“The phone? It’s a rock—oh.” He handed it to her. “Knock yourself out.”
Fen pocketed it, then glanced around, looking for something else to throw. Catching his eye, she jerked her chin in the direction of the kitchen, held up her hand to indicate that he should stay where he was, and took a step toward it. He wondered if the Girl Scouts had taught her to throw knives. At this point he wouldn’t put it past them.
“Welcome, guests,” announced Jeeves.
“Goddammit,” Carter muttered, and once again stepped in front of Fen.
The front door swung open. To his utter lack of surprise, Balin and Eunice came in.
“Nice place you got here,” said Eunice with a smirk. “Very friendly.”
“Greetings, Dark Knight,” said Balin. “Are you ready to hear my offer?”
“What happened to him summoning you?” Fen demanded.
Carter, desperate to get her out of the line of fire, gave her a shove toward the kitchen. “Go make some coffee. We have guests!”
Her eyebrows shot up, then she nodded. “Yeah. Sure. I’ll go do that.”
“The female stays here,” said Balin. “She is a crucial part of the negotiations.”
A hostage, you mean.Carter’s chest felt like a solid block of ice.
“How do you like your new body parts?” Eunice inquired.
“I don’t,” Carter said through gritted teeth. “I was going to summon you anyway. I want you to fix me, and I’m willing to pay.”
Balin smiled. “Excellent. I see you’re ready now to hear my complete offer. If I’d told you what it was earlier, you wouldn’t have believed me.”
“I believe you now.” Carter tried as hard as he could not to sound sarcastic. Hedidbelieve Balin. “You can restore me to my original body and you can get rid of my monsters. Great. I’ll take it.”
“Oh, but that’s not all.” Balin’s smile widened. “Here’s the part you don’t already know. Your snow leopard isn’t dead.”
Carter’s heart seemed to stop, then re-started with a jolt. “What?”
As if Balin was talking to a slow child, he repeated, “Your snow leopard isn’t dead. He is still within you. Crowded out. Damaged. Traumatized. But still living. If you join with me, he can be restored to you.”
“I don’t believe you. My snow leopard is dead.”
Eunice spoke up. “You know he isn’t, or you’d have destroyed your monsters yourself. You know it can be done.”
“What, by drinking enough tincture of shiftsilver to kill them? That much would kill me too!”
“You know that’s not true,” said Eunice placidly. “You’re strong enough to survive it. You’re afraid that if you did that, it would kill your snow leopard along with them, if he’s still alive deep down.”
Carter’s ears rang. His hands felt numb. Everything felt unreal, as if he’d stepped into a nightmare. Nothing they said was new to him. They were all ideas he’d had, but found so disturbing that he’d tried his best to never think of them again. If he let himself hope that his snow leopard was alive and it turned out that he’d been dead all along, it would destroy him. And if he tried to kill his monsters and murdered his snow leopard along with them, he’d rather be dead.
“It’s not true.” He didn’t even recognize his own voice.
“It is,” Balin said calmly. “You know it is.”
Carter didn’t know what to think. Desperately, he grasped at his original plan of playing along, of accepting Balin’s offer and betraying him later. “Yes. All right. Fix me, kill the monsters, and bring back my snow leopard, and I’ll be your Dark Knight.”
The wizard-scientist tut-tutted. With a condescending air that made Carter want to punch him in the face, he said, “You haven’t even asked what being my Dark Knight means.”
Carter couldn’t stop his eyes from rolling or keep the sarcasm out of his voice. “So what does it mean? Other than working for you.”
“It means that my enemies become your enemies.” Balin’s demeanor was abruptly chilly, so much so that it felt like the air in the room dropped several degrees. “Such as the failed Dark Knights, their mates, and their leader. I will require proof. What kind of fool do you take me for? Eunice can restore you and your snow leopard, and I can heal the other damage Apex caused you. I can fix everything. But at a cost.”
