like everything else related to Petra, the knowledge seemed to have the opposite effect.
It made his gut churn to think about, but Silas actuallywantedto see that softness, if only so he could hold it in his fist.No one else can have it,he reasoned.That’s why I want it so much. I won’t let anyone else touch her — any part of her.
Tal drifted along the filthy walls, avoiding the dull shaft of light cast by the street lamp just beyond the opening of the alley.I told you she’s a good person, Silas. Itoldyou.
“I never said she wasn’t a good person,” he argued, temper flaring. “I said she was a liar and that she would get us what we need. Whatyouneed.”
He wasn’t the only one beginning to lose his temper. Tal’s shadows stretched out along the wall in a sticky wave of black threads, like he was adhering himself there to keep himself from doing something rash.What I need? Don’t you put this on me, Silas. You aren’t doing this for me. There are a thousand different ways we could have gotten the power we need for the body! Petra was a barely viable option, but you took one look at her and?—
“What?” Silas rounded on his brother with a snarl. He wasn’t even entirely certain why they were fighting, but something about Tal’s criticisms, his staunch belief that he’d known Petra’s character better than Silas himself, made him want to rake his claws through the shadows. “What happened, Tal? Because all I remember was making a deal that’d get you a fuckin’ body back, just like you wanted.”
